IP Library › Granted Patent US 12,273,359
Granted Patent B2
US 12,273,359 · App. 18/888,973 · Granted Apr 8, 2025

Lateral movement analysis using certificate private keys

Inventors: Avi Tal Lichtenstein (Tel Aviv, IL); Ami Luttwak (Binyamina, IL); Yinon Costica (Tel Aviv, IL)
Assignee: Wiz, Inc.
H04L63/14
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,273,359
App. No.
18/888,973
Filed
Sep 18, 2024
Granted
Apr 8, 2025
Kind
B2
Art Unit
2494
USPC
726/23
Abstract

A system and method for detecting potential lateral movement in a cloud computing environment includes detecting a private encryption key and a certificate, each of which further include a hash value of a respective public key, wherein the certificate is stored on a first resource deployed in the cloud computing environment; generating in a security graph: a private key node, a certificate node, and a resource node connected to the certificate node, wherein the security graph is a representation of the cloud computing environment; generating a connection in the security graph between the private key node and the certificate node, in response to determining a match between the hash values of the public key of the private key and the public key of the certificate; and determining that the first resource node is potentially compromised, in response to receiving an indication that an element of the public key is compromised.

Claims (81)

1. A method for detecting potential lateral movement in a cloud computing environment, comprising:

detecting a private encryption key including a first hash value of a first public key;

detecting a certificate including a second hash value of a second public key, the detected certificate associated with a workload in the cloud computing environment;

associating the certificate with a cloud identity;

generating in a security database: a representation of the private encryption key, a representation of the certificate, a representation of the workload, and a representation of the cloud identity, wherein the representation of the workload is associated with the representation of the certificate;

associating the representation of the private key and the representation of the certificate, in response to determining a match between the first hash value and the second hash value;

determining that the workload is potentially compromised, in response to receiving an indication that an element of: the first public key, the second public key, or a combination thereof, is compromised; and

generating a graph visualization based at least on the representation of the cloud identity and the potentially compromised workload.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

inspecting the workload to detect the certificate.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

detecting an identity associated with an issuer of the certificate.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

storing an identifier of the detected cloud identity in an identity layer of the security database.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:

storing in the security data base any one of: identity data, network data, image inspection data, code data, and a combination thereof.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

detecting a representation of a second workload in the security database which is connected to the representation of the certificate; and

determining that the second workload is a potentially compromised workload in response to detecting the connection between the representation of the certificate and the representation of the second workload.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:

generating a lateral movement path, the lateral movement path including an identifier of the workload and an identifier of the second workload; and

generating the graph visualization further based on the lateral movement path.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining that a certificate expiration date; and

determining that the workload is potentially compromised further based on the determined expiration date.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

inspecting the workload for a cybersecurity risk.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

generating a lateral movement simulation in response to indicating that the workload is simulated as compromised.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

tagging the workload with a compromised simulation indicator.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

querying the security database to detect a representation of a second resource in the cloud computing environment, wherein the representation of the second resource is associated with a representation of a second private key, and further associated with a representation of a certificate having a wildcard.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a set of instructions for detecting potential lateral movement in a cloud computing environment, the set of instructions comprising:

one or more instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a device, cause the device to:

detect a private encryption key including a first hash value of a first public key;

detect a certificate including a second hash value of a second public key, the detected certificate associated with a workload in the cloud computing environment;

associate the certificate with a cloud identity;

generate in a security database:

a representation of the private encryption key, a representation of the certificate, a representation of the workload, and a representation of the cloud identity, wherein the representation of the workload is associated with the representation of the certificate;

associate the representation of the private key and the representation of the certificate, in response to determining a match between the first hash value and the second hash value;

determine that the workload is potentially compromised, in response to receiving an indication that an element of: the first public key, the second public key, or a combination thereof, is compromised; and

generate a graph visualization based at least on the representation of the cloud identity and the potentially compromised workload.

14. A system for detecting potential lateral movement in a cloud computing environment comprising:

a processing circuitry;

a memory, the memory containing instructions that, when executed by the processing circuitry, configure the system to:

detect a private encryption key including a first hash value of a first public key;

detect a certificate including a second hash value of a second public key, the detected certificate associated with a workload in the cloud computing environment;

associate the certificate with a cloud identity;

generate in a security database:

a representation of the private encryption key, a representation of the certificate, a representation of the workload, and a representation of the cloud identity, wherein the representation of the workload is associated with the representation of the certificate;

associate the representation of the private key and the representation of the certificate, in response to determining a match between the first hash value and the second hash value;

determine that the workload is potentially compromised, in response to receiving an indication that an element of:

the first public key, the second public key, or a combination thereof, is compromised; and

generate a graph visualization based at least on the representation of the cloud identity and the potentially compromised workload.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the memory contains further instructions which when executed by the processing circuitry further configure the system to:

inspect the workload to detect the certificate.

16. The system of claim 14 , wherein the memory contains further instructions which when executed by the processing circuitry further configure the system to:

detect an identity associated with an issuer of the certificate.

17. The system of claim 14 , wherein the memory contains further instructions which when executed by the processing circuitry further configure the system to:

store an identifier of the detected cloud identity in an identity layer of the security database.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the memory contains further instructions which when executed by the processing circuitry further configure the system to:

store in the security data base any one of:

identity data, network data, image inspection data, code data, and a combination thereof.

19. The system of claim 14 , wherein the memory contains further instructions which when executed by the processing circuitry further configure the system to:

detect a representation of a second workload in the security database which is connected to the representation of the certificate; and

determine that the second workload is a potentially compromised workload in response to detecting the connection between the representation of the certificate and the representation of the second workload.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the memory contains further instructions which when executed by the processing circuitry further configure the system to:

generate a lateral movement path, the lateral movement path including an identifier of the workload and an identifier of the second workload; and

generate the graph visualization further based on the lateral movement path.

21. The system of claim 14 , wherein the memory contains further instructions which when executed by the processing circuitry further configure the system to:

determine that a certificate expiration date; and

determine that the workload is potentially compromised further based on the determined expiration date.

22. The system of claim 14 , wherein the memory contains further instructions which when executed by the processing circuitry further configure the system to:

inspect the workload for a cybersecurity risk.

23. The system of claim 14 , wherein the memory contains further instructions which when executed by the processing circuitry further configure the system to:

generate a lateral movement simulation in response to indicating that the workload is simulated as compromised.

24. The system of claim 23 , wherein the memory contains further instructions which when executed by the processing circuitry further configure the system to:

tag the workload with a compromised simulation indicator.

25. The system of claim 14 , wherein the memory contains further instructions which when executed by the processing circuitry further configure the system to:

query the security database to detect a representation of a second resource in the cloud computing environment, wherein the representation of the second resource is associated with a representation of a second private key, and further associated with a representation of a certificate having a wildcard.

Continuity (7)
Continuation 18887697 · Sep 17, 2024
Continuation 18798377 · Aug 8, 2024
Continuation 18394608 · Dec 22, 2023
Continuation 18478472 · Sep 29, 2023
Continuation 17657492 · Mar 31, 2022
Provisional Application 63170225 · Apr 2, 2021
Related Publication 20250016177A1 · Jan 9, 2025
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