What Is Cloud Application Security?

Cloud application security: An overview

Cloud application security is the practice of protecting cloud-based apps by addressing the specialized risks that arise in cloud environments.

Key aspects of cloud application security include:

• Identifying vulnerabilities and risks within cloud apps.
• Preventing unauthorized access to cloud apps.
• Managing cloud networks to mitigate the risk of network-based attacks.
• Ensuring that data associated with cloud apps is securely stored.
• Preventing “drift” within cloud applications, which could lead to vulnerabilities.

Cloud application security vs. application security

Cloud application security is a component of application security. Whereas application security protects applications of all types, cloud application security focuses on securing apps that run in the cloud.

This is important because, as noted above, cloud-based apps are subject to risks that don’t typically exist in on-prem environments, such as:

• Rapid changes to environment configurations, which increase the chances of oversights that may expose an application to attack.
• Reliance on complex cloud services to deploy applications. The complexity of these services can also make it easy to introduce configuration mistakes that expose an application to attack.
• Lack of a strong network perimeter, since cloud environments can’t be air-gapped or rigidly segmented from the Internet in the way on-prem environments can.

Due to challenges like these, conventional application security tools – such as those that scan apps for vulnerabilities – aren’t enough for securing cloud-based applications because they don’t detect risks and threats that are unique to the cloud. To ensure full security for cloud apps, teams need cloud application security tools that are designed specifically for the cloud.

Why is cloud application security important?

Cloud application security is important because, again, conventional application security tools simply don’t address the unique risks that apply to cloud-based apps. Without cloud application security protections in place, businesses that deploy applications in the cloud are at risk of being compromised due to their inability to protect against threats like API vulnerabilities and insecure IAM configurations.

Note, too, that cloud service providers (CSPs) do little to protect customers from cloud application security risks. Under the terms of shared responsibility models, CSPs secure underlying cloud infrastructure. They also provide certain tools and services (like IAM frameworks) that can help to manage access policies. However, cloud service providers don’t scan cloud applications or configurations to detect risks and threats. They expect their customers to do that.

Common cloud application security threats

To illustrate the types of security problems that cloud application security can help prevent, here’s a look at common cloud application security threats and risks.

Insecure APIs

Most cloud applications rely on APIs to communicate with cloud services and each other. This means that API security flaws, such as missing or weak authentication within APIs, can become a vector for attack. To address this risk, cloud application security tools assess APIs to determine whether they may be vulnerable to attack.

Denial-of-Service attacks

In a Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack, threat actors flood an application with a large volume of requests in an effort to cause it to crash. Stopping such attacks requires the ability to identify malicious requests or traffic patterns, and then configure cloud network policies to block them.

IAM misconfiguration

Most cloud environments use IAM policies to govern access rights to cloud apps. Misconfigurations in these policies could enable access to cloud-based apps or data by malicious parties.

Insecure images

Often, cloud-based apps are deployed as containers based on images. Malware or misconfigurations inside images could lead to application vulnerabilities. To prevent these risks, teams must scan images prior to deploying them. It’s also a best practice to avoid making configuration changes to a cloud app that is running, since this could lead to configuration drift; a better approach is to adopt an immutable infrastructure strategy by deploying new applications based on updated images.

Cloud account hijacking

If threat actors use a technique like phishing to hijack the account that manages cloud resources, they have complete access to cloud apps and data. Organizations can mitigate the risk of this threat using strategies like multi-factor authentication.

Cloud application security best practices

While simply having a plan in place for securing cloud-based apps is the first step toward ensuring cloud application security, businesses should consider additional best practices to make cloud apps as secure as possible:

• Minimize the attack surface: Because cloud-based applications face a wide variety of potential risks, it’s especially important in the cloud to avoid deploying unnecessary resources that broaden your attack surface. For example, if you deploy a cloud app for testing purposes, shut it down as soon as testing is complete so that it won’t remain a potential target for threat actors.
• Least privilege: Adopting the principle of least privilege helps prevent scenarios where users have unnecessary access rights within cloud environments, which threat actors could potentially abuse if they manage to compromise user accounts.
• Network segmentation: Although most cloud environments can’t be completely separated from the Internet, you can enforce network segmentation policies that isolate cloud applications at the network level. Doing so helps prevent breaches from spreading.
• Enable encryption by default: Some cloud services don’t encrypt data by default, which makes it easier for attackers to access sensitive information. Mitigate this risk by enabling options to encrypt cloud-based data automatically.
• Dynamic threat analysis: Because cloud environments continuously change, there is often no baseline against which you can detect anomalies. Instead, teams should adopt Dynamic Threat Analysis (DTA) techniques, which by applying a sandboxing technique can detect threats that static analysis or periodic scans would miss.
• Address compliance: Maintaining and monitoring regulatory compliance (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI DSS) is crucial for many businesses. Ensuring that cloud application security strategies align with these regulatory requirements helps mitigate legal and financial risks while protecting sensitive data.

Cloud application security with Aqua

As a security platform built especially for the cloud, Aqua delivers the protections you need to secure cloud applications and data. No matter how you deploy apps in the cloud – from cloud servers, to containers, to serverless functions and beyond – Aqua provides a comprehensive set of code-to-cloud security capabilities to keep your applications safe.