The State of Exposure Management in 2024

This report presents a detailed analysis of the current state of exposure management as of 2024, focusing on the findings from numerous attack path assessments conducted through the XM Cyber Continuous Exposure Management platform. It identifies over 40 million exposures affecting critical business entities and discusses the challenges organizations face in defining and implementing effective exposure management strategies. The report emphasizes the importance of integrating attack path modeling into exposure management, highlighting that traditional CVE-based vulnerabilities represent a small fraction of total exposures. Key findings reveal that identity and credential issues significantly contribute to security risks, particularly within Active Directory environments. Additionally, the report outlines the prevalence of exposures in cloud platforms and the necessity for organizations to adopt a continuous approach to exposure management to effectively reduce risk. The XM Posture Score is introduced as a metric for evaluating organizational risk posture, illustrating the dynamic nature of security scores over time. Overall, the report serves as a comprehensive resource for understanding and improving exposure management practices.