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Forward Threat Exposure

Compute attack paths.
Defend what matters.

Forward Threat Exposure computes attack paths to your critical assets from a mathematically accurate digital twin, built from your network’s actual configuration and state. See which vulnerabilities are reachable, and exactly where to close each path first.
Forward Threat Exposure is currently in Tech Preview.
Threat Exposure interface
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AI has brought cybersecurity to an inflection point

AI is accelerating the speed and scale of cyberattacks. As attackers move faster, defenders need to know which vulnerabilities put critical systems within reach. Patching alone isn’t enough. Teams need to understand the paths an attacker could take through their infrastructure, and where to break those paths to protect what matters most.

Replace assumptions with evidence

Security decisions still rest on assumptions: that a subnet is isolated, that a vulnerability can’t be reached, that a compromised endpoint can’t reach production. When teams prioritize severity without knowing what attackers can reach, exposed systems can wait while isolated ones get patched. Manually tracing paths with the network team costs time defenders can’t afford. Forward Threat Exposure uses your network’s actual configuration and state to show what attackers can reach, so you can act on evidence.
Cyber Security team

Know what an attacker can reach before they do

Know which exposures to fix first. Forward Threat Exposure calculates what an attacker can reach directly from device configuration and state across on-premises networks and the major public clouds.
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Limit what AI-driven attackers can reach

See which critical assets attackers can reach from the internet and other untrusted networks, including paths through routers and firewalls. Identify where to close those paths before attackers use them.
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Expose paths for lateral movement

See where an attacker could move next from a compromised host or subnet, across data centers and cloud environments. Identify paths to critical assets that perimeter defenses alone don’t block.
Risk scores

Prioritize risk by reachability and impact

The Forward Risk Score combines reachability, vulnerability severity, and business importance, accounting for existing controls. A reachable moderate vulnerability can outrank an isolated critical one.
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Know where to close attack paths

For every exposure, see the full path, the firewall rules that permit it, and the device and rule where you can close it. Reduce exposure while patching is underway.

Turn scanner findings into paths you can close

Define

Bring in findings from tenable® or Rapid7®, with no new agents. Mark where untrusted traffic enters, such as the internet, partner connections, or guest networks, and rank assets by business importance.

Prioritize

Forward Threat Exposure calculates direct and lateral paths from each exposure point, accounts for existing controls, and ranks critical assets using the Forward Risk Score. See which exposures need attention first.

Contain

Inspect an exposure to see its full path and the device and rule where your team can block it. Confirm where existing controls already prevent access, so remediation focuses on reachable exposures.

Contain exposure before a patch is available

The problem

A vulnerability is under active exploitation, and no patch is available. Your scanner flags the affected hosts. Your CISO wants to know which ones an attacker can reach, and what you can do today. Tracing paths manually across firewalls, NAT, and clouds delays the response.

The solution

Forward Threat Exposure combines scanner findings with network reachability to identify exposed assets. It shows the paths from the internet and other exposure points, along with the devices and firewall rules where your team can block access while waiting for a patch.

Respond faster, prioritize what matters

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Scope a compromise

Define the compromised subnet as an exposure point and see every host, port, and vulnerable service it can reach, including through intermediate systems. Focus investigation and containment.
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Validate compensating controls

See which exposures your routing, firewall, and host-based controls already contain. Verify where existing defenses block access, so teams can focus on exposures that remain reachable.
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Prioritize threats to critical assets

Combine vulnerability findings, reachability, and business importance in one ranked queue. Give leadership a clear remediation plan focused on the assets that matter most.

One source of truth for security and network teams

Security leadership

Know whether new vulnerabilities expose critical assets, and back risk decisions with evidence.

Vulnerability management

Prioritize reachable exposures and give infrastructure owners clear evidence of where to act.

Security operations

Know what a compromised endpoint can reach during an incident, without waiting on manual path tracing.

Security architecture

Verify whether segmentation and access policies block paths to critical assets.

Network engineering

Give security teams direct reachability answers from a shared model, reducing urgent manual investigations.

Recognized among the top 25 cybersecurity companies

“We scoured the globe looking for cybersecurity innovators that could make a huge difference and potentially help turn the tide against the exponential growth in cyber-crime. Forward is worthy of being named a winner in these coveted awards and consideration for deployment in your environment.”
Yan Ross, Editor, Cyber Defense Magazine
Read the announcement
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See how it works, in two pages

Datasheet

Forward Threat Exposure Overview

See how Forward Threat Exposure reveals attack paths, ranks risk with the Forward Risk Score, and identifies where to block access. Includes supported clouds and integrations.
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Frequently asked questions

Forward Threat Exposure is an exposure management application built on Forward Enterprise. It shows how attackers could reach critical assets, prioritizes exposures by risk, and identifies where teams can block access.
Attack path analysis identifies the routes an attacker could use to move from an entry point, such as the internet, to a critical asset. Forward Threat Exposure computes these paths from device configuration and state across on-premises and cloud networks, including direct paths, lateral paths through intermediate hosts, and paths no traffic has used yet.
Forward Threat Exposure ranks critical assets with the Forward Risk Score, which multiplies three factors: Exposure Score, Vulnerability Score, and Asset Criticality. Together, these reflect reachability, vulnerability severity, and business importance, accounting for existing controls. A reachable moderate vulnerability can therefore outrank an isolated critical one.
No. Forward Threat Exposure uses vulnerability findings, operating system information, and open port data from scanners such as tenable® and Rapid7®. It adds reachability and business context so teams can prioritize which exposures to address first.
Forward Threat Exposure analyzes attack paths using Forward’s digital twin of your network. It evaluates how routing, firewall rules, NAT, load balancers, and cloud policies work together across an entire path. The analysis identifies potential reachability without injecting test traffic or running exploits in production.
Forward Threat Exposure supports the scoping, prioritization, validation, and mobilization stages of a CTEM framework. Teams define exposure points and critical assets, prioritize reachable exposures by business impact, and verify existing controls. Infrastructure owners get path evidence and the device and rule details needed to act.
Yes. Forward Threat Exposure works with data collected by the mathematically accurate digital twin. All attack path analysis runs on Forward’s digital twin of the network rather than on live devices.
Forward Threat Exposure analyzes multi-vendor on-premises networks together with AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and IBM Cloud in a single model, including paths that cross between them. At launch, it integrates with tenable and Rapid7.
Forward Threat Exposure is built for security and network teams that need to understand exposure across hybrid networks. Security leaders assess business risk, vulnerability teams prioritize remediation, and security operations teams scope incidents. Security architects and network engineers verify controls and identify where to block attack paths.
Yes. Forward Threat Exposure is an application on the Forward Enterprise platform. Organizations that already use Forward Enterprise can give their security teams access to the same mathematically accurate digital twin.

Ready to get started?

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