Security thinking
Model threats and attackers
Describe attacker goals, capabilities, entry points, and abuse cases without trying to predict every possible exploit.
8 minute lesson
A threat is a believable way an asset can be harmed. We do not need a movie villain or a list of every hacking tool.
Consider anonymous visitors, signed-in users, compromised accounts, malicious dependencies, insiders, and automated bots. Give each actor a goal and an entry point. A useful threat model explains what the attacker can already do before the attack begins.
A signed-in user changes a note ID and reads another person’s draft. The attacker needs no special tool, only a valid account and a missing ownership check.
Threat models become vague when every attacker is “advanced.” Start from the access an ordinary user already has, then add stronger capabilities only when the design supports them.
Write three attacker stories with a goal, existing access, entry point, and expected control. Try the ordinary-user story with two test accounts and save the request and result.
Lesson completed