Aviatrix Blog

How to Shut Down a Cyberattack: Leveraging the Unified Kill Chain with Aviatrix

Learn how Aviatrix thwarts cyberattacks by using the framework of the Unified Kill Chain: segmenting networks, flagging anomalies, and filtering egress traffic.

More than 3 in 5 attacker movements in cloud environments involve lateral movement attempts, according to Google Cloud’s Threat Horizons Report.

Attackers don’t think in silos — and neither should your defenses.

Today’s threats don’t stop at the perimeter. They infiltrate, escalate, and move laterally across the cloud, exploiting weak paths between workloads, regions, and accounts. If you only protect the front door, you’re ignoring every hallway inside.

That’s why Aviatrix secures the network from the inside out, following the attacker’s playbook step-by-step and shutting down movement at every stage of the Unified Kill Chain (UKC).

 

What is the Unified Kill Chain?

The Unified Kill Chain, developed by Paul Pols, expands on traditional frameworks like Lockheed Martin’s Cyber Kill Chain and MITRE ATT&CK. It better reflects modern adversary behavior, especially in multicloud and hybrid environments.

By breaking down the process of a cyberattack into In, Through, and Out, the UKC helps organizations increase their cyber resilience by stopping hacking attempts at multiple stages of an attack.

Unified Kill Chain image - developed by Paul Pols

Unified Kill Chain — developed by Paul Pols

 

The UKC models how attackers infiltrate a network:

  • Exploit misconfigurations and credentials
  • Establish outbound command-and-control
  • Move laterally between cloud assets
  • Exfiltrate data over encrypted channels
  • Persist using stealthy, cloud-native techniques

 

It provides a structure that networking and security teams can use to build layered defenses that reduce dwell time, blast radius, and breach impact.

 

Understanding the UKC in a Cloud Context

Think of the kill chain like a network of doors inside your enterprise: not just the front entrance, but the internal rooms attackers quietly move through.

In the cloud, that progression often looks like:

  • Reconnaissance – Scanning public IPs, ports, metadata
  • Exploitation – Gaining access via credentials, misconfigurations, or zero-days
  • Command & Control (C2) – Establishing outbound communication via DNS or HTTPS
  • Lateral Movement – Traversing VPCs, regions, or clouds to escalate
  • Exfiltration – Stealing sensitive data through encrypted tunnels
  • Persistence – Maintaining long-term access using misused credentials, cloud-native services, or hidden connectivity paths

 

Each step is a pressure point. Each one also gives you a chance to break the chain if your defenses are built in the right place.

 

Aviatrix: Embedded Defense, Not Bolted-On

Legacy tools try to bolt security onto the edge of the cloud. Aviatrix builds it into the network fabric itself, giving you distributed enforcement, dynamic policy, and visibility across cloud and hybrid paths.

Here’s how Aviatrix maps to Unified Kill Chain concepts to protect networks:

UKC StageAviatrix CapabilitiesSecurity OutcomesBusiness Outcomes
Reconnaissance
  • FlowIQ traffic analytics to detect internal or external scan behavior
  • Segmentation to reduce unnecessary exposure
Identifies early-stage recon attempts; blocks attacker visibility into cloud resourcesShrinks attack surface and improves audit readiness
Exploitation
  • Microsegmentation by tag, app, or role
  • FlowIQ anomaly detection for east-west access patterns
Limits attacker movement post-initial access; detects unusual communication pathsReduces risk of breach escalation and minimizes attacker dwell time
Command & Control
  • Egress control (default deny, DNS/FQDN filtering)
  • Encrypted north-south flows for all cloud exits
Disrupts outbound connections to malicious domains; prevents use of DNS/HTTPS-based C2 channelsPrevents data theft and command signal transmission; enables regulatory compliance
Lateral Movement
  • SmartGroup-driven segmentation between workloads, regions, and clouds
  • Encrypted east-west transit
Blocks unauthorized lateral access paths; stops attacker pivoting between cloud environmentsContains blast radius and reduces breach impact on critical applications
Exfiltration
  • Policy-based egress enforcement
  • High-performance encryption over hybrid and cloud-native paths
Prevents unauthorized data exfiltration; enforces encryption standards across cloud and hybrid pathsStops regulatory data loss and reduces legal, financial, and brand exposure risks
Persistence
  • FlowIQ traffic analytics to uncover long-lived or stealthy access patterns
  • SmartGroup and Terraform-based enforcement automation
  • CoPilot-driven route and topology visibility to identify unauthorized connectivity paths
Detects indicators of long-term persistence; maintains enforcement consistency over time and at scaleEnsures sustained zero trust posture; limits time-to-remediate and supports operational resilience

 

 

Real-World Attacks Where Aviatrix Would Have Broken the Kill Chain

These weren’t zero-day-only events. They succeeded because the network didn’t enforce zero trust.

Attack / GroupUKC Stages ImpactedWhat Native Tools MissedAviatrix Defenses AppliedWhen Blocked…
MOVEit / ClopRecon → Exploit → ExfiltrationNo outbound domain/IP filteringEgress, Encryption, VisibilityPrevented regulated data loss
Medusa RansomwareExploit → C2 → Lateral → ExfiltrationDNS-based C2 allowed; east-west unsegmentedSegmentation, ️ Egress, EncryptionContained ransomware, avoided downtime
SolarWinds / UNC2452Recon → Exploit → C2 → LateralDNS/TLS traffic not inspected; no segmentationSegmentation, Egress, DNS FlowIQStopped privilege escalation, lateral movement
APT28 (Fancy Bear)Recon → Exploit → C2 → ExfiltrationNo egress filtering; encrypted C2 allowedEgress, Encryption, Flow AnalyticsBlocked espionage via cloud-native paths
APT41 (Double Dragon)Exploit → C2 → Lateral → ExfiltrationFlat networks; no microsegmentationSegmentation, Egress, EncryptionIsolated cloud workloads from adversary spread
WannaCryExploit → Lateral MovementFlat networks enabled worm propagationSegmentation, EncryptionPrevented lateral ransomware blast radius
Volt TyphoonRecon → Exploit → C2 → PersistenceNo TLS/DNS inspection; no anomaly detectionDNS Egress Control, FlowIQ, SegmentationDisrupted stealthy APT persistence

 

The Breach Is the Result, not the Beginning

Breaches happen when detection comes too late and enforcement comes too shallow.

Most native tools log symptoms after the fact. Aviatrix builds policy into the network itself by stopping traffic where it shouldn’t exist, segmenting what shouldn’t connect, and encrypting what attackers want to steal.

 

Aviatrix offers both visibility and active defense across every route.

 

The Takeaway

Attackers don’t break in. They log in, blend in, and move in silence.

Aviatrix breaks the chain by embedding network policy exactly where attackers operate:

  • Blocks C2 and data theft with policy-based egress
  • Encrypts routes across clouds, apps, and sites
  • Segments environments dynamically by tag, not IP
  • Detects attacker movement across east-west flows

 

Using these embedded network policies and visibility, Aviatrix helps limit breaches, streamline audits, and decrease operational drag.

When security is built into the network, the attacker’s plan fails before it starts.

 

 

References

  1.  Unified Kill Chain Whitepaper
  2.  MITRE ATT&CK Framework
  3.  CISA Zero Trust Maturity Model v2.0
  4.  SolarWinds Breach – CISA Advisory
  5.  Volt Typhoon – Microsoft Security Blog
  6.  MOVEit / Clop Ransomware – Bleeping Computer
  7.  HIPAA Security Rule – U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
  8.  PCI DSS v4.0 – PCI Security Standards Council
  9.  GDPR Article 32 – Security of Processing
  10.  CrowdStrike 2024 Global Threat Report
  11.  CISA Cybersecurity Advisory – Stop Medusa
  12.  National Cyber Security Centre – Indicators of compromise by malware used by APT28
  13.  Google Cloud – APT41: A Dual Espionage and Cyber Crime Operation
  14.  National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center – WannaCry