Incident Response Support Contained a Brute-Force Attack Quickly
The Problem
Repeated login failures triggered alerts and the client needed to determine if it was noise or compromise
Outcome
Contained attack activity fast and strengthened controls to prevent repeat attempts
Quick Facts
Client type: Internet-exposed services with authentication endpoints
Timeline: Same-day triage + follow-up hardening
Testing type: Incident response + hardening
Approach: Log investigation + containment + prevention plan
What Wolfcore did:
- Analyzed auth logs and SIEM alerts
- Correlated IPs, usernames, and patterns over time
- Applied immediate containment measures
- Verified scope and checked for indicators of compromise
- Delivered a leadership-ready incident report
Key findings (examples)
- Insecure direct object reference allowing access to another user’s invoice data via
predictable IDs - Missing rate limiting on a login-related endpoint enabling credential stuffing
attempts - Overly permissive CORS behaviour on a specific API route increasing exposure in
browser-based attack paths - Weak session invalidation after password change
Impact
- Attack contained quickly
- Improved alerting and reduced noise
- Implemented preventative controls for future attempts
Deliverables
- Incident timeline and technical analysis
- Containment action list
- Prevention and monitoring plan
- Response playbook