Threat Modeling Wizard

What Is Threat Modeling

Threat modeling is a structured approach to identifying, quantifying, and addressing security threats to a system. Rather than waiting for vulnerabilities to be discovered through penetration testing or real attacks, threat modeling proactively analyzes system architecture to find potential weaknesses before code is written or infrastructure is deployed.

Threat modeling answers four fundamental questions: What are we building? What can go wrong? What are we going to do about it? Did we do a good job? This systematic process is recommended by OWASP, NIST, and Microsoft as an essential component of secure software development lifecycle (SSDLC) practices.

Threat Modeling Frameworks

Framework	Approach	Best For	Key Output
STRIDE	Categorize threats by type	Software applications	Threat list organized by S/T/R/I/D/E categories
PASTA	Risk-centric, 7-stage process	Business-aligned security	Risk-ranked threat library with attack trees
LINDDUN	Privacy-focused threat categories	Privacy-sensitive systems	Privacy threat catalog
VAST	Visual, agile, scalable	Enterprise and agile teams	Application and operational threat models
Attack Trees	Hierarchical decomposition of attacks	Specific attack scenarios	Tree diagrams showing attack paths and prerequisites
OCTAVE	Organizational risk assessment	Enterprise risk management	Risk profiles and protection strategies

STRIDE Categories

Category	Threat Type	Example	Countermeasure
Spoofing	Pretending to be someone else	Forged authentication tokens	Strong authentication, MFA
Tampering	Modifying data without authorization	SQL injection, man-in-the-middle	Input validation, integrity checks
Repudiation	Denying an action was performed	Deleting audit logs	Secure logging, digital signatures
Information Disclosure	Exposing data to unauthorized parties	Unencrypted data in transit	Encryption, access controls
Denial of Service	Making a system unavailable	DDoS attacks, resource exhaustion	Rate limiting, redundancy
Elevation of Privilege	Gaining unauthorized access levels	Exploiting vulnerabilities for admin access	Least privilege, input validation

Common Use Cases

• New application design: Identify threats during the architecture phase when they are cheapest to address
• Cloud migration: Model threats introduced by moving workloads to cloud environments (shared responsibility, new attack surface)
• Compliance requirements: NIST CSF, PCI DSS, and CMMC all recommend or require threat modeling as part of risk assessment
• DevSecOps integration: Embed lightweight threat modeling into sprint planning and design reviews
• Third-party risk: Model threats introduced by integrating third-party services, APIs, and components into your architecture

Best Practices

1. Model early in the development lifecycle — Threat modeling during design is 10-100x cheaper than fixing security issues found in production. Make it part of your architecture review process.
2. Use data flow diagrams (DFDs) — Visualize your system as processes, data stores, data flows, and trust boundaries. Apply STRIDE to each element crossing a trust boundary.
3. Involve diverse perspectives — Include developers, architects, operations, and security in threat modeling sessions. Each role identifies different threats based on their expertise.
4. Prioritize by risk, not by count — Not all threats need immediate mitigation. Use risk scoring (likelihood x impact) to prioritize remediation of the most dangerous threats first.
5. Iterate continuously — Threat models are living documents. Update them when architecture changes, new features are added, or new attack techniques emerge.