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Application & OT Security · Foundational

Attack Surface Analysis

Identifying and assessing all the points where an attacker could interact with or send input to an application.

Definition

Attack surface includes entry points (UI, APIs, files, message queues), exit points, data stores, authentication paths and administrative interfaces. Analysis measures the surface and guides reduction by disabling unused features, closing ports and restricting interfaces. Changes to the surface should trigger threat model updates.

Example

The review finds an unused debug endpoint and a legacy SOAP API that can be removed.

Exam tip

Reducing attack surface is a design principle; fewer entry points mean fewer things to defend.

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