3.4.3.3. Common Cloud Security Threats

First Principle: Understanding common cloud security threats enables proactive identification of potential attack vectors, implementation of preventative controls, and effective incident response.

This ultimately protects cloud resources and data from compromise.

In AWS, several threats frequently lead to security incidents:

• Insecure Web Traffic: Lack of HTTPS or vulnerable web applications can expose sensitive data during transit or allow exploitation, leading to data breaches. This directly violates the principle of protecting data integrity and confidentiality.
• Exposed AWS Access Keys: Hardcoding credentials or publicly exposing access keys (e.g., in public Git repositories) grants unauthorized users full programmatic access to AWS resources, resulting in unauthorized resource access and potential service disruption. This undermines the principle of least privilege.
• Public S3 Buckets: Misconfigured S3 buckets allowing public read/write access can lead to massive data leaks or unauthorized data injection. This is a direct failure in protecting data confidentiality and integrity.
• Misconfigured IAM Policies: Overly permissive IAM policies or unrotated credentials grant more permissions than necessary, increasing the "blast radius" of a compromise. This compromises the principle of least privilege and continuous security improvement.

Key Common Cloud Security Threats:

• Insecure Web Traffic (lack of HTTPS, vulnerable apps).
• Exposed AWS Access Keys (hardcoded, public repos).
• Public S3 Buckets (misconfigured access).
• Misconfigured IAM Policies (over-permissive, unrotated credentials).

Scenario: A DevOps team identifies a significant security risk: their application is exposing data over HTTP instead of HTTPS, and some sensitive data is stored in publicly accessible S3 buckets. They also find an IAM user with overly broad permissions.

Reflection Question: How does understanding these common cloud security threats (e.g., insecure web traffic, public S3 buckets, misconfigured IAM policies) enable you to implement preventative controls and prioritize remediation efforts to protect cloud resources and data from compromise?

💡 Tip: Consider how the AWS Well-Architected Framework's Security Pillar provides guidance and best practices to mitigate many of these common cloud security threats.