Exposure Mapping

Exposure mapping is the continuous discovery, classification, and tracking of every internet-reachable asset, signalling endpoint, API, and service that an operator exposes, intentionally or otherwise. It feeds prioritised hardening, vulnerability management, and red-team scoping, and is increasingly delivered as continuous threat exposure management (CTEM) tooling.

Categories: SignalingThreats and AttacksInternet and Routing

Exposure Mapping in context

Signaling protocols carry the control-plane messages that set up calls, register subscribers and route SMS. SS7, Diameter, GTP-C and SIP are the four dominant families, and interconnect exposure of any of them is treated by GSMA as top-tier telecom risk.

Telecom threats range from opportunistic SMS phishing and SIM swap to nation-state grade location tracking. The common thread is that most attacks exploit the inherited trust model of legacy signaling protocols.

To place Exposure Mapping in the wider telecom-security picture, review CALEA, A5/2, Anomaly Detection, ASN, Attack Surface Mapping and BGP — each entry cross-references back to this page so you can walk the topic in either direction.

Related terms

More from the TelcoSec Glossary

Browse the full TelcoSec Glossary, the Ultimate Guide to Mobile Network Security, or the P1 Arsenal of telecom-security tools.