The Most Common Cloud Security Findings
Cloud security assessments across thousands of organizations reveal consistent patterns of security gaps. Understanding these common findings helps organizations anticipate what they'll likely discover in their own assessments and prioritize remediation efforts.
The landscape of cloud security findings has shifted somewhat over the years. In the early days of cloud adoption, many findings related to basic misconfiguration of cloud services. While misconfiguration remains a top finding, the nature of issues has become more sophisticated as organizations mature in their cloud usage. However, many organizations still struggle with fundamental security practices.
Misconfiguration Issues
Misconfiguration is consistently the most common finding across cloud security assessments. Misconfiguration includes any deviation from secure baseline settings that creates security gaps.
One of the most frequently discovered misconfiguration issues involves overly permissive storage bucket settings. Cloud storage services like AWS S3, Azure Blob Storage, and Google Cloud Storage are designed to be accessible, but they're often misconfigured to be publicly readable or writable. An example is an S3 bucket that should only be accessible to internal applications but is instead accessible to the entire internet. This simple misconfiguration has led to some of the largest data breaches in cloud history.
Database exposure is another common misconfiguration finding. Organizations frequently deploy databases to the cloud and leave them accessible to the internet without proper authentication. A database accessible to 0.0.0.0/0 (all internet addresses) without strong authentication is a critical vulnerability. This finding appears frequently because database configuration can be complex, and security is sometimes overlooked during initial deployment.
Security group and firewall misconfiguration represents another major category. Security groups control network access to cloud resources. Organizations frequently create overly permissive rules that allow unnecessary network access. For example, a web server might be accessible on all ports from all IP addresses when it should only be accessible on port 80 and 443 from legitimate sources.
Virtual machine and compute instance misconfiguration is also common. This includes instances running unnecessary services, instances exposed to the internet unnecessarily, instances running outdated operating systems without security patches, and instances without proper monitoring enabled.
Access Control and Identity Management Gaps
Inadequate access control represents the second major category of common findings. Access control determines who can do what within your cloud environment, making it fundamental to security.
Excessive permissions are frequently found during assessments. Users and service accounts often have more permissions than necessary to perform their job functions. This violates the principle of least privilege, which states that users should have only the minimum permissions needed to accomplish their work. Excessive permissions increase risk because if an account is compromised, attackers gain more capabilities.
Shared credentials are another common finding, particularly in smaller organizations. Using shared passwords, shared API keys, or shared service accounts makes it impossible to track who performed what actions. It also means that if the shared credential is compromised, multiple users' access may be affected, and determining the scope of damage is difficult.
Dormant or inactive accounts remaining enabled is a frequent issue. As organizations change, employees leave, roles change, and people move between teams. Sometimes old accounts are forgotten and left active. An inactive account that hasn't been used in months still provides an access path for attackers if compromised.
Weak authentication practices are common, particularly multi-factor authentication (MFA) not being enforced. While many organizations enable MFA, not all do. Some organizations enable MFA for some users but not others, creating inconsistent security. MFA significantly reduces risk from credential compromise, making widespread enforcement important.
Data Protection Weaknesses
Data protection findings are particularly serious because they directly relate to organizational risk from data breaches.
Missing or inadequate encryption is a common finding. Some organizations fail to encrypt sensitive data at rest, while others encrypt some data but not others. Additionally, many organizations fail to enforce encryption in transit, allowing unencrypted data transmission. Encryption should be consistently applied across all sensitive data.
Inadequate key management practices frequently appear in assessments. Encryption is only effective if keys are properly managed. Common key management issues include unencrypted key storage, inadequate key rotation, and lack of access controls on encryption keys. Some organizations even store encryption keys adjacent to encrypted data, defeating the purpose of encryption.
Poor backup and recovery practices are common findings. Organizations often lack adequate backup procedures, have insufficient backup retention periods, or lack recovery testing. Backups are critical for recovering from ransomware, malware, and other disasters, making this finding serious.
Inadequate data classification is frequently found. Many organizations don't have clear data classification schemes or policies. Without classification, it's difficult to determine what data needs encryption, what data should be restricted, or what data requires additional protection.
Logging and Monitoring Gaps
Limited logging and monitoring capability is a critical common finding. Without comprehensive logging, organizations lack visibility into what's happening in their environment.
Logging not enabled for critical services is frequently found. Organizations might enable logging for some services but not others. For example, they might log storage access but not database queries, or log network activity but not identity and access management activities. Comprehensive logging should cover all critical systems.
Logs not being retained for adequate periods is another common issue. Compliance requirements often specify log retention periods (e.g., 90 days, one year, or longer). Organizations sometimes retain logs for insufficient periods, making incident investigation and forensics difficult.
Inadequate log monitoring and alerting is frequently identified. Collecting logs is not sufficient without analyzing them. Organizations that collect logs but don't actively monitor them for suspicious activities lack the visibility needed to detect ongoing attacks. Effective alerting on suspicious patterns is important for timely incident response.
Centralized logging not implemented is another common gap. Organizations with distributed logging (each system storing its own logs locally) face challenges with log analysis and incident investigation. Centralized logging solutions allow organization-wide visibility.
Compliance and Policy Gaps
Compliance-related findings represent a significant category of common issues.
Security policies and procedures not documented is frequently found, particularly in smaller organizations. Written policies serve multiple purposes: they communicate security expectations, they provide guidance for staff, they support audit and compliance, and they establish organizational standards.
Security policies documented but not communicated to staff is another common issue. A policy that exists but isn't known by employees doesn't provide the intended protection. Security awareness requires that security expectations are clearly communicated.
Incomplete or inadequate incident response planning is frequently identified. Organizations need clear procedures for detecting, responding to, and recovering from security incidents. Without these procedures, response to incidents is often chaotic and less effective.
Inadequate vulnerability management is a common finding. Organizations need processes for identifying, prioritizing, and remediating vulnerabilities. Without structured vulnerability management, critical vulnerabilities often remain unpatched for extended periods.
Patch Management Issues
Lack of timely patch application is a frequent finding. Software vulnerabilities are regularly discovered and patched by vendors. Organizations that don't apply security patches quickly remain vulnerable to exploitation.
No patch management process or documentation is frequently identified, particularly for cloud infrastructure. Cloud environments often include many systems requiring patches. Without a formal patch management process, patches are applied inconsistently or not at all.
Inability to track patch status across the environment is another common issue. Organizations may patch some systems but lack visibility into which systems have been patched and which remain unpatched. This visibility gap creates risk.
Why These Findings Are Common
Understanding why these findings are common helps organizations prevent them in their own environments.
Complexity of cloud environments contributes to misconfiguration issues. Modern cloud environments involve numerous services, each with their own configuration options. Keeping all configurations secure requires discipline, process, and often automation.
Rapid deployment priorities sometimes override security considerations. Organizations eager to deploy applications quickly may skip security configuration steps. Establishing security-first deployment processes helps prevent this.
Lack of cloud security expertise is a factor for many organizations. Cloud security requires specific knowledge and skills. Organizations lacking cloud security expertise are more likely to make configuration mistakes and miss best practices.
Insufficient automation of security controls leads to inconsistent implementation. Manual processes are error-prone and don't scale well. Organizations that automate security configurations and continuous compliance checking are more likely to maintain consistent security posture.
Preventing Common Findings
The good news is that most common findings are preventable through established practices.
Implement security baselines and hardening standards for cloud services. Define what secure configuration looks like for your environment and implement these consistently.
Use infrastructure-as-code (IaC) to deploy cloud resources consistently. IaC makes it easier to implement security baselines and prevents manual misconfiguration.
Implement automated compliance scanning. Tools that continuously scan your cloud environment for misconfigurations provide ongoing visibility and alert on new issues as they occur.
Establish and enforce access control policies. Use principle of least privilege, enforce MFA, and regularly review access permissions.
Implement comprehensive logging and monitoring. Ensure all critical systems are logged, logs are retained adequately, and logs are actively monitored.
Develop and communicate security policies and procedures. Document your organization's security expectations and ensure all staff understand them.
Establish a vulnerability management process. Identify vulnerabilities, prioritize them based on risk, and remediate them in a timely manner.
Regular assessment is important for identifying gaps and tracking improvement over time. Understanding common findings helps organizations recognize issues in their own environments and prioritize remediation efforts effectively.
