Attack path analysis is the process of mapping the routes an attacker could take through a network to reach a valuable target. It looks beyond single vulnerabilities and asks how compromised accounts, exposed services, weak segmentation, and excessive privileges can chain together into a workable intrusion path.
This matters because defenders do not have unlimited time or budget. By identifying the shortest or most likely paths to critical systems, security teams can prioritize fixes that actually reduce risk, such as hardening trust relationships, removing unnecessary access, and improving network segmentation. In real attacks, adversaries often move laterally after an initial foothold, using remote administration tools, reused credentials, or misconfigured pathways. In defense, attack path analysis is often used with graph-based tools, asset inventories, and digital twins to test changes safely, especially in OT environments where live scanning can disrupt operations.