Failure Pattern
Network telemetry describes traffic but does not verify the source’s identity. Attackers hijack trusted channels to hide their activity.
What We See in the Field
A compromised workload generates malicious traffic that appears identical to legitimate workload communication. Network telemetry shows normal patterns because identity is unreliable.
Underlying Causes
Telemetry tied to mutable metadata
No verified identity layer
Certificates reused
Containers sharing identity
NAT obscuring origin
Trust-Native Network Resolution
DTL binds telemetry to a verified cryptographic identity. Traffic attribution becomes accurate. Analysts see the true actor behind every packet.
Broken Trust Assumption
The attacks that exposed this failure pattern were not stealthy break-ins. They were trusted operations.
During incidents such as SolarWinds, Capital One, and Okta, malicious activity was carried out using valid identities and approved execution paths. Certificates were valid. Tokens were accepted. Sessions were authenticated. From the system’s point of view, nothing appeared wrong.
This is the risk of trust inferred from credentials, location, or prior authentication.