Kat Traxler

Principal Security Researcher

Kat Traxler was Principal Security Researcher at Vectra AI focusing on threat detection in the public cloud. Prior to her current role, she worked in various stages in the SDLC performing web application penetration testing and security architecture design for Web, IAM, Payment Technologies and Cloud Native Technologies.

Kat’s research philosophy directs her work to where design flaws and misconfigurations are most probable. This guiding principle leads her research to the intersection of technologies, particularly the convergence of cloud security and application security and where the OS-layer interfaces with higher-level abstractions.

Kat has presented at various conferences including the SANS CloudSecNext Summit and fwd:CloudSec on topics such as privilege escalation in GCP, and bug-hunting in the cloud. In addition to her work at Vectra AI, she is a member of IAN Faculty and the Lead Author of the SANS SEC549 - Enterprise Cloud Security Architecture and currently holds multiple GIAC certifications. You can find her on the internet as @nightmareJS

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Post from

Kat Traxler

Cloud Threat Detection Capabilities with The DeRF: Bridging the Gap in Current Tools

August 9, 2023

Kat Traxler

Cloud Threat Detection Capabilities with The DeRF: Bridging the Gap in Current Tools

This new open-source tool bridges common gaps SOC teams face in cloud threat detection. Gain more flexibility to develop custom attack techniques.

Rethinking Your Threat Models for the Cloud

May 3, 2023

Kat Traxler

Rethinking Your Threat Models for the Cloud

Attacker techniques are dictated by the characteristics of the tech stack. So what is the approach needed to defend cloud systems?

LastPass Breach: The Pyramid of Pain Perspective

March 14, 2023

Kat Traxler

LastPass Breach: The Pyramid of Pain Perspective

This blog outlines the intel in the LastPass communiques and enumerates the attacker indicators while framing the discussion around the "Pyramid of Pain".

Abusing the Replicator: Silently Exfiltrating Data with the AWS S3 Replication Service

July 20, 2022

Kat Traxler

Abusing the Replicator: Silently Exfiltrating Data with the AWS S3 Replication Service

A comprehensive backup strategy is a cornerstone of any DR plan. But how would you distinguish between legitimate backup activity and malicious data exfiltration?

December 20, 2021

Kat Traxler

Log4J’s Unique Impact In The Cloud

Threat actors can use the Log4J vulnerability as a platform for launching attacks, but what does this mean for cloud environments? Find out exactly how attackers are exploiting this vulnerability and what this could mean for your organization.