Security News > 2022 > July > Hackers scan for vulnerabilities within 15 minutes of disclosure

System administrators have even less time to patch disclosed security vulnerabilities than previously thought, as a new report shows threat actors scanning for vulnerable endpoints within 15 minutes of a new CVE being publicly disclosed.

The speed at which threat actors begin scanning for vulnerabilities puts system administrators in the crosshairs as they race to patch the bugs before they are exploited.

"The 2022 Attack Surface Management Threat Report found that attackers typically start scanning for vulnerabilities within 15 minutes of a CVE being announced," reads a companion blog post.

Since scanning isn't particularly demanding, even low-skilled attackers can scan the internet for vulnerable endpoints and sell their findings on dark web markets where more capable hackers know how to exploit them.

Based on the data collected by Palo Alto, the most exploited vulnerabilities for network access in H1 2022 are the "ProxyShell" exploit chain, accounting for 55% of the total recorded exploitation incidents.

ProxyShell is an attack exploited by chaining together three vulnerabilities tracked as CVE-2021-34473, CVE-2021-34523, and CVE-2021-31207.

News URL

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/hackers-scan-for-vulnerabilities-within-15-minutes-of-disclosure/