Media group (anon)

Media group: Argos monitoring stopped an online newspaper takeover and customer data leak

52 actionable findings - documented, prioritised and fixed within six business days.

20+
Group companies
50+
Actionable findings
Argos
Attack surface
4
Validation sprints
Industry Media & Publishing
Region Western Germany
Service Argos attack surface monitoring + pentest
Outcome Online newspaper & customer data secured

Engagement Overview

A west German media & publishing group (client anonymised) spanning more than 20 subsidiaries - newspapers, digital agencies, IT providers and a print plant - wanted to understand how attackers see its external footprint.

Argos attack surface monitoring

Automated mapping of domains, subdomains, IP ranges, SaaS integrations and cloud assets.

Timeline

12 weeks of continuous monitoring combined with four manual validation sprints.

Outcome

52 actionable vulnerabilities - 8 critical, 21 high, 23 medium - documented and prioritised inside Argos.

Impact

Prevented takeover of an online newspaper, stopped a customer PII leak, fixed two PHP deserialisation bugs and a group-wide stored XSS.

Argos as the single source of truth

Findings, PoCs, risk ratings and remediation workstreams were tracked centrally. Each subsidiary received targeted tasks, while the group CISO kept an executive overview.

Starting Point & Objectives

The group has grown rapidly through acquisitions. Multiple technology stacks, agency experiments and independently run platforms made the attack surface hard to control.

  • Inventory: Identify every public-facing asset across 20+ entities.
  • Risk assessment: Understand which issues an external attacker could weaponise.
  • Fast prioritisation: Escalate critical findings within 48 hours to the right owners.
  • Shared visibility: Align CISO, subsidiary CTOs and executive leadership with one risk view.

Challenge: The portfolio includes legacy PHP systems, newsroom tooling, marketing automation, print plant interfaces and numerous multi-tenant portals - a highly heterogeneous environment.

Engagement Setup

Asset discovery

Passive DNS, certificate transparency, CDN scans and cloud linkage automatically ingested into Argos.

Continuous monitoring

Argos sensors combined with Nuclei/Nmap feeds and API watchers to spot new deployments.

Manual validation

Security engineers verified every critical finding: RCE, deserialisation bugs, auth bypass, data leaks.

Collaboration

Weekly task force with the group CISO, subsidiary leads and Dev managers; remediation tasks assigned directly inside Argos.

Approach

We blended Argos automation with deep manual analysis in four themed sprints.

Sprint 1: Establish visibility

Build the baseline, assign risk scores, remediate quick wins such as exposed backups.

Sprint 2: High-risk apps

Online newspapers, customer portals, marketing automation - focus on auth, uploads, integrations.

Sprint 3: Legacy & custom code

Reverse engineering PHP libraries, testing deserialisation paths, reviewing hardcoded secrets.

Sprint 4: Retests & governance

Fix validation, rollout of a secure deployment playbook, Argos alerting for each subsidiary.

Critical findings were escalated within 24 hours and supported with PoCs, remediation guidance and automated retests.

Results at a Glance

We confirmed 52 actionable vulnerabilities, prioritised by Argos risk score and business impact.

8 Critical
21 High
23 Medium
Time to mitigation

All critical items were fixed within six business days. Argos monitored remediation progress and verified closure automatically or via targeted manual retests.

Technical Highlights

RCE in online newspaper

An insecure plug-in enabled command injection and full access to the editorial CMS.

Customer PII leak

Publicly accessible backup files exposed millions of subscription and event records.

Two PHP deserialisation flaws

Custom-built applications allowed unauthenticated deserialisation, leading to auth bypass and potential RCE.

Group-wide stored XSS

A vulnerability in the shared footer executed malicious JavaScript across every brand site.

Credential exposure

API keys and SMTP credentials in Git repositories enabled spam abuse and account takeover.

Chain reaction prevented

Combining the RCE, PII leak and shared XSS would have allowed attackers to infect readers, hijack accounts and exfiltrate data - with severe reputational damage.

Timeline & Collaboration

Month 1: Assets & quick wins

Inventory build, shutdown of exposed backups, MFA rollout for admin panels.

Month 2: Deep dives

Exploit development (RCE, deserialisation), global footer fix, PII leak remediation.

Month 3: Governance

Group-wide guidelines, Argos alerting per subsidiary, training for Dev & editorial teams.

Business Impact

Brand trust protected

No data breach, no hijacked newspaper - readers and advertisers remained confident.

Compliance assured

DSGVO evidence, audit trails and reporting workflows captured inside Argos.

Shared situational awareness

Subsidiary leadership now works with a unified risk matrix and prioritisation model.

Security culture uplift

Editorial, agency and engineering teams received training on secure deployments and secret hygiene.

“Argos shows us new exposures every week. Without this visibility the RCE in our online newspaper would only surface during an incident - with dramatic consequences.”
Group CISO (anonymised) Media group with 20+ brands

Recommendations & Next Steps

Security needs to keep pace with media operations - from breaking news to new SaaS integrations.

Key recommendations

  • Argos always-on: Auto-onboard new domains and deployments, review risk scores quarterly.
  • Secure shared components: Release global footers and widgets only after security review.
  • Secret hygiene: Git scanning, central vaults, regular credential rotation.
  • Legacy hardening: Build deserialisation tests into the SDLC, modernise legacy PHP modules.
  • Blue team alignment: Integrate SOC/CSIRT with Argos alerts and develop media-specific playbooks.
Facing similar challenges?

We help media houses stay secure across agencies and brands with Argos monitoring and manual deep dives. Talk to us for an initial consultation.

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