What is a CNAPP?
As the name suggests, a cloud native application protection platform (CNAPP) offers developers a unified platform for managing cloud-native application security. Essentially, it brings all your security tools under a single umbrella.
Performing security operations from a single platform not only simplifies the job of security and configuration management, it also provides much more meaningful data than siloed tools can provide alone. A CNAPP offers deeper visibility into all your environments, including multi-cloud.
2024 Gartner® Market Guide for Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)
In this report, Gartner offers insights and recommendations to analyze and evaluate emerging CNAPP offerings.
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Advantages of using a CNAPP
It's easy to see how, by eliminating blind spots and providing context, a CNAPP can simplify a wide range of security, ops, and dev tasks. But one of the greatest strengths of a CNAPP is that it gives you freedom and flexibility.
With a CNAPP, your team is empowered to pick and choose solutions that best fit your security capability and cost requirements. That’s because CNAPP solutions work with cloud provider-specific solutions—like native AWS tools and native Azure security tools—in addition to leading cross-cloud vendor solutions and today’s vast range of effective open-source tools. This lets you choose best-in-breed solutions for IAM, data protection, network and application protection, compliance capabilities, and threat detection capabilities.
CNAPP tool categories
Different vendors and security teams may select different tools, but the core security capabilities of a CNAPP include:
Cloud security posture management (CSPM)
Cloud workload protection platform (CWPP) (including VM & container security)
Cloud infrastructure entitlement management (CIEM)
Application security testing (AST)
Cloud detection and response (CDR)
Companies have a universe of open-source security solutions to choose from. While numerous open-source tools can address specific aspects of CNAPP functionality, no single open-source tool offers all the capabilities of a fully integrated commercial CNAPP. Commercial CNAPPs are designed to provide seamless interoperability, centralized management, and comprehensive, multi-cloud coverage. We’ll be focusing on just a couple of the most popular and highly recommended tools within each category.
Cloud security posture management (CSPM)
CSPM includes tools for assessing the security posture of cloud environments. They identify critical risks, like vulnerabilities and misconfigurations, and provide continuous monitoring to guarantee compliance with security standards and regulations.
Top open-source CSPM tools
OpenSCAP: An NIST-approved security audit assistant that automates vulnerability checks based on the SCAP standard; helps scan systems for security weaknesses and enforce compliance policies
Scout Suite: Scans cloud environments for security vulnerabilities, generating detailed reports to help organizations improve their cloud security posture
Cloud workload protection platform (CWPP)
This category refers to solutions for protecting cloud-based applications and workloads from various threats, helping you integrate security into your software development lifecycle (SDLC), including development, testing, and runtime protection. This shift-left approach allows DevOps teams to adopt more secure DevSecOps processes.
Top open-source CWPP tools: General
Tripwire: Monitors files for changes in Linux systems, identifying intrusions and making sure data is accurate and consistent
Falco: Monitors Linux systems for suspicious activities, detecting threats in containers and Kubernetes environments
Top open-source CWPP Kubernetes and container tools
Clair: Security checkpoint that scans container images for security vulnerabilities, helping identify potential risks before deployment
Trivy: Scans container images, filesystems, and other artifacts for security vulnerabilities, providing fast and accurate results that don’t slow down the development process
For a detailed roundup of OSS container security tools, click here.
Cloud infrastructure entitlement management (CIEM)
CIEM solutions cover a variety of tools to manage and control access to cloud resources and data.
Top open-source CIEM tools
Open Policy Agent: Versatile tool that helps organizations enforce policies across cloud-native infrastructure, letting them define and manage policies as code
Keycloak: Comprehensive IAM solution that provides features like single sign-on, user management, and strong authentication, making it easier to secure applications and services
Application security testing (AST)
Code testing is a newer category under the CNAPP umbrella. Gartner now includes code testing in its “code to cloud” framework for security and compliance. The three most common approaches to code testing are static application security testing (SAST), dynamic application security testing (DAST), and software composition analysis (SCA). Many good open-source options are available in this category.
Top open-source AST tools
These tools identify and remediate potential vulnerabilities and security risks early in the development lifecycle. This helps you make sure that code is secure before it's deployed to the cloud:
PMD: Performs SAST in various languages to find common programming flaws in code,e.g., unused variables, empty catch blocks, unnecessary object creation, and dead code
Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP): Handles DAST with both automated and manual penetration testing, providing a user-friendly interface and add-on marketplace to extend its functionality
Cloud detection and response (CDR)
CDR includes tools that detect, investigate, and respond to security incidents in cloud environments, for example, malware, data breaches, and unauthorized access. It also encompasses network monitoring and threat intelligence to detect threats in real time and limit the impact of attacks.
Top CDR tools
Diffy: Digital forensics and incident response tool that quickly identifies compromised Linux instances on AWS by comparing them to a known-good baseline
Threat Zone: Analyzes existing malware samples using real-time behavioral analysis to simulate and understand attacks in a safe environment
The downsides of open-source: Caveats and considerations
There are numerous offerings in the world of open source, many with extensive, committed developer communities. But remember: Always be cautious when it comes to choosing and using open-source solutions and be sure to only download from reputable repositories.
Other best practices when it comes to open-source software include tracking all the tools you’re using, monitoring their code and behavior, and keeping up to date with patching.
Any other risks to be aware of? Yes! Because open-source solutions are developed separately, by separate teams or communities, they usually aren’t designed to work hand in hand. They might integrate with other tools or platforms, but they could also leave critical gaps in your overall security posture. For example, a security capability you need may not be available in an open-source version. Relying on open-source tools can also lead to excess coverage, which can cause multiple alerts for the same issue.
One alternative to siloed open-source or vendor solutions is a CNAPP solution with a complete toolset of end-to-end security tools that work perfectly together. This eliminates the above problems, offering total coverage for your entire cloud.
The Wiz approach
A Forbes Cloud 100 leader for 2024, Wiz provides a centralized platform that follows Gartner's most up-to-date recommendations for fully integrated security solutions.
With its unified approach and single pane of glass, Wiz eliminates security silos and enables visibility and control across your cloud environment. Companies using Wiz achieve collaboration and effective risk management via:
Comprehensive coverage across all clouds
Deep, agentless visibility into networks, data, and environments
Proactive threat detection with actionable alerts
What Wiz brings to the table
Based on unbiased G2 user reviews, Wiz users enjoy several key benefits including a simple setup, an intuitive interface, and highly responsive customer support. But the #1 advantage most users mention is the simplicity of bringing all your security tools under the Wiz umbrella.
With clear visualizations, including dashboards and Wiz Security Graph, you can prioritize vulnerabilities based on actual risk and take action based on recommendations for remediation.
Wiz also puts an end to alert fatigue, bringing down alerts to a manageable number. And the alerts that do get through are relevant and context-rich, meaning your teams can get to work resolving them fast.
By choosing Wiz, your security teams can focus on the most critical issues first while knowing that nothing will fall through the cracks
To see how simple it is to put Wiz to work for you, get a demo today.
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