About

Our Application-Focused Attack Matrix provides a specialized lens on threats to modern, cloud-based software environments. While many existing frameworks center on traditional infrastructure and endpoint compromises, our matrix zeroes in on the tactics adversaries employ specifically against application architectures—from multi-tenant APIs and microservices to serverless functions and container-based workloads. By highlighting how attackers exploit application-layer logic, code dependencies, and runtime configurations, this matrix equips security practitioners, developers, and threat hunters with the context they need to defend against sophisticated threats in cloud-native ecosystems.

Why This Matrix?

Today’s applications are more distributed and dynamic than ever. Cloud deployments integrate a multitude of services, each carrying its own potential attack surface. Traditional security matrices may overlook how adversaries specifically target APIs, manipulate authentication flows, or abuse continuous delivery pipelines. Our matrix organizes these application-specific attack paths into clear tactics and techniques, ensuring teams can systematically assess their defenses and detect attacks that might bypass infrastructure-level controls.

Our Approach

We systematically organize the full spectrum of threats against cloud-based applications into seven tactics. Each tactic highlights why an adversary performs certain actions, from the moment they begin gathering information to the final stage of disrupting or compromising key services. By mapping each attacker objective to specific application-layer techniques, our matrix provides a structured method for identifying vulnerabilities, prioritizing defenses, and guiding incident response. These tactics include:

Reconnaissance – Understanding how attackers gather information about exposed APIs, dependencies, and runtime configurations to find exploitable entry points.
Resource Development – Examining how malicious tools, infrastructure, or compromised assets are acquired or prepared for application-targeted attacks.
Payload Delivery / Gain Access – Exploring the methods adversaries use to place malicious code or data into an application environment, such as supply chain compromises or authentication bypass.
Payload Execution – Detailing ways attackers trigger their delivered payloads within an application’s runtime—often without requiring host-level access.
Deepening Control – Highlighting tactics that strengthen an adversary’s foothold through privilege escalation, persistence, defense evasion, and command-and-control using application protocols.
Expanding Control – Revealing how attackers widen their reach by accessing credentials, discovering additional cloud resources, and moving laterally across microservices and APIs.
Impact – Outlining the methods used to corrupt data, disrupt business logic, or otherwise degrade the application’s confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

By grouping behaviors into these distinct categories, our matrix bridges the gap between high-level frameworks and the specific realities of modern, cloud-native application security—ultimately empowering teams to detect, investigate, and contain threats more effectively.