New devices, cloud services, and third-party applications connect to your network every single daily. Each new system and tool acts as a drop in the ocean, eventually accumulating to an expansive attack surface.
With cybercrime expected to cost $10.5 trillion globally in 2025, your organization can’t afford security blind spots. An unmonitored server, an outdated API, or a forgotten SaaS account—any one of these could be exploited by attackers.
Traditional asset management tools weren’t built for the complexity of modern environments. They often miss cloud instances, unmanaged endpoints, and rapidly changing infrastructure, which is why cyber asset attack surface management (CAASM) tools have taken center stage.
What are cyber asset attack surface management (CAASM) tools?
Cyber asset attack surface management (CAASM) tools help your organization gain continuous, real-time visibility into all IT assets, including on-premises, cloud, and SaaS environments. These tools aggregate data from multiple security and IT sources, allowing security teams to identify gaps, misconfigurations, and risks across their entire attack surface.
CAASM is particularly beneficial for cloud-native businesses, large enterprises, and highly regulated industries, where complete asset visibility is critical to security and compliance.
Benefits of Cyber Asset Attack Surface Management (CAASM) Tools
Enable Asset Visibility – Discover all IT assets across the organization, including shadow IT, orphaned cloud instances, SaaS applications, and unmanaged devices.
Better Security Posture – Detect vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and compliance gaps before they become threats.
Automated Risk Assessment – Use AI-based analysis to prioritize risks based on potential impact.
Regulatory Compliance – Maintain compliance with NIST, GDPR, SOC 2, HIPAA, and ISO 27001.
Integration with Security Tools – Enhance existing security operations with real-time data for better decision-making.
The Attack Surface Management Life Cycle
Asset Discovery & Classification – Automated tools identify and map digital assets, including cloud, on-premise, and third-party resources. Assets are cataloged and classified based on risk exposure, criticality, and compliance requirements.
Risk Assessment & Vulnerability Management – Security teams analyze vulnerabilities using scanning, penetration testing, and threat intelligence. Threat modeling helps prioritize vulnerabilities based on exploitability and business impact.
Implementing Remediation Measures – Organizations address security gaps using both automated and manual remediation strategies, such as configuration updates, encryption, patch management, network segmentation, and forensic analysis for incident response.
Continuous Improvement & Adaptation - Ongoing monitoring detects new threats and vulnerabilities. Tools like SIEM (security information and event management), IDPS (intrusion detection and prevention system), and vulnerability scanners help you adapt and strengthen defenses.
Key Features to Look For in a Cyber Asset Attack Surface Management Tool
Comprehensive Asset Discovery
The tool should be able to automatically identify and catalog all cyber assets across your entire environment. It should go beyond knowing about managed devices and include discovering shadow IT, cloud instances, API security, and even externally facing web applications.
Automated and Continuous Scanning
Effective CAASM tools will use automated scanning to provide visibility into your attack surface without needing expensive, manual, and time-consuming processes. Automation continuously reviews assets for configuration drifts, newly exposed services, and potential vulnerabilities.
Vulnerability and Exposure Management
Leading CAASM solutions actively assess assets for known vulnerabilities and security misconfigurations. This feature helps prioritize risks by identifying exploitable weaknesses and potential exposure points. Integration with vulnerability databases and correlating vulnerabilities with asset context is also crucial for effective remediation.
AI-Powered Risk Prioritization
Managing the large volume of data generated by asset discovery and vulnerability screening can be challenging. Hence, AI and ML-powered CAASM technologies are essential for intelligent risk prioritization. Great CAASM solutions identify the most critical security concerns by assessing asset value, vulnerabilities, and potential business impact.
Continuous Monitoring and Alerting
CAASM tools must monitor your assets continuously and respond in real-time to changes in configurations, new asset deployments, and emerging threats. Proactive alerting based on defined risk thresholds ensures timely responses to critical changes that could expand your attack surface or introduce new vulnerabilities.
Top 10 Cyber Asset Attack Surface Management Tools
Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management provides complete visibility into managed and unmanaged external resources to understand the attack surface and classify and prioritize exposures.
Main Features:
External attack surface scanning.
Real-time threat insights.
Exposure detection and prioritization.
Attack surface insights at generative AI speeds.
Best For: Integration with the Microsoft ecosystem.
Pricing: By inquiry.
2. open-appsec
open-appsec provides a preemptive web application firewall (WAF) and API security solution that aligns with CAASM by offering visibility and security posture management for web applications and APIs.
Main Features:
Protects against OWASP Top 10 and zero-day attacks.
Uses machine learning to block threats like Log4Shell and Spring4Shell without signatures.
Continuously learns application behavior for improved threat detection.
Low false positives, making it reliable for primary attack prevention.
Anti-bot protection to stop automated attacks before harm occurs.
Easy cloud-native deployment with Kubernetes, Docker, and a web-based management option.
Best For: Organizations looking for an open-source, community-driven web application and API protection solution.
Pricing: Open-source with enterprise options.
3. Jit
Jit is a security automation and orchestration platform that supports CAASM by managing security controls efficiently.
Main Features:
CI/CD pipeline security checks.
Static (SAST) and dynamic (DAST) application security checks.
IaC security scanning.
Open Source Security (SCA) and license detection.
Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM).
Best For: DevSecOps teams looking to automate security workflows.
Pricing: Offers three plans: Community (Free), Growth ($50/dev/month), and Enterprise.
CrowdStrike Falcon Surface specializes in external attack surface management to detect potential threats proactively.
Main Features:
SaaS security.
Endpoint security and identity protection.
Cloud security and workflow automation.
Generative AI and exposure management.
Best For: Integration with the broader CrowdStrike Flacon platform.
Pricing: By inquiry.
5. Rapid7
Rapid7 offers vulnerability management and security automation solutions designed to help organizations track and manage their cyber assets.
Main Features:
Proactive risk and threat management.
24/7/365 expert monitoring.
Unlimited incident response.
Build resilience with expert guidance.
Readiness and posture assessments.
Best For: A full suite of cybersecurity tools in one platform.
Pricing: By inquiry.
6. JupiterOne
JupiterOne is a pure CAASM platform offering continuous asset monitoring and risk management.
Main Features:
Cloud-native asset inventory.
Policy compliance and security automation.
Dashboard and alerts.
Graph-based context.
Granular data segmentation.
Best For: Visibility over cybersecurity asset relationships and graph-based analysis.
Pricing: By inquiry.
7. Suridata
Suridata specializes in SaaS application security and helps organizations assess security risks within their SaaS environments.
Main Features:
SaaS misconfiguration management.
Shadow SaaS management.
Third-party and SaaS-to-SaaS security.
Generative AI security.
Best For: AI-driven cybersecurity posture management.
Pricing: By inquiry.
Qualys is a comprehensive CAASM platform designed for large-scale cybersecurity asset management.
Main Features:
IT asset management.
Risk-based vulnerability management.
Cloud security scanning.
Vulnerability and configuration management.
Threat detection and response.
Best For: Compliance monitoring capabilities.
Pricing: Subscription-based pricing.
9. Axonius
Axonius is another popular cybersecurity asset management platform. It focuses on identifying security coverage gaps and enforcing security policies through automation.
Main Features:
Asset correlation.
Queries between related assets.
Asset graph manager
Policy enforcement.
Automated security workflows.
Best For: Asset visibility across diverse and complex IT environments.
Pricing: By inquiry.
10. SpectralOps
SpectralOps offers source code security solutions that help businesses protect against code-related vulnerabilities.
Main Features:
Secrets detection.
Infrastructure security scanning.
Continuous asset monitoring:
CI/CD pipeline security.
Best For: Preventing sensitive data leaks and security misconfigurations in code and infrastructure.
Pricing: Offers three plans: Free, Business, and Enterprise.
open-appsec is an open-source project that builds on machine learning to provide pre-emptive web app & API threat protection against OWASP Top 10 and zero-day attacks. It simplifies maintenance as there is no threat signature upkeep and exception handling, like common in many WAF solutions.
To learn more about how open-appsec works, see this White Paper and the in-depth Video Tutorial. You can also experiment with deployment in the free Playground.
