What is an Exposure?

Category: Exposures & Threats

An exposure is a discovered vulnerability or weakness in your external attack surface. Each exposure represents something that an attacker could potentially exploit - a misconfigured DNS record, a leaked credential, an expired certificate, or a subdomain that can be taken over.

Exposure Data Fields

Every exposure includes:

• Exposure Type - The category of vulnerability (e.g., "Subdomain Takeover", "Invalid SSL Certificate")
• Exposure Scenario - A specific description combining the scenario category and detail
• Exposed Asset - The specific asset affected (domain, subdomain, IP, or certificate)
• Root Cause - The underlying technical reason for the exposure
• Business Impact - The potential business consequence if exploited
• Status - The current state of the exposure
• Timeline - A history of status changes with timestamps

Exposure Coverage Examples

• Subdomain Takeover (Exposure) - Dormant subdomains vulnerable to hijacking
• Subdomain Takeover (Hijacked) - Assets already controlled by adversaries
• Malicious Domains - Impersonating Short URLs & DDNS - Dynamic domains mimicking corporate infrastructure
• Malicious Domains - Homograph - Lookalike domains using unicode tricks
• Invalid SSL Certificate with Redirection - Redirect chains to untrusted endpoints
• Insecure URL Redirect - Open redirects exploited for phishing
• Exposed SNMP Devices - Misconfigured gear leaking telemetry data

Updated on: 26/02/2026