Cutting Through the Noise: Selecting the Right Cloud Security Vendor

The cybersecurity market today is flooded with vendors offering cloud security solutions, each claiming to do everything under the sun. These bold, all-encompassing statements often leave the customer community overwhelmed and confused.

Security, as we know, lies in the details. Unfortunately, for CISOs (Chief Information Security Officers), evaluating cloud security vendors in depth is a luxury they seldom have. With multiple responsibilities on their plate, their decision-making process often boils down to gut feelings, existing relationships, brand recognition, or simple checkbox-based comparisons. As a result, I have usually seen customers buying a tech that offers more bells and whistles than real cattle.?

To help organisations navigate the clutter and focus on the essential aspects of cloud security, this post highlights some critical use cases often overlooked and how a comprehensive approach—like the one at SentinelOne CNS—can address them effectively.

1. The Power of Agentless and Agent-Based Solutions in One Console

Example: Figuring out & stopping a misconfigured & vulnerable cluster that leads to a Crypto-Mining Attack. There's a persistent debate in the industry: agentless vs. agent-based security solutions. However, both approaches serve distinct purposes and are most effective when used together.

Consider a scenario where an adversary gains access to a high-value bucket by exploiting a vulnerable web application. Without an agent, the attack might remain unblocked at runtime, even if detected. At SentinelOne CNS, we recognise that agentless solutions excel at identifying and prioritising risks, while agents are indispensable for real-time attack prevention. Together, they provide holistic security coverage.

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2. Dynamic Correlation Across multiple Cloud Misconfigurations

Example: CloudFront Instance Takeover Due to Missing Origin S3 Bucket

Subdomain takeovers remain among the most common yet ignored threats from cloud misconfigurations. The static scanner checks one service at a time and often issues thousands of alerts. Most of them will be false positives, and one of them needs immediate attention. Even the hacker community knows that everyone will be fixing the critical alerts which are visible from the naked eye, but some of your low or medium-severity alerts can be combined to create a significant impact; subdomain takeover is an example of this category. At SentinelOne CNS, we employ a graph-based technique to scan and correlate multiple assets and their respective misconfigurations in a single graph query. This dynamic approach uncovers issues like orphaned cloud assets, preventing attackers from exploiting such gaps.

3. Tackling Alert Fatigue: Connecting Cloud Misconfigurations with Exploitable Vulnerabilities

Example: The Hidden Risk of an IMDSv1 Machine with an SSRF Vulnerability

Imagine a scenario where you have machines running on IMDSv1 (Instance Metadata Service Version 1) vulnerable to a server-side request forgery (SSRF) attack. Your typical CSPM (Cloud Security Posture Management) tool might flag these machines and recommend upgrading to IMDSv2. However, since these machines host critical business applications, upgrading isn't feasible, and the alert is deprioritised.

Simultaneously, your vulnerability management tool might generate another alert for a critical CVE that allows SSRF attacks. However, with thousands of alerts in the queue, an L1 engineer might miss the bigger picture. They may recognise the SSRF vulnerability but fail to realize how the misconfiguration of IMDSv1 can combine with it to expose IAM credentials, access keys, and tokens in plain text—creating a severe security risk.

At SentinelOne CNS, we address this challenge head-on. By integrating our offensive security engine with advanced graph technology, we bridge the gap between siloed alerts. This integration not only identifies vulnerabilities and misconfigurations but also verifies the "proof of exploitability" through harmless payloads. By correlating these threats, we provide actionable insights that allow security teams to prioritise the most critical risks, reducing noise and ensuring efficient use of resources.

4. Combatting Leaked Credentials: The Real Threat to Cloud Security

Example: Detecting Leaked AWS Keys in Public Repositories

Leaked credentials are a ticking time bomb for cloud security, and hackers have become increasingly adept at exploiting them through automation. Traditional tools like dark web scanners and SCA/SAST solutions, while useful, often lag in both coverage and speed. For instance, it typically takes 15-20 days for leaked credentials to appear on the dark web and be flagged by scanners. By that time, attackers using automated scripts may have already discovered and exploited the credentials within a day.

Even so, many hackers face a significant challenge: attributing leaked credentials back to their original organisation. Without this critical link, even stolen credentials might remain unused.

At SentinelOne CNS, we eliminate this gap by proactively detecting and verifying leaked credentials. Our platform recognises over 800 types of secrets and identifies leaks at lightning speed. Whether it’s base64-encoded AWS IAM credentials shared in anonymous repositories or other sensitive information, we surface verified, actionable insights directly on your dashboard in under two minutes—long before attackers can take advantage.

Key Takeaway: A Smarter Approach to Cloud Security

Selecting the right cloud security solution is no longer just about ticking boxes or relying on brand names. It’s about understanding how well a solution addresses real-world challenges like dynamic misconfigurations, alert fatigue, leaked credentials, and runtime threats.

By leveraging advanced technologies like graph-based correlation, offensive security engines, and a unified approach to agentless and agent-based security, SentinelOne CNS is redefining cloud security to empower CISOs and their teams to stay ahead of evolving threats.

The next time you’re evaluating a vendor, ask yourself: Does this solution truly address the devil in the details?