CNAPP
CNAPP stands for Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform. It's a comprehensive, all-in-one security solution to protect cloud-native applications throughout their entire lifecycle, from development (code) to production (runtime).
Here's a detailed breakdown:
Why CNAPP is Needed:
The rise of cloud-native applications, which leverage technologies like microservices, containers (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes), and serverless functions, introduced new security challenges that traditional security tools struggled to address. These challenges include:
Expanded Attack Surface: Distributed architectures and extensive use of APIs create more potential entry points for attackers.
Rapid Development Cycles (DevOps/DevSecOps): Security needs to be integrated early and continuously, rather than being an afterthought.
Dynamic and Ephemeral Environments: Cloud resources constantly change, making maintaining a consistent security posture challenging.
Tool Sprawl and Siloed Security: Organizations often use multiple point solutions for different aspects of cloud security, leading to complexity, alert fatigue, and visibility gaps.
What CNAPP Does (Key Capabilities and Components):
CNAPP consolidates various cloud security capabilities into a unified platform, providing end-to-end protection. While specific implementations may vary, a comprehensive CNAPP typically integrates:
Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM):
Continuously monitors cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP, etc.) for misconfigurations, compliance violations, and security risks.
It helps ensure that cloud resources are configured according to best security practices and regulatory requirements (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA, PCI-DSS).
Provides visibility into non-compliant resources and helps prioritize remediation.
Cloud Workload Protection Platform (CWPP):
Secures cloud workloads, including virtual machines (VMs), containers, and serverless functions.
It offers vulnerability scanning, runtime protection, and behavioral monitoring to detect and prevent threats such as malware, zero-day exploits, and unauthorized access.
Can use both agent-based (for deeper visibility) and agentless (for broader coverage) approaches.
Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM):
Manages and monitors identities and access entitlements across cloud environments.
It helps enforce the principle of least privilege, ensuring that users and services have only the necessary permissions to perform their tasks, thereby reducing the attack surface.
Identifies over-privileged or dormant identities that could be exploited.
Kubernetes Security Posture Management (KSPM):
Specifically, it focuses on securing Kubernetes environments and configurations.
Identifies misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, and compliance issues within Kubernetes clusters.
Data Security Posture Management (DSPM):
Focuses on securing sensitive data across various cloud repositories.
Helps identify, classify, and protect data, ensuring compliance with data privacy regulations.
Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Security:
Integrates into the CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery) pipeline.
Scan IaC templates (e.g., Terraform, CloudFormation) for misconfigurations and vulnerabilities before they are deployed to the cloud ("shift left" security). This allows developers to fix issues early, saving time and resources.
Cloud Detection and Response (CDR):
Provides real-time threat detection and response capabilities within cloud environments.
Uses advanced analytics and machine learning to identify anomalies and suspicious activities that may indicate a security incident.
Helps security teams respond quickly to threats and minimize their impact.
Benefits of CNAPP:
Unified Security: Consolidates multiple security tools into a single platform, simplifying management and reducing complexity.
End-to-End Protection: Covers the entire application lifecycle, from development to production.
Enhanced Visibility: Provides a holistic view of security risks across multi-cloud and hybrid environments.
Improved Security Posture: Helps identify and remediate vulnerabilities and misconfigurations more effectively.
"Shift Left" Security: Integrates security into the early stages of the development process, making fixing issues easier and less costly.
Automated Security and Compliance: Automates security scans, policy enforcement, and compliance checks, improving efficiency and reducing manual effort.
Faster Incident Response: Provides contextual insights and real-time alerts, enabling quicker detection and response to threats.
Better Collaboration: Fosters collaboration between development, operations, and security teams (DevSecOps).
CNAPP aims to provide a proactive, integrated, and automated approach to cloud-native application security, enabling organizations to build, deploy, and run secure applications in dynamic cloud environments.
ThreatNG, as an external attack surface management (EASM), digital risk protection (DRP), and security ratings solution, significantly complements and enhances a Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) by providing crucial external visibility and intelligence. CNAPP focuses on securing the cloud-native application lifecycle from within, while ThreatNG offers an outside-in perspective, identifying risks that originate from an organization's publicly accessible assets.
Here's how ThreatNG's capabilities create powerful synergies with CNAPP:
1. External Discovery: Enhancing CNAPP's Holistic View
ThreatNG's ability to perform purely external, unauthenticated discovery without connectors is a key differentiator. This means it can map an organization's internet-facing assets—including domains, subdomains, IPs, and associated technologies—just as an attacker would, without needing access to internal cloud environments. This external context is invaluable for a CNAPP:
Complementing CNAPP's Internal Asset Inventory: While CNAPP discovers and secures cloud workloads, containers, and serverless functions within the cloud infrastructure, ThreatNG identifies publicly exposed assets that might be connected to these cloud resources or represent shadow IT that CNAPP might not initially see. For example, ThreatNG might discover a forgotten subdomain pointing to an unsanctioned cloud storage bucket, which a CNAPP could then be configured to monitor more closely once identified.
Identifying Blind Spots: ThreatNG can uncover publicly exposed development environments, unpatched web servers, or misconfigured DNS records that could lead to initial access for attackers, none of which a CNAPP focused on internal cloud posture might immediately detect.
2. External Assessment: Prioritizing Risks and Validating CNAPP Effectiveness
ThreatNG's detailed external assessment ratings provide actionable intelligence that helps CNAPP solutions prioritize internal remediation efforts and validate the effectiveness of their security controls. ThreatNG performs various assessments:
Web Application Hijack Susceptibility: ThreatNG analyzes external parts of a web application using domain intelligence to identify potential entry points for attackers. This can reveal exposed administrative interfaces or vulnerable API endpoints. For instance, if ThreatNG identifies a web application hosted in the cloud with known vulnerabilities that could lead to hijacking, a CNAPP can then be used to scan the underlying cloud workload for those specific vulnerabilities, apply patches, and enforce stricter access controls.
Subdomain Takeover Susceptibility: ThreatNG evaluates this by analyzing subdomains, DNS records, and SSL certificate statuses. If ThreatNG detects a susceptible subdomain, it provides a critical alert that helps the CNAPP team investigate if the corresponding cloud resource has been decommissioned improperly or if its DNS records are misconfigured, preventing potential attacker control.
BEC & Phishing Susceptibility: Derived from sentiment, financials, domain intelligence (DNS permutations, Web3 domains, email security presence), and dark web presence (compromised credentials). This informs a CNAPP by highlighting external risks that could lead to compromised cloud user accounts. For example, if ThreatNG uncovers compromised credentials on the dark web, a CNAPP's CIEM (Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management) module can immediately flag those users for multi-factor authentication enforcement or password resets, preventing lateral movement within the cloud environment.
Brand Damage Susceptibility: This is derived from attack surface intelligence, digital risk intelligence, ESG violations, sentiment, financials (lawsuits, SEC filings, negative news), and domain intelligence. While not directly a technical vulnerability, if ThreatNG identifies negative sentiment or legal issues tied to a cloud-hosted service, it can prompt a CNAPP to perform a deeper dive into the security posture of that specific service to prevent further incidents.
Data Leak Susceptibility: Based on cloud and SaaS exposure, dark web presence (compromised credentials), domain intelligence, and sentiment/financials. ThreatNG identifies exposed cloud buckets or sensitive data in code repositories and directly informs a CNAPP. The CNAPP's CSPM (Cloud Security Posture Management) module can confirm and remediate the misconfigured buckets. At the same time, its IaC (Infrastructure as Code) security can prevent similar exposures in future deployments.
Cyber Risk Exposure: Considers domain intelligence parameters like certificates, subdomain headers, vulnerabilities, and sensitive ports. Code secret exposure, which involves discovering code repositories and sensitive data within their contents, is also a factor. Cloud and SaaS Exposure evaluates cloud services and SaaS solutions, and compromised credentials on the dark web also increase risk. If ThreatNG flags an exposed sensitive port on a cloud-hosted server, a CNAPP's CWPP (Cloud Workload Protection Platform) can monitor traffic to that port, and its CSPM can recommend firewall rule adjustments. If code secret exposure is detected, the CNAPP can help automate the removal of credentials from code and enforce secure coding practices.
ESG Exposure: Rates organizations based on discovered environmental, social, and governance violations. While CNAPP is technical security, ESG issues can arise from inadequate data privacy or security practices, prompting CNAPP users to ensure compliance within their cloud environments.
Supply Chain & Third-Party Exposure: Derived from domain intelligence (vendor technology enumeration), technology stack, and cloud/SaaS exposure. ThreatNG can identify third-party cloud services or APIs used by an organization. A CNAPP can then focus its CIEM on managing access to these third-party services and ensuring secure integration.
Breach & Ransomware Susceptibility: Calculated from external attack surface, digital risk intelligence (exposed sensitive ports, private IPs, vulnerabilities), dark web presence (compromised credentials, ransomware events), and sentiment/financials (SEC Form 8-Ks). ThreatNG detecting ransomware gang activity or compromised credentials on the dark web can trigger a CNAPP's CDR (Cloud Detection and Response) capabilities to monitor for unusual activity patterns indicative of a ransomware attack within the cloud environment.
Mobile App Exposure: Evaluates an organization's mobile app exposure through discovery in marketplaces and checks for access credentials, security credentials, and platform-specific identifiers within the app's contents. Suppose ThreatNG finds exposed API keys or sensitive credentials within a mobile app. In that case, the CNAPP can review the corresponding cloud APIs and services for proper authentication and authorization, ensuring these exposed keys are invalid or have limited permissions.
3. Reporting: Informed Decision-Making for CNAPP Operations
ThreatNG provides various reports, including Executive, Technical, Prioritized (High, Medium, Low, Informational), Security Ratings, Inventory, Ransomware Susceptibility, and U.S. SEC Filings. These reports offer a clear picture of external risks that directly influence CNAPP priorities:
Prioritized Remediation: ThreatNG's prioritized reports allow CNAPP teams to focus on the most critical external risks, ensuring that internal cloud security efforts align with the most pressing external threats.
Compliance and Audit Readiness: Reports on compliance and SEC filings can help CNAPP users demonstrate their external security posture during audits, complementing the internal compliance reporting provided by the CNAPP.
4. Continuous Monitoring: Proactive Risk Management
ThreatNG monitors an organization's external attack surface, digital risk, and security ratings. This continuous feedback loop is vital for a dynamic cloud environment:
Real-time Threat Intelligence: As the external attack surface changes, ThreatNG provides immediate alerts. For example, if a new cloud-hosted service is accidentally exposed, ThreatNG will flag it, prompting the CNAPP to assess its internal security configurations and apply necessary controls.
Detecting Configuration Drifts: Continuous monitoring can identify when external exposure changes due to a misconfiguration in the cloud, even if the CNAPP's internal policies were initially correct. This acts as an external validation of the CNAPP's ongoing effectiveness.
5. Investigation Modules: Deepening CNAPP's Understanding of External Risks
ThreatNG's detailed investigation modules provide granular insights into external risks, enabling more informed and targeted actions within a CNAPP.
Domain Overview: Provides digital presence word clouds, Microsoft Entra identification, domain enumeration, bug bounty programs, and SwaggerHub instances for API documentation. If ThreatNG identifies a SwaggerHub instance exposed to the Internet, a CNAPP can then use this information to ensure the corresponding cloud-hosted APIs have robust authentication, authorization, and rate-limiting and are subject to API security testing.
DNS Intelligence: Includes domain record analysis (IPs, vendors, technologies), domain name permutations (taken/available), and Web3 domains (taken/available). Suppose ThreatNG discovers unassigned but potentially vulnerable DNS records or suspicious domain permutations. In that case, a CNAPP can help ensure that cloud DNS configurations are locked down and that no internal cloud resources are inadvertently exposed via these external points.
Email Intelligence: Provides email security presence (DMARC, SPF, DKIM), format predictions, and harvested emails. While CNAPP focuses on cloud email services, ThreatNG's insights into phishing susceptibility can prompt the CNAPP's CIEM module to enforce stronger multi-factor authentication policies for cloud email users.
WHOIS Intelligence: Offers WHOIS analysis and other domains owned. This can help identify related assets that might host cloud-native applications and bring them under the CNAPP's purview.
Subdomain Intelligence: Provides HTTP responses, header analysis (security/deprecated headers), server headers (technologies), cloud hosting, website builders, e-commerce platforms, CMS, CRM, email marketing, communication/marketing, landing page builders, sales enablement, online course platforms, help desk software, knowledge base software, customer feedback platforms, code repositories, cloud hosting, API management, developer tools, documentation platforms, product management, video hosting, blogging platforms, podcast hosting, digital publishing, photo sharing, content experience, translation management, brand management, website monitoring, status communication, survey platforms, project management, subdomain takeover susceptibility, content identification (admin pages, APIs, dev environments, VPNs, errors, applications, GTM, JS, emails, phone numbers), ports (IoT/OT, ICS, databases, remote access services), known vulnerabilities, and WAF discovery.
Example: If ThreatNG detects an exposed administrative panel for a CMS (Content Management System) hosted on a cloud instance, the CNAPP's CWPP can be configured to monitor access to that panel for anomalous behavior, and its CSPM can recommend tightening network security groups to restrict access to that specific port from the internet. If a known vulnerability is found on an exposed cloud service via ThreatNG, the CNAPP can directly address the underlying workload.
IP Intelligence: Provides IPs, shared IPs, ASNs, country locations, and private IPs. This helps CNAPP users identify the geographical distribution of their external attack surface and assess potential compliance implications for cloud deployments in different regions.
Certificate Intelligence: Covers TLS certificates (status, issuers, active, certs without subdomains, subdomains without certs) and associated organizations (domains, certificates, emails). Expired or misconfigured SSL certificates identified by ThreatNG can indicate a lack of proper certificate management within the cloud, prompting a CNAPP to enforce automated certificate renewal and secure configuration.
Social Media: Posts from the organization, including content, hashtags, links, and tags. While not a direct security vulnerability, social media intelligence can provide context for potential phishing campaigns targeting cloud users, helping the CNAPP's CIEM module to be more vigilant.
Code Repository Exposure: Discovers public code repositories and uncovers digital risks like access credentials (API keys, access tokens, generic credentials), cloud credentials, security credentials (cryptographic keys), other secrets, various configuration files (application, system, network), database exposures (files and credentials), application data exposures (remote access, encryption keys, encrypted data, Java keystores, code repository data), activity records (command history, logs, network traffic), communication platform configurations, development environment configurations, security testing tools, cloud service configurations, remote access credentials, system utilities, personal data, and user activity.
Example: If ThreatNG finds an exposed GitHub repository containing AWS access keys used for a cloud-native application, a CNAPP's CIEM can immediately revoke those keys, and its IaC security module can be used to ensure such credentials are never hardcoded into future deployments.
Mobile Application Discovery: Discovers mobile apps in marketplaces and identifies access credentials, security credentials, and platform-specific identifiers within their contents. If ThreatNG discovers a mobile app with exposed API keys, the CNAPP can work to ensure those APIs are secured at the cloud layer with proper authentication and authorization.
Website Control Files: Discovers
robots.txtandsecurity.txtfiles, identifying secure directories, user directories, email directories, admin directories, API directories, and security policy information. Ifrobots.txtexposes sensitive admin directories, the CNAPP's CSPM can ensure that those directories within the cloud application are appropriately secured and not publicly accessible.Search Engine Attack Surface: Helps investigate an organization’s susceptibility to exposing errors, general advisories, IoT entities, persistent exploitation, potential sensitive information, privileged folders, public passwords, susceptible files, susceptible servers, user data, and web servers via search engines. If ThreatNG highlights publicly indexed sensitive data, the CNAPP can help ensure that cloud storage and application logs are not inadvertently exposed via search engines.
Cloud and SaaS Exposure: Identifies sanctioned/unsanctioned cloud services, cloud service impersonations, open exposed cloud buckets (AWS, Azure, GCP), and various SaaS implementations (BI, collaboration, CRM, data analytics, endpoint management, ERP, HR, IAM, incident management, ITSM, project management, video conferencing, work OS). This directly informs a CNAPP about unauthorized cloud resource use or misconfigured cloud storage, allowing the CNAPP to enforce policies, secure buckets, and gain visibility into unsanctioned SaaS usage.
Online Sharing Exposure: Identifies organizational entity presence in online code-sharing platforms like Pastebin, GitHub Gist, Scribd, and Slideshare. If sensitive cloud configuration details are found on Pastebin, the CNAPP can alert the security team to reconfigure affected cloud resources.
Sentiment and Financials: Organizational-related lawsuits, layoff chatter, SEC filings, SEC Form 8-Ks, and ESG violations. While not a direct technical security feature, financial distress or negative sentiment can correlate with increased insider threat risks or reduced security spending, informing CNAPP's overall risk assessment.
Archived Web Pages: The CNAPP discovers archived content like APIs, login pages, and sensitive directories. If an archived web page reveals an old, vulnerable API endpoint, it can ensure that the current cloud-hosted API is patched and secured.
Dark Web Presence: Mentions of related people, places, or things, associated ransomware events, and compromised credentials. As mentioned, this informs a CNAPP's CIEM and CDR modules about potential credential compromise or impending attacks.
Technology Stack: Identifies all technologies used by the organization, including accounting tools, analytics, API management, CMS, CRM, databases, developer platforms, ecommerce, email, helpdesk software, incident management, JavaScript libraries/frameworks, marketing automation, media, operating systems, POS, privacy, project management, security, shipping, utilities, and web servers. Understanding the external technology stack via ThreatNG helps a CNAPP tailor its workload protection and vulnerability management to the specific technologies used in the cloud.
6. Intelligence Repositories: Enriching CNAPP's Threat Landscape Awareness
ThreatNG's continuously updated intelligence repositories (DarCache) provide critical context that enhances a CNAPP's ability to detect, prevent, and respond to threats.
Dark Web (DarCache Dark Web), Compromised Credentials (DarCache Rupture), Ransomware Groups and Activities (DarCache Ransomware): Information on compromised credentials and ransomware gang activity. A CNAPP can use this to enrich its CIEM module, automatically flagging or disabling compromised cloud user accounts, and to bolster its CDR capabilities by knowing which ransomware groups are actively targeting organizations and what their tactics might be.
Vulnerabilities (DarCache Vulnerability): This provides NVD (NIST National Vulnerability Database) information (attack complexity, vector, impact scores, CVSS, severity), EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) data (likelihood of exploitation), and the KEV (Known Exploited Vulnerabilities) catalog (actively exploited vulnerabilities). It also links to Verified Proof-of-Concept (PoC) Exploits. This is immensely valuable for a CNAPP's vulnerability management and CWPP modules.
Example: If ThreatNG, via DarCache KEV, identifies a critical vulnerability actively being exploited that affects a specific container image running in a cloud environment, the CNAPP's CWPP can immediately prioritize patching or isolating that container, and its IaC security can ensure future deployments don't use the vulnerable image. The PoC links allow CNAPP users to understand how an attack might occur and validate their cloud-native defenses.
ESG Violations (DarCache ESG): Competition, Consumer, Employment, Environment, Financial, Government Contracting, Healthcare, and Safety-related offenses. While CNAPP is technical security, ESG insights can inform broader risk management, especially if regulatory non-compliance could lead to cloud data breaches.
Bug Bounty Programs (DarCache Bug Bounty): This provides in-scope and out-of-scope information. It helps CNAPP users understand how external researchers are assessing their attack surface, potentially highlighting areas for CNAPP focus.
SEC Form 8-Ks (DarCache 8-K): Provides details from these filings. Significant security incidents disclosed in 8-Ks can trigger a CNAPP team to conduct a thorough internal review of their cloud security posture related to the reported incident type.
Mobile Apps (DarCache Mobile): Indicates the presence of access and security credentials and platform-specific identifiers within mobile apps. This directly supports the mobile app exposure assessment, providing actionable intelligence for CNAPP's API and workload security.
Synergies with Complementary Solutions:
ThreatNG's external focus creates strong synergies with various complementary solutions, even though it's not explicitly stated as integrated in the document.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) / Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) Solutions: ThreatNG's continuous monitoring and real-time alerts on external risks can feed directly into a SIEM, enriching its data with external context. A SOAR platform could then automate responses based on ThreatNG's findings. For example, if ThreatNG identifies a publicly exposed sensitive port on a cloud VM, the SOAR platform could automatically trigger a CNAPP (via API) to isolate the VM or adjust firewall rules within the cloud provider.
Vulnerability Management (VM) Tools: While CNAPP includes vulnerability scanning for cloud workloads, and ThreatNG identifies external vulnerabilities, dedicated VM tools often have deeper scanning capabilities for specific applications or operating systems. ThreatNG can act as the "early warning system," flagging critical external vulnerabilities that then trigger a more in-depth scan by a VM tool for a specific cloud asset.
Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIPs): ThreatNG's DarCache intelligence repositories, particularly on dark web activity, ransomware groups, and exploited vulnerabilities, complement broader TIPs. ThreatNG's focused external intelligence can feed into a TIP, allowing for a more comprehensive understanding of the threat landscape. A TIP could then disseminate this enriched intelligence to the CNAPP for proactive defense.
Identity and Access Management (IAM) Solutions: ThreatNG's insights into compromised credentials from the dark web directly inform IAM solutions. Suppose ThreatNG flags an employee's compromised credentials. In that case, the IAM system can immediately force a password reset or multi-factor authentication enrollment, preventing unauthorized access to cloud resources managed by the CNAPP's CIEM module.
Compliance and Governance Platforms: ThreatNG's ESG violations, SEC filings, and overall security ratings can be fed into a compliance platform. This provides external evidence of an organization's security posture, complementing the internal compliance checks performed by a CNAPP's CSPM.
Examples of ThreatNG Helping and Working with Complementary Solutions:
ThreatNG Helping: ThreatNG identifies a publicly exposed Jira instance (a common target for attackers) hosted in the cloud via its Subdomain Intelligence and Technology Stack analysis. It also finds several associated known vulnerabilities and exposed sensitive ports. This immediately triggers an alert.
ThreatNG and Complementary Solutions:
CNAPP: The CNAPP's CWPP module receives the alert. It then initiates an immediate scan of the underlying cloud VM hosting Jira for those vulnerabilities identified by ThreatNG. The CNAPP's CSPM module checks the security group configurations to restrict access to the Jira instance to only necessary IP ranges.
SIEM/SOAR: The SIEM ingests the alert from ThreatNG and correlates it with internal logs for any signs of exploitation attempts. A SOAR playbook is automatically triggered, creating a ticket for the security team, gathering additional context from the CNAPP about the Jira instance, and potentially automatically blocking the identified sensitive ports at the cloud firewall level if the risk is critical and pre-approved.
VM Tool: The security team uses a specialized VM tool to perform a deeper, authenticated scan of the Jira application itself. This tool identifies application-specific vulnerabilities beyond what ThreatNG's external scan might reveal, complementing the CNAPP's workload protection.
ThreatNG acts as an essential external reconnaissance and intelligence layer that informs, validates, and enhances a CNAPP's security operations. By providing an "attacker's eye view," ThreatNG helps organizations proactively identify and mitigate risks that could otherwise undermine even the most robust internal cloud security controls.
