Reduce Your Attack Surface

Reducing the attack surface means lowering the number of entry points and attack vectors that hackers can exploit. It involves tightening security policies, cleaning up unused firewall rules, hardening the operating system, and removing unnecessary permissions or business applications. By doing so, organizations reduce opportunities for cyber threats like ransomware, malware, and phishing to succeed. Effective attack surface reduction improves overall cybersecurity resilience for both endpoints and end users.

Tufin provides continuous visibility into firewall and security policies, helping organizations identify unused, shadowed, or overly permissive rules. By cleaning up policies across hybrid and cloud environments, we reduce the attack surfaces while keeping security aligned with business needs.

Organizations use a combination of security tools and operational practices to reduce attack surfaces:

• ASR rules are attack surface reduction rules that block risky behaviors, such as malicious macros or untrusted executable files in office applications
• Endpoint security capabilities such as EDR, antivirus, and exploit guard for real-time protection against cyber threats
• Centralized enforcement of security policies and access control across hybrid environments
• Ongoing patching, vulnerability management, and removal of unused business applications or exposed APIs
• Strong authentication and least-privilege permissions to minimize unnecessary access

Tufin complements endpoint security by reducing risks at the network layer. We automate firewall rule changes while ensuring compliance with corporate security policies. This enforces consistency across hybrid environments, eliminating misconfigurations that expand the attack surface.

Attack surface reduction works by preventing risky activities and tightening controls before attackers can exploit them. Examples include:

• Blocking suspicious child processes from office applications
• Preventing credential stealing from sensitive processes such as lsass
• Detecting malicious macros and stopping untrusted executable files
• Using audit mode to monitor policy effectiveness, track event logs, and reduce false positives
• Enforcing endpoint security controls such as EDR and exploit guard, with notifications and remediation workflows for quick response

Tufin provides real-time visibility into risky access paths and policy misconfigurations. Combined with automated workflows, we reduce the chance of overly permissive firewall rules that could be exploited, ensuring organizations can enforce ASR strategies consistently.

Exclusions should be created only when strictly necessary, as they expand the attack surface. A structured process helps:

• Start in audit mode: Review the event log to determine if alerts are legitimate or false positives.
• Validate legitimacy: Confirm the application is a trusted business application and essential for operations.
• Minimize scope: Apply exclusions narrowly to specific end users, files, or processes.
• Document and review: Keep a record of all exclusions and enforce regular reviews.
• Favor remediation: Adjust security policies, permissions, or configurations rather than relying on long-term exclusions.

Tufin helps organizations safely handle policy exceptions with automated approval workflows and built-in risk checks. Instead of creating broad exclusions, security teams can implement narrow, controlled changes that preserve compliance while supporting legitimate applications.

• Apply ASR rules: Enforce attack surface reduction rules to block risky child processes, suspicious macros, and malicious executable files.
• Strengthen endpoint security: Use EDR, antivirus, and exploit guard for real-time defense.
• Centralize policies: Standardize security policies, access control, and authentication across environments.
• Maintain hygiene: Conduct continuous patching, vulnerability management, and removal of unnecessary business applications and APIs.
• Adopt zero trust: Use segmentation and least-privilege permissions to limit attacker movement.
• Refine continuously: Run audit mode, monitor notifications, and tune policies to reduce false positives while protecting against cyber threats.

Tufin ensures continuous compliance and visibility, while automating enforcement of best practices at scale. This reduces the risk of human error in firewall and cloud policies, a critical factor in minimizing the attack surface.

• Policy-driven controls: Implement attack surface management programs with automated workflows and security measures.
• Endpoint protection: Standardize EDR, antivirus, and exploit guard across all endpoints and operating systems.
• Identity and access security: Strengthen authentication, enforce least-privilege permissions, and monitor for credential stealing attempts.
• Operational rigor: Prioritize patching, ongoing vulnerability management, and structured remediation to reduce exposure.
• Hybrid visibility: Extend security policies across on-premises and cloud environments, integrating through API connections.
• Continuous monitoring: Leverage event logs, notifications, and audit mode to measure effectiveness and adjust over time.

Tufin delivers end-to-end visibility and control across hybrid and cloud environments. By unifying policy management and automating enforcement, we reduce complexity, accelerates remediation, and ensures attack surface reduction strategies are applied consistently across the organization.