Why AEV is the New Standard in Security Validation

Security validation has long been defined as simply validating security control effectiveness, but it is really about testing an organization’s perimeter defenses using adversary tactics. Enter Adversarial Exposure Validation (AEV), a powerful approach to continuously test and battle against potential cyber threats.

AEV emerged out of the introduction of Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) and is defined by the Gartner Market Guide for Adversarial Exposure Validation as technologies that deliver consistent, continuous and automated evidence of the feasibility of an attack. This is achieved by conducting attack scenarios to prove the existence and exploitability of exposures delivered as a SaaS solution with or without on-premises agents.

This blog will explore the evolution of security validation and how AEV has transformed the field today. We’ll also take a closer look at how AEV works, its benefits, and the tools that support it.

The Evolution of Security Validation

The concept of security validation has been around for quite some time. However, it has evolved significantly due to the increasing complexity of cyber threats. As attack surfaces grew and new vulnerabilities were discovered, this led to the need by organizations and security practitioners for more advanced technologies designed to test and validate security measures.

Ten years ago, technologies started to fill this gap to include Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS), External Attack Surface Management (EASM), and automated penetration testing (PT). These tools focused on validating an organization’s security posture by scanning for vulnerabilities, simulating real-world attacks, and utilizing threat intelligence insights.

Before AEV, security practices were often reactive rather than proactive. Mitigation efforts and AV software, for example, would often be deployed without knowing how they would perform in a real-world attack. The result was security measures were more speculative than effective against cybercriminals.

The Rise of Adversarial Exposure Validation (AEV)

Over the past year, Adversarial Exposure Validation (AEV) has emerged as a more robust solution for security validation. AEV goes beyond simple vulnerability scanning or penetration testing; it simulates real-world adversarial attacks using frameworks like MITRE ATT&CK and the Cyber Kill Chain, to test how an organization’s defenses respond to actual threats.

AEV fundamentally involves attempting to exploit potential vulnerabilities in a controlled setting and infiltrate systems to uncover potential weaknesses before malicious actors do. This is a continuous, automated methodology not only exploits vulnerabilities but also offers valuable insights into how well an organization can withstand and respond to real-world adversarial tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs).

How AEV Is Transforming Security Validation

Before AEV, the tools used for security validation were limiting. Vulnerability scanners and penetration testing could identify known vulnerabilities, but they didn’t necessarily replicate real-world attack scenarios. Moreover, results often lacked evidence to accurately identify attack paths or prioritize vulnerabilities making it difficult to act upon. This left security teams guessing which vulnerabilities were most critical or if and how they might impact other assets within the IT environment.

AEV has transformed security validation by allowing organizations to simulate complex, attack chains to validate how well their security controls would respond. This shift has had a significant impact on how organizations approach security validation:

1. Real-World Attack Simulation

AEV tools simulate real-world attack tactics and adversary strategies. These attacks can include everything from phishing to credential abuse, to advanced extortionware attacks. By cloning these type of attacks, AEV tools help organizations understand how effectively they can identify, neutralize, and contain threats at each stage of an attack.

2. Comprehensive Coverage

Unlike earlier tools, which might focus on a single vector or type of threat, AEV tools provide a comprehensive analysis of an organization’s defenses. This can include email threat detection, endpoint security assessments, firewall or intrusion prevention system (IPS) testing, and more, ensuring that every aspect of security is thoroughly tested and secure against modern adversary attack tactics.

3. Faster, More Accurate Remediation

One of the biggest advantages of AEV is that it provides detailed insights into an organization’s defenses, helping security teams identify where vulnerabilities exist and can be exploited. This helps security teams fix security flaws with targeted remediation instead of a one size-fits-all approach.

Key Use Cases for AEV in Modern Security

Today, AEV is being adopted to help organizations defend against modern threats. Below are some examples of how AEV is being used to improve security validation:

1. Ransom-based Malware

Ransomware is one of the most devastating threats organizations face today. Attacks from can paralyze businesses causing billions of dollars in damage. AEV tools can simulate attacks to test how well an organization’s defenses handle the various stages of a ransomware attack, whether locker malware, crypto-ransomware, or data hijacking malware. AEV empowers organizations to assess their cyber readiness to make more informed decisions about strengthening their defenses.

2. Credential Compromise

Cyber criminals exploit various entry points to infiltrate systems, steal data, or disrupt operations using backdoors, misconfigurations, and session hijacking to bypass and breach security controls. AEV tools allow organizations to simulate real-world attacks to test defenses like role-based access control (RBAC) or privilege access management (PAM) to ensure they are functioning as intended.

3. Mitigation Measures

Patching is a critical part of any organization’s security posture, and AEV can validate these patches to determine if they are effective or if they unintentionally created new security gaps. Failure to patch a known vulnerability almost always results in the exposure of sensitive data.

Challenges Before AEV: What Was Missing?

Before the emergence of AEV, security validation tools often failed to capture the full scope of cyber threats organizations faced. The main challenges were:

• Limited Scope: Many tools focused on static vulnerabilities, missing out on real-world adversary tactics or more complex attack chains.
• False Positives and Negatives: Tools often produced inaccurate results, leading to confusion about the effectiveness of security measures.
• Slow Remediation: Organizations had limited visibility into the specific steps required to remediate vulnerabilities, leading to long remediation cycles and reactive approaches.

How to Use AEV Tools Today

AEV tools have evolved significantly over the years. Today’s AEV solutions are agentless, making them easier to deploy without requiring extensive setup or configuration. They are also designed to integrate seamlessly with other security solutions, such as SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) and Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) systems, making it easier for security teams to incorporate AEV into their broader security workflows.

To maximize the benefits of AEV tools, organizations should:

1. Integrate AEV into Continuous Monitoring: Regular validation is key to keeping security measures effective. AEV tools should be integrated into continuous threat exposure management (CTEM) programs to ensure ongoing, up-to-date validation.

2. Prioritize Remediation Based on Real-World Impact: AEV tools provide actionable insights that allow teams to prioritize security fixes based on actual risk and potential damage. This targeted approach helps avoid the pitfalls of a “patch everything” mentality.

3. Collaborate Across Teams: Security validation is not just a job for the IT department. AEV should be used by cross-functional teams, including network operations, incident response, and executive leadership, to ensure comprehensive security posture management.

Conclusion

Today, Adversarial Exposure Validation (AEV) is emerging as a powerful approach and methodology for organizations to test their defenses in a real-world context. By simulating adversary tactics and techniques, AEV provides organizations with the actionable insights needed to strengthen their security posture and stay ahead of evolving threats. An effective AEV approach includes:

• A proactive strategy that continuously assesses an organization’s security posture from an attacker’s perspective.
• Focuses on identifying, testing, and validating exposures using offensive security techniques.
• Helps organizations understand the effectiveness of their defenses against modern threats.

AEV involves a phased-in approach using reconnaissance, exploitation, and validation of attack paths. It also utilizes automation techniques alongside human-led validation (such as red teaming and ethical hacking) to ensure practical relevance in line with frameworks like CTEM and other security validation models.

AEV tools have advanced significantly becoming more powerful and easier to use. Organizations are increasingly adopting AEV to test and validate whether their defenses can withstand today’s attackers and threat landscape.

Author

Ann Chesbrough

Vice President of Product Marketing, BreachLock