There are many names of cyber attacks, and most of the time they can be confusing to be differentiated from each other. Zero-day attack has a similar concept to other threats but is different at its core. If developers are not careful enough, zero-day exploit can be a deadly attack on their websites or applications.
Zero-day attack, or can also be written as 0-day attack is a form of cyber threat that aims at an application’s vulnerability that its developer does not know. Without the knowledge of what the vulnerability might be, this can lead the developer to have zero idea of how to fix the problems. The unknown vulnerability that the attacker attacks will give the developer no time to patch the loopholes, which is why they called it zero-day.
Not to be mistaken with similar terms, here are the simple explanation:
- Zero-day attack means attackers take advantage of the website or application’s vulnerabilities or bugs that are yet to be patched to launch the hostile attack.
- Zero-day exploit means the exploitation of the vulnerabilities or bugs on the website or application
- Zero-day vulnerability means the vulnerabilities or bugs that are yet to be found or addressed by the developer.
An application or a website will always receive patches from its developer. This is done so loopholes or bugs on the application or website can be eradicated. But sometimes, there will be bugs that slipped through during a quality check. These bugs are the start and cause of zero-day attacks.
After gaining access to the application or website’s vulnerabilities, this malicious attacker will start to attack its core by sending phishing attacks or stealing the data stored there. This example can be seen with the LinkedIn data breach incident where its users’ data, like phone numbers, addresses, emails, social media, and so on were being leaked online. This happened when the attacker took advantage of LinkedIn’s API vulnerability in 2021.
There are a variety of ways to deal with zero-day attacks. The easiest one is to regularly do bug checking to make sure there are no hidden bugs that can be utilized by attackers. After finding the bugs, it should be a priority to make a patch and secure the website or application. As for consumers, it is advisable to use the latest version of an application, as the latest version always comes with the newest patch. Another suggestion is to use a web application firewall.
A web application firewall is similar to an operational system firewall (e.g. Windows Firewall), but its function is to monitor HTTP and HTTPS traffic throughout the web application.
What is ACSI’s solution to prevent zero-day attack?
We recommend your company do a Vulnerability Assessment to have a list of all your web application weaknesses. Having the information on your web application weaknesses and their remedy solution will help your company find the vulnerability faster. Having a 24/7 Security Operation Center will add an extra layer of protection to your web application with its never-ending monitoring.
Read our other works:
• All the New Things in the OWASP Top 10 2021
• Domain-domain Baru ZIP Memunculkan Debat di Antara Para Ahli Cybersecurity
• Which One Do You Need, VPN or DNS?
References:
• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/2021-data-breaches-brief-review-alessandro-civati/
• https://www.trellix.com/en-us/security-awareness/cybersecurity/what-is-a-zero-day-exploit.html
• https://www.crowdstrike.com/cybersecurity-101/zero-day-exploit/
