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What is the hidden weakness of an IT system?

Poorly protected, they nevertheless concentrate everything the company holds most valuable.
Administration consoles are at the heart of controlling the information system, as they manage servers, backups, endpoints, cloud environments, firewalls, identities, and more.

Having access to an administration console provides absolute control over the infrastructure. This is why they represent a real vulnerability for companies.

Administration Consoles: the Most Underestimated Weak Point of the Information System!

In many organizations, the protection of administration consoles is taken for granted. They are installed, used, and then forgotten.

Yet they represent a real goldmine for attackers: a single access flaw or a poorly managed account can be enough to compromise the entire IT system—often far more quickly than expected.

They concentrate everything the organization seeks to protect: access, data, and business continuity. And yet, few of them benefit from the same level of protection as the systems they administer.

4 questions every CIO or CISO should ask themselves

Can I really guarantee that none of the administration consoles are exposed to the Internet?

A simple Shodan scan reveals thousands of publicly accessible vCenter, ESXi, or firewall interfaces every day. Rarely monitored and often forgotten, administration consoles sometimes even end up being indexed by search engines.

Some consoles also remain accessible after a project is completed, following an audit, or after a service provider leaves—without anyone thinking to disable them.

Can administration consoles be accessed by anyone?

Shared accounts, orphaned accounts, or accounts never revoked after a departure are a classic issue: how many former employees, contractors, or interns still retain access that was never removed?

People forget, but IT system remember—sometimes for far too long. In a context of increased professional mobility, these uncontrolled residual accesses become real time bombs.

Have we properly changed all default passwords?

It may seem unthinkable, yet it is a frequent finding during audits. A default password is like a key under the doormat—everyone knows it’s there.

And when a former employee knows it too, it becomes a silent—but very real—vulnerability.

Can I confidently say that the administration consoles are not vulnerable to even the most basic attacks?

The example of the backdoor found in certain versions of Webmin clearly illustrates the risk, as shown in the video below: a vulnerability or compromised component can grant root access to the machine hosting the console. Alarmingly, you don’t need to be an expert to exploit this type of flaw—an inexperienced attacker, or even a “script kiddie” with minimal knowledge, can easily take advantage of it. Not to mention public bots that constantly scan the web for exposed interfaces and known vulnerabilities.

Forgotten administration consoles are a veritable goldmine for attackers: they are often outdated, unpatched, and poorly monitored. From a single initial access point, an intruder can escalate privileges, move laterally across the network, install persistence mechanisms, exfiltrate data, or deploy ransomware. In short, a single poorly protected console is often enough to turn a local intrusion into a full compromise of the IT system.

And when a former employee knows it too, it becomes a silent—but very real—vulnerability.

 

Administration Consoles: a Systemic Risk

These consoles are not just interfaces—they carry ultimate privileges. If they fall into the wrong hands, the entire IT system becomes vulnerable: storage, cloud environments, backups, security policies, and more.

It is a systemic risk, often invisible until the day it’s too late. And on that day, no EDR or firewall can prevent the compromise, because it comes from within.

Recent incidents show this clearly: in the majority of sophisticated attacks, taking control of administration consoles was the key step that led to total paralysis of the IT system*.

Regaining Control: How to Do It?

The question is therefore not so much, “Are my consoles protected?” but rather, “Do I have full control over their use, exposure, and access?”

This is where an approach like cyberelements becomes truly valuable, providing a secure, isolated, and controlled administration environment, along with complete traceability of access and actions.

Just 3 clicks are enough to secure access to a web application, as shown in the video below:

cyberelements doesn’t just protect administration consoles: it gives the IT department back the ability to manage administrative privileges confidently, within a controlled and resilient framework.

*Fortra Confirms ‘Unauthorized Activity’ Hit GoAnywhere MFT