Don't get caught by the Shadow Access in the cloud

Ever wonder: 'What secrets are hidden in the cloud?

I'll take you on a ride to discover the hidden gems (AKA Shadow Access) & why it is the Emerging IAM Security Challenge.

Stack Identity has generated the first-ever Shadow Access Impact Report says

Shadow Access is unauthorized, unmonitored and invisible access to cloud environments that is inadvertently created by normal cloud operations. In the cloud, new identities and entitlements are being automatically created to connect cloud services with data and applications across systems. To streamline processes and optimize automation in the cloud, the related identities and entitlements are often overly permissioned.

What Causes Shadow Access

Two significant trends are converging to facilitate the weaponization of access.

1. The widespread adoption of automated cloud infrastructure, propelled by tools like CI/CD, is driving this transformation.
2. Secondly, the prevalent practice of granting excessive permissions within cloud environments, coupled with widespread programmatic access, is amplifying this effect. The inherent automation, programmability, and rapidity of the cloud make it alarmingly easy for attackers to weaponize access. This is further compounded by the utilization of APIs and automated provisioning processes.

The impact of Shadow Access on organizations includes:

1. Existing tools are blind to the multitude of cloud identities and access pathways: Traditional identity and access management tools are not designed to detect and manage the unintended and undesired access that comes with Shadow Access. This lack of visibility makes it difficult for organizations to effectively implement IAM guardrails and monitor and control access to resources.
2. Governance and visibility gaps: Shadow Access creates gaps in governance and visibility, making it challenging for organizations to enforce security policies and ensure compliance. Without proper visibility into access pathways, organizations are unable to identify and address potential vulnerabilities and risks.
3. Exploitation of vulnerabilities: Unrecognized access pathways created by Shadow Access can be exploited by threat actors to breach cloud data. This can lead to unauthorized access to sensitive information and potential data breaches.
4. The weaponization of programmable access: Threat actors can weaponize programmable access granted through Shadow Access to cause harm beyond just breaching data. This can include disrupting operations, manipulating systems, or even causing physical damage.
5. Lateral movement risks: Third-party and SaaS applications that connect to cloud ecosystems introduce the risk of lateral movement. Once a threat actor gains access through Shadow Access, they can move laterally within the organization's systems and potentially compromise additional resources and data.
6. Data security, audit, and compliance exposures: The existence of Shadow Access creates data security, audit, and compliance exposures for organizations. It becomes challenging to ensure that access to resources is properly authorized and aligned with regulatory requirements. This can result in policy and governance gaps that may lead to non-compliance and potential legal and reputational consequences.
7. Lack of true security state assessment: The complex and evolving nature of cloud applications, coupled with the disruption of processes surrounding the creation and ongoing review of cloud identities, makes it difficult for organizations to assess the true security state of their environment. Outdated mechanisms and processes hinder the ability to accurately analyze and mitigate risks, leaving the environment vulnerable.

Is there any different types of shadow access?

Indeed, it is. There are different types of shadow Shadow Access that affect compliance and governance efforts and are commonly targeted by cyber-attackers:

• Combinations of identities (third party, developer, stale accounts, machine identities, etc.) with access types, such as dormant access, chained (or secondary access), TOXIC COMBINATION, unauthorized access (via malicious systems or IP), cross-account access, RIGHT SIZING, etc.
• Shadow Access results from this collection of identities and permissions called toxic combinations which create live and active pathways to access and exfiltrate data. Attackers weaponize the weakest link in this chain to exfiltrate data and carry out ransomware attacks, crypto-mining, etc.

How to address the problem of Shadow Access and regain control of compliance, governance, and security in the cloud

To remediate the problem, three steps are needed:

1. Gaining visibility of the fragmented cloud IAM data is the first step in solving the problem of Shadow Access. Once there is a comprehensive view of IAM data, detections can extract insights from the data to implement various technology use cases supporting CIEM, DSPM, and Cloud IGA.
2. Detections can then use the comprehensive data to answer the question ”What are the pathways by which the cloud environment can be breached, and how can data be exfiltrated?”
3. Finally, with visibility and detection, it is possible to predict the likelihood of data breaches, data exfiltration, and ransomware attacks targeted at cloud data. Without a comprehensive view of cloud IAM data, accessing audits and ensuring compliance becomes painful, expensive, and often unpredictable.

Identity is a security vector where enterprises can have complete control and therefore understanding of the problem of Shadow Access, which enables the most impactful remediation of one of the largest security risks in cloud environments. Gaining visibility of Shadow Access is the key to containing the chaos created by Shadow Access and getting security, compliance, and governance back on track, and reducing the risks of cloud data breaches and data exfiltration.

In summary, Shadow Access poses significant risks to organizations, including compromised data security, governance, and visibility gaps, exploitation of vulnerabilities, lateral movement risks, compliance exposures, and a lack of accurate security state assessment.

Addressing these impacts requires the establishment of new tools and processes to detect, manage, and mitigate Shadow Access and ensure the intended state of access and data security in cloud environments.

If you want to understand & Learn more, Here are the goto list:

[1] Stack Identity Shadow Access Ebook

[2] Defining Shadow Access: The Emerging IAM Security Challenge

[3] Dangerous: shadow-access

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