Transforming Bug Triage into Training: Inside the Making of Immersive AppSec Range Exercises
“We all know the pain of bug reports clogging up a sprint—we thought, what if we could transform that drain on time and morale into a challenge developers are excited to tackle?” Rebecca: Oh, I love that—turning bug backlog dread into bite-sized victories is brilliant. I’m excited to hear more, but first, congratulations on launching Immersive AppSec Range Exercises! This is a BIG deal! No one else does anything like this for developers. Naomi: Thanks! What can I say? My love for cybersecurity goes back to university capture-the-flag events. Pushing yourself outside your comfort zone with hands-on challenges is by far the fastest way to learn. My main goal was to bring that same energy to application security—there are loads of CTFs for pentesters, but not really for developers who need to sharpen their defensive and remediation skills. I also wanted this to be inherently team-friendly. Our individual AppSec labs are built for individual learning, but group dynamics demand different pacing and collaboration tools. Rebecca: Makes total sense. Offensive skills get the headlines, but developers need a solid, team-centric defensive playground too. So how did you translate that vision into the actual structure of our AppSec Range Exercises? Naomi: I anchored everything in the maintenance phase of the software lifecycle: Receive bug → Triage → Fix → Test → Merge. That mirrors real dev workflows, so participants don’t just patch vulnerabilities—they live the ticket management, version control, and testing cadence they’ll face on the job. [Inside scoop: When we build any security exercise, our team maps it to a real-world experience. In Immersive AppSec Range Exercises, a common SDLC workflow—teams learn best when they see exactly how it will play out in their daily sprints. ] Rebecca: I love that you’re training both mindset and muscle memory—jumping through the same process you’d use in production. Once you had that flow, what were the first steps to bring the framework to life? Naomi: Well, I knew that this project was going to need quite a few applications to house the functionality for the exercises, so I audited what we’d need from scratch versus what open source could handle. For ticketing, most OSS Kanban tools were overkill, so I built a lightweight app called Sprinter. Then for version control, we leaned on GitLab—it was quick to stand up and gave a familiar UI for branching and merges. Once those pieces clicked—vulnerabilities surfacing in Sprinter, code pushes in GitLab, and test runs in the Verification view—we had a minimally viable range exercise in action. Rebecca: A smart “build-what-you-must, borrow-where-you-can” approach. Seeing that prototype come together must’ve been so cool. Naomi: Absolutely. It was one thing to design on paper, but watching the pipeline live—tickets flow in Sprinter, GitLab merge requests, automatic test feedback—was a genuine “wow” moment. Rebecca: Speaking of “wow,” let’s talk scenarios. How did you land on “Blossom,” your vulnerable HR app in the Orchid Corp universe? Naomi: Well, we needed something with enough complexity to showcase the framework. HR apps hit three sweet spots: business logic richness, varied user roles, and sensitive data. Tying it into Orchid Corp—our fictional corporation for Immersive Cyber Drills—gave it narrative depth, especially for returning users of our Immersive One platform. Rebecca: And when you designed the actual vulnerabilities inside Blossom, what guided your choices? Naomi: I started with the OWASP API Top 10—that’s our gold standard for spotting the biggest threats. Then I looked at what slips through most scanners and frameworks—nuanced business-logic flaws and edge-case logic bugs—and made those the core of the challenge. To keep things well-rounded, I also added a few classics—things like IDOR, SSRF, and command injection—so every player gets a taste of both modern pitfalls and time-tested exploits. [Inside scoop: Mixing modern, real-world API flaws with a few known “gotchas” keeps Immersive AppSec learners guessing and builds confidence when they spot the unexpected.] Rebecca: I know you’re busy working on the next exercises we’ll release, but before we wrap, how did you test Blossom among developers and engineers? No doubt you wanted to make sure it delivered the right experience! Naomi: Yes, absolutely! We ran a pilot with our own Immersive engineers and a third party, creating a realistic dev team. Watching them collaborate—triaging, patching, merging—validated every piece of the design. Their feedback on pacing and hint levels let us polish the final release. It was one of my favourite days—seeing months of work click into place. After that, we shipped it to customers knowing it was battle-tested. Rebecca: This has been fantastic—thank you for sharing your full planning and development journey, Naomi! From initial vision to a live, collaborative exercise … I’m awed. You certainly put incredible thought and care into developing this revolutionary approach to AppSec training. Final Thought Security is a team sport, and training like Immersive AppSec Range Exercises is the fast track to confident, resilient DevSecOps teams. If you’re a developer or engineer looking to level up your remediation skills, have your team lead reach out to your Account Manager for a demo. In the meantime, watch a sneak peek of what your experience would be like in this demo below:New CTI Labs: Threat Actors Akira and DragonForce
These labs will highlight the background and TTPs of Akira, a highly prolific threat actor with indiscriminate targeting, and DragonForce, a ransomware actor recently in the news, connected to the attacks on M&S, Co-op, and Harrods. Why are these labs important? Akira is one of the most prolific threat actors that does not discriminate in its targeting. It often targets medium to large enterprises worldwide, with a strong focus on North America and Europe, including the UK. This means that no one is exempt from Akira's targeting in the future, so knowing your TTPs and how to prepare for attacks from threat actors is paramount to keeping your organization safe. Throughout late April 2025, DragonForce has been all over the news since they claimed responsibility for being involved in the attacks against Marks and Spencer, Co-Op, and Harrods in the UK. The information in the labs reflects DragonForce's latest known TTPs and helps customers to stay one step ahead of actors like DragonForce. Who are these labs for? These labs deliver the latest information relating to threat actors and their TTPs. The personas who would benefit the most from these labs are: Cyber Threat Intelligence Analysts SOC Analysts Incident Responders Threat Hunters Here are the links to the labs: Threat Actors: Akira Ransomware Groups: DragonForceNew CTI Lab: CVE-2025-35433 (Erlang SSH): Offensive
On April 16, 2025, a critical vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-32433, was disclosed in the Erlang/OTP SSH server. This critical vulnerability allows unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected systems by sending specially crafted SSH messages before authentication. After these messages have been sent, attackers have code execution on the victim machine. This lab will walk you through the mechanics of this vulnerability, helping you understand its implications and learn how an attacker could exploit it. Why is this lab important? Given Erlang's widespread use in telecommunications, IoT, and distributed systems, this vulnerability poses a significant risk to victims in multiple sectors and industries. Customers using Erlang should assess its vulnerability status and patch as soon as practicable. Who is this lab for? This lab is an offensive CTI lab, so it primarily benefits penetration testers and red teamers. That said, it's still incredibly valuable for defensive personas as well, so they can see how the attack could work. These personas include: SOC Analysts Incident Responders Threat Hunters Here is the link to the lab: https://iml.immersivelabs.online/v2/labs/cve-2025-35433-erlang-ssh-offensiveNew CTI Labs: CVE-2025-31161 (CrushFTP): Defensive and CVE-2025-31161 (CrushFTP): Offensive
On the 7th April 2025, a vulnerability in the CrushFTP was added to the CISA Kev Catalogue, CrushFTP is an enterprise FTP solution with tens of thousands of instances publicly accessible online. Recent reporting has confirmed that since a proof-of-concept dropped, there has been an uptick in this vulnerability being exploited in the wild. Successful exploitation of this critical vulnerability allows attackers to achieve code execution, file upload, and download, as well as create backdoor accounts. Why should our customers care? As a critical vulnerability with a CVSS base score of 9.8, with no user interaction required, this vulnerability represents a significant impact to customers using CrushFTP or other, similar file transfer solutions. The addition of vulnerabilities to the CISA KEV catalog shows how serious it is and how important it is to patch against the vulnerability, given that the attacker could upload files, achieve persistently, and backdoors onto the server. Who is it for? Incident responders SOC analyst CTI Analysts Threat Hunters Penetration Testers System Administrators Here are the links to the labs: CVE-2025-31161 (CrushFTP): Offensive CVE-2025-31161 (CrushFTP): Defensive In addition, we've released a proof-of-concept script to demonstrate how an attacker could exploit this vulnerability: https://github.com/Immersive-Labs-Sec/CVE-2025-31161New CTI Labs: Water Gamayun: (CVE-2025-26633) Campaign Analysis
Water Gamayun, also known as EncryptHub and Larva-208, is a threat actor (suspected to be of Russian origin) that has been observed exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in the Microsoft Management Console (MMC). This vulnerability has been dubbed MSC EvilTwin and assigned CVE-2025-26633. This lab takes you through the campaign, explaining how the vulnerability works to allow the attacker to silently execute malicious code, and what actions on objective the threat actor performs. Why should our customers care? EncryptHub has been reported to have breached over 618 organizations to deploy StealC, SilentPrism, and ransomware for the purposes of maintaining persistence, stealing data, and causing severe operational disruption; therefore, our customers should be mindful of this threat actor and their tactics. Their use of a zero day vulnerability shows how standard Windows configurations can be abused by threat actors to silently transport this malware into a victims environment to allow attackers to fulfil their operational objectives. Who is it for? Incident responders SOC analyst CTI Analysts Threat Hunters Here is the link to the campaign analysis lab: https://immersivelabs.online/labs/water-gamayun-campaign-analysisNew CTI Labs: Threat Actors: Salt Typhoon – SNAPPYBEE Campaign Analysis & Threat Actors: Salt Typhoon
Salt Typhoon has been a threat actor that has caused a lot of worry for defensive teams all over the world. They are a threat actor group which has been predominately targeting Telecommunication companies. They have been in the media a lot over the past few months for their hacks on telecommunication companies in the US.Immersive were finally able to get access to some of the malware samples, as more get released we shall cover more of the campaigns. Threat Actors: Salt Typhoon This lab takes the user through who Salt Typhoon are, what their techniques, tactics, and procedures are, and who they target. Discussing their previous campaigns in depth and why they are so feared as a group. Salt Typhoon: SNAPPYBEE Campaign Analysis Many of our customers want to learn how salt typhoons operate. This lab shows people how to start hunting for them inside a network, taking our users through the different stages, techniques, and tactics they use and how to identify them for detection. Why should our customers care? Salt Typhoon are a big threat to telecommunication companies around the world. Their main focus is to be in a network and perform cyber espionage without being detected. They largely operate inside networks without being detected for a long time, sometimes even months to a year. Our customers need to proactively understand what this threat is and how to start monitoring for them in their network. Who is it for? Incident responders SOC analyst CTI Analysts Threat Hunters Here is the link to the threat actor lab: https://immersivelabs.online/labs/threat-actors-salt-typhoon Here is the link to the campaign analysis lab: https://immersivelabs.online/v2/labs/salt-typhoon-campaign-analysisNew CTI Lab: CVE-2025-0411 (7-ZIP MoTW bypass) – Defensive
The Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) team at Trend Micro identified the exploitation of a zero-day vulnerability in the 7-ZIP application dubbed CVE-2025-0411, which was used in a SmokeLoader malware campaign targeting eastern European entities. 7zip is used all over the world by individuals and organizations, so it's essential users understand this campaign. CVE-2025-0411 (7-ZIP MoTW bypass) – Defensive CVE-2025-0411 is a Mark-of-the-Web (MoTW) bypass vulnerability that exists within 7 ZIP installations with a version older than 24.09. This vulnerability allows attackers to bypass the MoTW protection mechanism employed by the Windows operating system, designed to warn users after downloading potentially malicious software. Bypassing MoTW for attackers increases the chances of successful phishing attempts, which is one of the largest ways attackers get into organizations. Due to MoTW being bypassed, users are not warned of potential malicious intent if they were to execute files. Because of this, attackers spend a lot of time trying to find different MoTW vulnerabilities and are often patched in Microsoft's patch Tuesdays due to their prevalence. Why should you care? Bypassing security controls is ideal for attackers. If their downloaded files do not get warned against by Windows, then the chances of successful attack chain execution is much higher! Therefore, we created a lab to identify what this attack process looks like for defensive teams and how to identify each stage. The lab teaches you what to look out for when this vulnerability is exploited and how campaigns have used it in the real world. Who is it for? Incident responders SOC analyst Malware reverse engineers CTI Analysts Threat Hunters Here is the link to the 7zip lab: https://immersivelabs.com/labs/cve-2025-0411-7-zip-motw-bypass-defensive Related Labs, designed to give you similar skills: https://immersivelabs.online/series/elasticsearch-threat-hunting-apt29/labs https://immersivelabs.online/series/introduction-to-elastic/labsNew CTI Labs: Zero-day Behaviour: PDF Samples & UAC-0063 Intrusion: SIEM Analysis
Based on the report released by NCSC's CTO, a number of important cyber security developments occurred throughout the past week. We have created two labs on what we thought were interesting parts of the report to align with what NCSC is seeing out in the wild. Zero-day Behaviour: PDF Samples PDFs are used by everyone, and a researcher has found that you can embed commands that will communicate out to attacker-controlled servers – depending on which PDF reader a company has, you can exfiltrate NTLM data to aid in further attacks. PDFs can be used to initial access an attack, such as sending a malicious one via email. Therefore, we have created a lab for defensive teams to analyze what these PDFs look like under the hood and how to identify this newly found behavior. UAC-0063 Intrusion: SIEM Analysis It has been observed that the threat group UAC-0063 has been sending malicious documents around the world, targeting Asia and Eastern Europe in their latest operation. Their aim is cyber espionage and to gather information about governments, NGOs, defense, and academia. With their malware dubbed HATVIBE, they have been seen to use legitimate diplomatic documents with their malicious code embedded inside them. The lab provides an analysis of the attack chain, where our customers will understand what happens when one of the malicious documents is clicked on and what detections can be put in place to detect the attack. Why should our customers care? These two labs are based on information that the NCSC has thought the industry needs to know. Understanding the updated attack techniques of threat groups and new ways to execute commands in PDFs is incredibly important because social engineering is still one of the highest methods of initial access. Therefore, our customers will be able to analyze both these threats to develop detections early or to gain familiarity with how these threats work. Who is it for? Incident responders SOC analyst Malware reverse engineers CTI Analysts Threat Hunters Here is the link to the PDF lab: https://immersivelabs.online/labs/zero-day-behaviour-pdf-samples Here is the link to the UAC-0063 lab: https://immersivelabs.online/labs/uac-0063-siem-analysisNew Team Sim Content: (Defensive) Operation Vulpes
Operation Vulpes is a defensive scenario and marks a return of using Splunk as the SIEM solution. This scenario sees Orchid Corporation reeling from the aftermath of a ransomware attack. Defenders will need to determine the attacker's path to compromise and infect the network and use information provided by a law enforcement agency to attempt to recover files. Users will need to use a variety of tools and defensive disciplines to solve the scenario – not just the SIEM solution. This sim also utilizes our new user noise generation framework to simulate user web browsing activity on end-user devices. This spawns the Edge browser as a domain user and visits internal and external websites to add additional noise to logs collected by Splunk. Why have we created this content? This Team Sim adds a level of complexity and realism by introducing actual ransomware. So you and your teams can exercise and prepare for the worst-case scenario. (Please be aware that Immersive Labs created the ransomware for exercise purposes only and includes failsafes to control its execution.) In addition, the sim uses popular tools within security stacks, so the simulation is true to life. What are we publishing? A new Team Sim exercise, Operation Vulpes, which will be viewable in the Team Sim catalog for all Team Sim customers. Who is this content for? This Team Sim is primarily focused on testing the defensive and technical capabilities of the following roles: SOC analysts Incident responders Threat hunters Check it out now!
