When patching is too late: How App Gating Protects Against Zero-Day Exploits Like SharePoint ToolShell ​​CVE-2025-53770

Emily Lehman

Jul 27, 2025

TlL;DR
Public exploits of undisclosed vulnerabilities are back, just like every week. And this SharePoint zero day is worse than we first thought.

App gating adds a layer of defense that can hide vulnerable servers from Internet threats while you chase patching and updating them. 

If you want to get started, it can be way easier with a modern resource-focused approach to zero trust. You can even test out the approach with a homelab or developer resources, so it’s not a big IT lift just to get started. If you want to dig into the tech straightaway, scroll to the end 🙂

Poor SharePoint. That’s definitely TMI.

Last week was rough: cybersecurity firm Eye Security disclosed a disturbing discovery. Threat actors are actively exploiting two previously unknown vulnerabilities in Microsoft SharePoint via a “ToolShell” attack.

This exploit and the timeline should worry every IT administrator. In May 2025, security researchers demonstrated the original ToolShell vulnerability chain at Pwn2Own Berlin. By July, Microsoft had patched the flaws and additional technical details were published. 

Just days later, attackers launched widespread exploitation using two new zero-day vulnerabilities that completely bypassed Microsoft's patches. Several dozen attacks. 50+ organizations worldwide exploited in the first days. Universities, government agencies, and Fortune 500 companies were impacted. 

The number of victims has grown to over 400 this week and includes the American National Nuclear Security Administration. The growth and nature of these targets is particularly worrisome, because the attacks have evolved from data exfil and remote code execution to ransomware delivery and attackers increasingly appear to be state sponsored.

This is bad, and the whole mess highlights a brutal reality in modern cybersecurity: patching is not enough. There might be too many patches to apply on a given day. Patches might not even be available. And ultimately, attackers consistently move faster than defenders.

We need to get ahead of this problem. We cannot simply make critical services unavailable, as Microsoft recommended, by: “disconnecting your server from the internet until a security update is available.” Or can we? Can we actually disconnect servers from the Internet while keeping the resource available for authorized users? 

App Gating Solves the Patch-and-Pray Nightmare

The SharePoint incident perfectly illustrates the fundamental limits to the current approach to security. Security isn’t this simple: find vulnerabilities, create patches, deploy updates, repeat. The clock is ticking the whole time. We need a way to find time. 

The speed and sophistication of modern attacks demand that we find time fast. The very same AI-fueled productivity gains powering modern development help malicious actors move faster and more effectively.

Consider the treadmill that runs IT teams ragged: The original SharePoint flaws (CVE-2025-49706 and CVE-2025-49704) were:

  • Responsibly disclosed 

  • Thoroughly analyzed

  • Promptly patched by Microsoft 

Yet within days, attackers had developed new exploits (CVE-2025-53770 and CVE-2025-53771), rendering those patches ineffective. This situation isn't an exception. It's becoming the norm. But here's the fundamental problem: you cannot patch unknown vulnerabilities. 

Even organizations with perfect patch management face exposure to zero-day exploits when no patch is available. 

What if we could hide these servers from bad actors? What if we could buy time to patch? What if attackers simply cannot see the systems that they want to exploit?

(Hint, we can. It’s called app gating. And it’s about time we did this everywhere. App gating is the zero trust evolution of the old IP allow-list trick, and it’s a power technique for reducing risk and protecting data.)

How Does App Gating Sift the Attack Surface? 

Firewalls block malicious traffic all day long. And, generally, most policies expose servers to unauthenticated connections, too. 

We don’t have to operate this way. We can move to a  default-deny architecture and only allow verified, authorized access. 

Application gating denies all unauthenticated traffic, sifting the sessions we want while filtering out even exploits of unreported vulnerabilities. 

How Application Gating Works

  • Identity Verification First: Every user and device must authenticate before accessing any application.

  • Policy-Based Access Control: The system evaluates access requests against predefined policies.

  • Application-Level Enforcement: Instead of granting broad network access, zero trust app gating creates secure tunnels or connections directly to specific applications.

  • Continuous Monitoring: The system continuously monitors user behavior and device status throughout the session.

  • Microsegmentation: Applications are isolated from each other, so even if someone gains access to one application, they can't automatically access others.

The concept isn’t new: plenty of organizations have used network segmentation and access controls for years. 

It’s just been too hard to deploy app gating at scale. With traditional tools, the barriers have been significant: 

  • Complex VPN deployments make microsegmentation challenging.

  • Performance bottlenecks from backhauling all traffic, degrade user experience.

  • Operational overhead for admins is just too much to bear.

This leaves many organizations forced to choose between security and productivity. 

A modern and simple approach to app gating changes that. Any solution needs to be easy to deploy: if you can’t get up and running over a lunch break, you’re using the wrong approach.

The latest approaches are easy to manage via GUI or APIs, and they can be automated through an Infrastructure as Code approach. And Twingate, specifically, is fast: up to 86% faster than traditional VPNs. 

Twingate makes app gating easy by taking the “network” out of a zero trust network architecture. Twingate takes a resource focused approach to zero trust, creating multiple verification layers independent of application-level security:

  • Device trust: Managed devices with appropriate security controls only

  • User authorization: Specific authorization required for each resource

  • Network path: Requests must come through approved, monitored access points

  • Security posture: Devices must meet current security requirements

This week, the resource that’s causing us pain is SharePoint. But next week, who knows? 

The beauty of this resource model is its independence from network topologies or addressing schemes and vulnerability knowledge. Attackers simply cannot reach target applications. 

App gating enables us to disconnect servers from the internet. And not just for on-prem applications like the vulnerable SharePoint servers. 

Twingate enables you to gate both on-prem and SaaS apps through a unified approach. The result is enterprise-grade access control (and a layer of defense against new and unpatched exploits) without the traditional trade-offs.

This isn't just about blocking IP addresses. It's about making the target application's entry point invisible on the public internet. Instead of listening on publicly exposed ports, the application traffic is brokered through a secure, authenticated-only conduit established by Twingate Connectors, effectively 'hiding' it from unauthorized scans.

Would App Gating Have Stopped ToolShell?

The actual SharePoint attack was devastatingly simple:

  1. Attackers scanned the internet for SharePoint servers.

  2. A single crafted HTTP request exploited the zero-day.

  3. A malicious request uploaded a file that stole cryptographic keys.

  4. Using stolen keys, attackers gained persistent administrative access.

  5. From there, they could execute code, steal data, or spread laterally.

With app gating, this attack chain breaks at step one:

  1. Attackers scan the internet → on-prem SharePoint servers aren't directly accessible

  2. No vulnerable endpoints are reachable without Twingate authentication

  3. Even compromised credentials won't help without managed device access

  4. All access attempts are logged with full device and user context

The operational benefits are equally significant:

Traditional response: 2 AM security alerts → emergency patching → service outages → weeks of incident response

Twingate app gating response: Zero-day announced → SharePoint already protected → patches applied during normal maintenance → no unplanned interruptions

For IT admins, this means that a zero-day exploit does not mean immediate emergency work. Instead, critical applications are protected by default and admins can evaluate patches on their own timelines, and not adhere to the attacker agenda. This is critical: by reducing the danger, we enable admins to be more thoughtful, because mistakes happen when we are working under pressure.

Resilience is Security Architecture

The SharePoint incident should prompt every IT organization to evaluate whether their security model can withstand unknown attacks. 

The next zero-day is inevitable. The question is whether you'll be ready with proactive defenses.

Start by identifying highest-risk applications: internet-accessible and business-critical systems.

On-prem SharePoint servers are obvious candidates, but also consider internal admin panels, database interfaces, and development environments that attackers frequently target.

A pilot approach works well: select one critical application, deploy Twingate Connectors, and configure policies for a small user group. Twingate is integrated with identity providers like Okta or Azure AD so you can leverage existing user groups and maintain established SSO workflows for end users.

App gating isn't about replacing patch management, it's about buying time and reducing exposure while patches are developed and tested. App gating is a time machine. It’s a pause button on an adversary.

The broader principle is building systems that assume compromise will happen. Modern security architecture acknowledges some attacks will succeed and focuses on limiting their impact. App gating embodies this philosophy by creating containment boundaries that function regardless of application vulnerabilities.

As attackers are becoming faster and more sophisticated, the organizations that thrive won't be those with perfect patch management. They'll be those with security architectures resilient enough to withstand unknown attacks.

The next ToolShell-style attack is already in development. The question is whether it will find your critical applications exposed to the internet, or protected behind layers of verification that treat every access attempt as potentially hostile until proven otherwise.

Want to get started with modern zero trust? Twingate offers a free plan so you can try it out yourself, or you can request a personalized demo from our team.

And if you’re not quite ready and want to learn more first, you can learn more about App Gating in our docs.

Rapidly implement a modern Zero Trust network that is more secure and maintainable than VPNs.

/

SharePoint Zero-Day

When patching is too late: How App Gating Protects Against Zero-Day Exploits Like SharePoint ToolShell ​​CVE-2025-53770

Emily Lehman

Jul 27, 2025

TlL;DR
Public exploits of undisclosed vulnerabilities are back, just like every week. And this SharePoint zero day is worse than we first thought.

App gating adds a layer of defense that can hide vulnerable servers from Internet threats while you chase patching and updating them. 

If you want to get started, it can be way easier with a modern resource-focused approach to zero trust. You can even test out the approach with a homelab or developer resources, so it’s not a big IT lift just to get started. If you want to dig into the tech straightaway, scroll to the end 🙂

Poor SharePoint. That’s definitely TMI.

Last week was rough: cybersecurity firm Eye Security disclosed a disturbing discovery. Threat actors are actively exploiting two previously unknown vulnerabilities in Microsoft SharePoint via a “ToolShell” attack.

This exploit and the timeline should worry every IT administrator. In May 2025, security researchers demonstrated the original ToolShell vulnerability chain at Pwn2Own Berlin. By July, Microsoft had patched the flaws and additional technical details were published. 

Just days later, attackers launched widespread exploitation using two new zero-day vulnerabilities that completely bypassed Microsoft's patches. Several dozen attacks. 50+ organizations worldwide exploited in the first days. Universities, government agencies, and Fortune 500 companies were impacted. 

The number of victims has grown to over 400 this week and includes the American National Nuclear Security Administration. The growth and nature of these targets is particularly worrisome, because the attacks have evolved from data exfil and remote code execution to ransomware delivery and attackers increasingly appear to be state sponsored.

This is bad, and the whole mess highlights a brutal reality in modern cybersecurity: patching is not enough. There might be too many patches to apply on a given day. Patches might not even be available. And ultimately, attackers consistently move faster than defenders.

We need to get ahead of this problem. We cannot simply make critical services unavailable, as Microsoft recommended, by: “disconnecting your server from the internet until a security update is available.” Or can we? Can we actually disconnect servers from the Internet while keeping the resource available for authorized users? 

App Gating Solves the Patch-and-Pray Nightmare

The SharePoint incident perfectly illustrates the fundamental limits to the current approach to security. Security isn’t this simple: find vulnerabilities, create patches, deploy updates, repeat. The clock is ticking the whole time. We need a way to find time. 

The speed and sophistication of modern attacks demand that we find time fast. The very same AI-fueled productivity gains powering modern development help malicious actors move faster and more effectively.

Consider the treadmill that runs IT teams ragged: The original SharePoint flaws (CVE-2025-49706 and CVE-2025-49704) were:

  • Responsibly disclosed 

  • Thoroughly analyzed

  • Promptly patched by Microsoft 

Yet within days, attackers had developed new exploits (CVE-2025-53770 and CVE-2025-53771), rendering those patches ineffective. This situation isn't an exception. It's becoming the norm. But here's the fundamental problem: you cannot patch unknown vulnerabilities. 

Even organizations with perfect patch management face exposure to zero-day exploits when no patch is available. 

What if we could hide these servers from bad actors? What if we could buy time to patch? What if attackers simply cannot see the systems that they want to exploit?

(Hint, we can. It’s called app gating. And it’s about time we did this everywhere. App gating is the zero trust evolution of the old IP allow-list trick, and it’s a power technique for reducing risk and protecting data.)

How Does App Gating Sift the Attack Surface? 

Firewalls block malicious traffic all day long. And, generally, most policies expose servers to unauthenticated connections, too. 

We don’t have to operate this way. We can move to a  default-deny architecture and only allow verified, authorized access. 

Application gating denies all unauthenticated traffic, sifting the sessions we want while filtering out even exploits of unreported vulnerabilities. 

How Application Gating Works

  • Identity Verification First: Every user and device must authenticate before accessing any application.

  • Policy-Based Access Control: The system evaluates access requests against predefined policies.

  • Application-Level Enforcement: Instead of granting broad network access, zero trust app gating creates secure tunnels or connections directly to specific applications.

  • Continuous Monitoring: The system continuously monitors user behavior and device status throughout the session.

  • Microsegmentation: Applications are isolated from each other, so even if someone gains access to one application, they can't automatically access others.

The concept isn’t new: plenty of organizations have used network segmentation and access controls for years. 

It’s just been too hard to deploy app gating at scale. With traditional tools, the barriers have been significant: 

  • Complex VPN deployments make microsegmentation challenging.

  • Performance bottlenecks from backhauling all traffic, degrade user experience.

  • Operational overhead for admins is just too much to bear.

This leaves many organizations forced to choose between security and productivity. 

A modern and simple approach to app gating changes that. Any solution needs to be easy to deploy: if you can’t get up and running over a lunch break, you’re using the wrong approach.

The latest approaches are easy to manage via GUI or APIs, and they can be automated through an Infrastructure as Code approach. And Twingate, specifically, is fast: up to 86% faster than traditional VPNs. 

Twingate makes app gating easy by taking the “network” out of a zero trust network architecture. Twingate takes a resource focused approach to zero trust, creating multiple verification layers independent of application-level security:

  • Device trust: Managed devices with appropriate security controls only

  • User authorization: Specific authorization required for each resource

  • Network path: Requests must come through approved, monitored access points

  • Security posture: Devices must meet current security requirements

This week, the resource that’s causing us pain is SharePoint. But next week, who knows? 

The beauty of this resource model is its independence from network topologies or addressing schemes and vulnerability knowledge. Attackers simply cannot reach target applications. 

App gating enables us to disconnect servers from the internet. And not just for on-prem applications like the vulnerable SharePoint servers. 

Twingate enables you to gate both on-prem and SaaS apps through a unified approach. The result is enterprise-grade access control (and a layer of defense against new and unpatched exploits) without the traditional trade-offs.

This isn't just about blocking IP addresses. It's about making the target application's entry point invisible on the public internet. Instead of listening on publicly exposed ports, the application traffic is brokered through a secure, authenticated-only conduit established by Twingate Connectors, effectively 'hiding' it from unauthorized scans.

Would App Gating Have Stopped ToolShell?

The actual SharePoint attack was devastatingly simple:

  1. Attackers scanned the internet for SharePoint servers.

  2. A single crafted HTTP request exploited the zero-day.

  3. A malicious request uploaded a file that stole cryptographic keys.

  4. Using stolen keys, attackers gained persistent administrative access.

  5. From there, they could execute code, steal data, or spread laterally.

With app gating, this attack chain breaks at step one:

  1. Attackers scan the internet → on-prem SharePoint servers aren't directly accessible

  2. No vulnerable endpoints are reachable without Twingate authentication

  3. Even compromised credentials won't help without managed device access

  4. All access attempts are logged with full device and user context

The operational benefits are equally significant:

Traditional response: 2 AM security alerts → emergency patching → service outages → weeks of incident response

Twingate app gating response: Zero-day announced → SharePoint already protected → patches applied during normal maintenance → no unplanned interruptions

For IT admins, this means that a zero-day exploit does not mean immediate emergency work. Instead, critical applications are protected by default and admins can evaluate patches on their own timelines, and not adhere to the attacker agenda. This is critical: by reducing the danger, we enable admins to be more thoughtful, because mistakes happen when we are working under pressure.

Resilience is Security Architecture

The SharePoint incident should prompt every IT organization to evaluate whether their security model can withstand unknown attacks. 

The next zero-day is inevitable. The question is whether you'll be ready with proactive defenses.

Start by identifying highest-risk applications: internet-accessible and business-critical systems.

On-prem SharePoint servers are obvious candidates, but also consider internal admin panels, database interfaces, and development environments that attackers frequently target.

A pilot approach works well: select one critical application, deploy Twingate Connectors, and configure policies for a small user group. Twingate is integrated with identity providers like Okta or Azure AD so you can leverage existing user groups and maintain established SSO workflows for end users.

App gating isn't about replacing patch management, it's about buying time and reducing exposure while patches are developed and tested. App gating is a time machine. It’s a pause button on an adversary.

The broader principle is building systems that assume compromise will happen. Modern security architecture acknowledges some attacks will succeed and focuses on limiting their impact. App gating embodies this philosophy by creating containment boundaries that function regardless of application vulnerabilities.

As attackers are becoming faster and more sophisticated, the organizations that thrive won't be those with perfect patch management. They'll be those with security architectures resilient enough to withstand unknown attacks.

The next ToolShell-style attack is already in development. The question is whether it will find your critical applications exposed to the internet, or protected behind layers of verification that treat every access attempt as potentially hostile until proven otherwise.

Want to get started with modern zero trust? Twingate offers a free plan so you can try it out yourself, or you can request a personalized demo from our team.

And if you’re not quite ready and want to learn more first, you can learn more about App Gating in our docs.

Rapidly implement a modern Zero Trust network that is more secure and maintainable than VPNs.

When patching is too late: How App Gating Protects Against Zero-Day Exploits Like SharePoint ToolShell ​​CVE-2025-53770

Emily Lehman

Jul 27, 2025

TlL;DR
Public exploits of undisclosed vulnerabilities are back, just like every week. And this SharePoint zero day is worse than we first thought.

App gating adds a layer of defense that can hide vulnerable servers from Internet threats while you chase patching and updating them. 

If you want to get started, it can be way easier with a modern resource-focused approach to zero trust. You can even test out the approach with a homelab or developer resources, so it’s not a big IT lift just to get started. If you want to dig into the tech straightaway, scroll to the end 🙂

Poor SharePoint. That’s definitely TMI.

Last week was rough: cybersecurity firm Eye Security disclosed a disturbing discovery. Threat actors are actively exploiting two previously unknown vulnerabilities in Microsoft SharePoint via a “ToolShell” attack.

This exploit and the timeline should worry every IT administrator. In May 2025, security researchers demonstrated the original ToolShell vulnerability chain at Pwn2Own Berlin. By July, Microsoft had patched the flaws and additional technical details were published. 

Just days later, attackers launched widespread exploitation using two new zero-day vulnerabilities that completely bypassed Microsoft's patches. Several dozen attacks. 50+ organizations worldwide exploited in the first days. Universities, government agencies, and Fortune 500 companies were impacted. 

The number of victims has grown to over 400 this week and includes the American National Nuclear Security Administration. The growth and nature of these targets is particularly worrisome, because the attacks have evolved from data exfil and remote code execution to ransomware delivery and attackers increasingly appear to be state sponsored.

This is bad, and the whole mess highlights a brutal reality in modern cybersecurity: patching is not enough. There might be too many patches to apply on a given day. Patches might not even be available. And ultimately, attackers consistently move faster than defenders.

We need to get ahead of this problem. We cannot simply make critical services unavailable, as Microsoft recommended, by: “disconnecting your server from the internet until a security update is available.” Or can we? Can we actually disconnect servers from the Internet while keeping the resource available for authorized users? 

App Gating Solves the Patch-and-Pray Nightmare

The SharePoint incident perfectly illustrates the fundamental limits to the current approach to security. Security isn’t this simple: find vulnerabilities, create patches, deploy updates, repeat. The clock is ticking the whole time. We need a way to find time. 

The speed and sophistication of modern attacks demand that we find time fast. The very same AI-fueled productivity gains powering modern development help malicious actors move faster and more effectively.

Consider the treadmill that runs IT teams ragged: The original SharePoint flaws (CVE-2025-49706 and CVE-2025-49704) were:

  • Responsibly disclosed 

  • Thoroughly analyzed

  • Promptly patched by Microsoft 

Yet within days, attackers had developed new exploits (CVE-2025-53770 and CVE-2025-53771), rendering those patches ineffective. This situation isn't an exception. It's becoming the norm. But here's the fundamental problem: you cannot patch unknown vulnerabilities. 

Even organizations with perfect patch management face exposure to zero-day exploits when no patch is available. 

What if we could hide these servers from bad actors? What if we could buy time to patch? What if attackers simply cannot see the systems that they want to exploit?

(Hint, we can. It’s called app gating. And it’s about time we did this everywhere. App gating is the zero trust evolution of the old IP allow-list trick, and it’s a power technique for reducing risk and protecting data.)

How Does App Gating Sift the Attack Surface? 

Firewalls block malicious traffic all day long. And, generally, most policies expose servers to unauthenticated connections, too. 

We don’t have to operate this way. We can move to a  default-deny architecture and only allow verified, authorized access. 

Application gating denies all unauthenticated traffic, sifting the sessions we want while filtering out even exploits of unreported vulnerabilities. 

How Application Gating Works

  • Identity Verification First: Every user and device must authenticate before accessing any application.

  • Policy-Based Access Control: The system evaluates access requests against predefined policies.

  • Application-Level Enforcement: Instead of granting broad network access, zero trust app gating creates secure tunnels or connections directly to specific applications.

  • Continuous Monitoring: The system continuously monitors user behavior and device status throughout the session.

  • Microsegmentation: Applications are isolated from each other, so even if someone gains access to one application, they can't automatically access others.

The concept isn’t new: plenty of organizations have used network segmentation and access controls for years. 

It’s just been too hard to deploy app gating at scale. With traditional tools, the barriers have been significant: 

  • Complex VPN deployments make microsegmentation challenging.

  • Performance bottlenecks from backhauling all traffic, degrade user experience.

  • Operational overhead for admins is just too much to bear.

This leaves many organizations forced to choose between security and productivity. 

A modern and simple approach to app gating changes that. Any solution needs to be easy to deploy: if you can’t get up and running over a lunch break, you’re using the wrong approach.

The latest approaches are easy to manage via GUI or APIs, and they can be automated through an Infrastructure as Code approach. And Twingate, specifically, is fast: up to 86% faster than traditional VPNs. 

Twingate makes app gating easy by taking the “network” out of a zero trust network architecture. Twingate takes a resource focused approach to zero trust, creating multiple verification layers independent of application-level security:

  • Device trust: Managed devices with appropriate security controls only

  • User authorization: Specific authorization required for each resource

  • Network path: Requests must come through approved, monitored access points

  • Security posture: Devices must meet current security requirements

This week, the resource that’s causing us pain is SharePoint. But next week, who knows? 

The beauty of this resource model is its independence from network topologies or addressing schemes and vulnerability knowledge. Attackers simply cannot reach target applications. 

App gating enables us to disconnect servers from the internet. And not just for on-prem applications like the vulnerable SharePoint servers. 

Twingate enables you to gate both on-prem and SaaS apps through a unified approach. The result is enterprise-grade access control (and a layer of defense against new and unpatched exploits) without the traditional trade-offs.

This isn't just about blocking IP addresses. It's about making the target application's entry point invisible on the public internet. Instead of listening on publicly exposed ports, the application traffic is brokered through a secure, authenticated-only conduit established by Twingate Connectors, effectively 'hiding' it from unauthorized scans.

Would App Gating Have Stopped ToolShell?

The actual SharePoint attack was devastatingly simple:

  1. Attackers scanned the internet for SharePoint servers.

  2. A single crafted HTTP request exploited the zero-day.

  3. A malicious request uploaded a file that stole cryptographic keys.

  4. Using stolen keys, attackers gained persistent administrative access.

  5. From there, they could execute code, steal data, or spread laterally.

With app gating, this attack chain breaks at step one:

  1. Attackers scan the internet → on-prem SharePoint servers aren't directly accessible

  2. No vulnerable endpoints are reachable without Twingate authentication

  3. Even compromised credentials won't help without managed device access

  4. All access attempts are logged with full device and user context

The operational benefits are equally significant:

Traditional response: 2 AM security alerts → emergency patching → service outages → weeks of incident response

Twingate app gating response: Zero-day announced → SharePoint already protected → patches applied during normal maintenance → no unplanned interruptions

For IT admins, this means that a zero-day exploit does not mean immediate emergency work. Instead, critical applications are protected by default and admins can evaluate patches on their own timelines, and not adhere to the attacker agenda. This is critical: by reducing the danger, we enable admins to be more thoughtful, because mistakes happen when we are working under pressure.

Resilience is Security Architecture

The SharePoint incident should prompt every IT organization to evaluate whether their security model can withstand unknown attacks. 

The next zero-day is inevitable. The question is whether you'll be ready with proactive defenses.

Start by identifying highest-risk applications: internet-accessible and business-critical systems.

On-prem SharePoint servers are obvious candidates, but also consider internal admin panels, database interfaces, and development environments that attackers frequently target.

A pilot approach works well: select one critical application, deploy Twingate Connectors, and configure policies for a small user group. Twingate is integrated with identity providers like Okta or Azure AD so you can leverage existing user groups and maintain established SSO workflows for end users.

App gating isn't about replacing patch management, it's about buying time and reducing exposure while patches are developed and tested. App gating is a time machine. It’s a pause button on an adversary.

The broader principle is building systems that assume compromise will happen. Modern security architecture acknowledges some attacks will succeed and focuses on limiting their impact. App gating embodies this philosophy by creating containment boundaries that function regardless of application vulnerabilities.

As attackers are becoming faster and more sophisticated, the organizations that thrive won't be those with perfect patch management. They'll be those with security architectures resilient enough to withstand unknown attacks.

The next ToolShell-style attack is already in development. The question is whether it will find your critical applications exposed to the internet, or protected behind layers of verification that treat every access attempt as potentially hostile until proven otherwise.

Want to get started with modern zero trust? Twingate offers a free plan so you can try it out yourself, or you can request a personalized demo from our team.

And if you’re not quite ready and want to learn more first, you can learn more about App Gating in our docs.