The Cyber Threat Perspective

In Episode 177 of the Cyber Threat Perspective podcast, host Brad Causey and virtual CISO Daniel Perkins take a clear-eyed look at Claude Mythos — Anthropic's AI model that's generating serious buzz in the cybersecurity world for its ability to analyze source code, identify vulnerabilities at scale, build working exploits, and surface flaws that have sat undetected for decades.
The cybersecurity community is reacting. Brad and Daniel think a more measured response is warranted.
This episode breaks down what Mythos actually is, what it actually did, and what it actually means for your security program — without the hype or the hand-waving.
Topics covered include:
What Mythos really is — a purpose-built code analysis model, not a hacker-in-a-box or AI overlord, and why that distinction matters
The BSD vulnerability reality check — it cost $20,000 to find a 20-year-old DOS flaw in software almost nobody uses, and what that tells us about the real-world economics of AI-driven vulnerability discovery
Speed, not net-new — why Mythos hasn't introduced anything fundamentally new to the threat landscape, just compressed the timeline dramatically
Vulnerability chaining — how Mythos could change triage by identifying how low and medium severity CVEs combine into critical attack paths
The vibe coding problem — why organizations that have never written code before are now writing a lot of it, and why that's where Mythos becomes genuinely important
What this means for pen testing — why AI finding code flaws doesn't replace the human-driven validation of security programs, business logic testing, and misconfiguration discovery
The shift to continuous vulnerability management — why monthly or quarterly scanning cycles won't be sufficient once Mythos capabilities proliferate, and how to make the move to continuous without going big bang
The Mythos-Ready framework — a look at the CSA guidance document, what's useful, what needs to be scaled to your organization, and why inventory and attack surface should come before governance for most teams
Supply chain and third-party risk — how Mythos changes the questions you should be asking your software vendors
The bottom line from Brad and Daniel: be responsive, not reactive. Tighten your patching SLAs, understand your attack surface, document your decisions, and execute the fundamentals well. The organizations that do that won't be caught flat-footed when this becomes mainstream.
Blog: https://offsec.blog/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@cyberthreatpov
Twitter: https://x.com/cyberthreatpov
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Spencer's Links: https://spenceralessi.com
Work with Us: https://securit360.com | Find vulnerabilities that matter, learn about how we do internal pentesting here.

In Episode 176 of the Cyber Threat Perspective podcast, Brad and Spencer break down some of the most repeated cybersecurity best practices in the industry and explain why, despite sounding solid on paper, they consistently fall short in real IT environments.
This isn't about dismissing good security principles. It's about closing the gap between advice that looks great in a framework and controls that actually hold up against how attackers operate.
Topics covered include:
"Just enable MFA everywhere" — why focusing only on RDP leaves SMB, WinRM, service accounts, and legacy protocols wide open
"EDR will catch it" — the danger of over-relying on a single control, including a little-known CrowdStrike behavior where it self-disables on domain controllers at 90% resource utilization — often completely unnoticed
"Patch everything immediately" — why blind speed creates its own operational risk, and how to build a prioritized, high-risk patching process that actually works
"Least privilege everywhere" — why removing permissions without providing alternatives drives workarounds, shared accounts, and exceptions that undo the whole point
"Follow the framework and you're secure" — why compliance is a starting point, not a finish line, and what most standards actually require vs. what actually reduces risk
Focusing on attack paths over checklists — why thinking like an attacker leads to better security decisions than ticking boxes
Brad and Spencer close with what actually works: context-driven decisions, management buy-in, clear communication when making sweeping changes, and validating every control through internal penetration testing. As Spencer notes, most clients don't have full confidence in their EDR and SOC after a pentest — and that's exactly why trust but verify matters.
Also mentioned: Spencer and Brad's upcoming Tools of the Trade workshop at the ILTA Evolve conference in Denver.
Blog: https://offsec.blog/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@cyberthreatpov
Twitter: https://x.com/cyberthreatpov
Follow Spencer on social ⬇
Spencer's Links: https://spenceralessi.com
Work with Us: https://securit360.com | Find vulnerabilities that matter, learn about how we do internal pentesting here.

In Episode 175, Spencer and Tyler break down NetTools — a free, self-contained Active Directory management and troubleshooting tool that’s become a go-to for their internal penetration testing engagements.
They start with the backstory: years of relying on AD Explorer from Microsoft Sysinternals, and the growing need to evade EDR detections. At one point, that meant manually obfuscating binaries with a hex editor. NetTools eliminates that friction entirely — no installation, no dependencies, no signatures to fight.
Topics covered include:
Why NetTools replaced AD Explorer and how EDR pressure forced the shift
Group Policy enumeration, including how to spot dangerous GPO permissions like authenticated users with write access to server OUs
LDAP Search & Browser for querying AD, identifying risky data (like passwords in descriptions), and exploring object relationships
Assigned Trustees & Permissions Reporter for fast, visual identification of misconfigurations
How to run NetTools from non-domain-joined machines using saved credential profiles
Password checker functionality for targeted validation without spraying the environment
For pentesters, it’s a faster way to get visibility into AD risk. For IT admins, it’s a practical way to audit and harden your environment.
NetTools combines the functionality of multiple tools into one portable utility. Learn more at nettools.net. Credit to creator Gary Reynolds.
NetTools | The Swiss army knife of AD troubleshooting
Blog: https://offsec.blog/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@cyberthreatpov
Twitter: https://x.com/cyberthreatpov
Follow Spencer on social ⬇
Spencer's Links: https://spenceralessi.com
Work with Us: https://securit360.com | Find vulnerabilities that matter, learn about how we do internal pentesting here.

In Episode 174, host Brad Causey is joined by guest Jordan Natter for a practical, tool-focused conversation on web application penetration testing. Together they break down the essential tools and Burp Suite Pro extensions that make up a modern web app pen testing toolkit.
Topics covered include:
Burp Suite Pro vs. OWASP ZAP — comparing capabilities, extensions, and use cases
CSP Auditor — identifying unsafe Content Security Policy directives
JSON Web Token (JWT) extension — surfacing and tampering with JWTs in HTTP history
Retire.js — flagging outdated JavaScript libraries with known vulnerabilities
CyberChef & JWT.io — encoding, decoding, and debugging tokens
Postman & Swagger — API testing and documentation workflows
SQLMap — powerful SQL injection discovery (and why you should never run it in production)
Proxy Forge — evading cloud-based WAFs and testing geo-blocking
GraphQL Hunter — enumerating and testing GraphQL instances
Have a tool or extension you swear by? Drop it in the comments — Brad and Jordan want to hear from you!
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Burp Suite is an integrated platform for attacking web applications. http://portswigger.net/burp/
Blog: https://offsec.blog/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@cyberthreatpov
Twitter: https://x.com/cyberthreatpov
Follow Spencer on social ⬇
Spencer's Links: https://spenceralessi.com
Work with Us: https://securit360.com | Find vulnerabilities that matter, learn about how we do internal pentesting here.

How do you find insecure permissions in Active Directory before they turn into attack paths?
In this episode, we take a practical look at how to identify insecure Active Directory permissions using ADeleg, a free security tool trusted by penetration testers.
Misconfigured delegation and overly permissive access rights are a common source of risk in Active Directory environments. These gaps can create hidden attack paths—but many teams don’t know where to look or how to interpret what they’re seeing.
In this episode, we cover:
How to identify insecure permissions in Active Directory
What to look for in high-risk users and groups like Domain Users, Everyone, and Authenticated Users
How these misconfigurations translate into real-world attack paths
How to use ADeleg to analyze delegated permissions and uncover hidden risk
We also include a reference to ADeleginator, a related tool that can help automate parts of this process using PowerShell. While this episode focuses on hands-on analysis with ADeleg, ADeleginator is a useful companion for scaling this work.
Tools referenced:
ADeleg: https://github.com/mtth-bfft/adeleg

Blog: https://offsec.blog/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@cyberthreatpov
Twitter: https://x.com/cyberthreatpov
Follow Spencer on social ⬇
Spencer's Links: https://spenceralessi.com
Work with Us: https://securit360.com | Find vulnerabilities that matter, learn about how we do internal pentesting here.