Open Source Cloud Security Tools can help organizations assess their infrastructures for vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and other flaws which are known for potentially putting them at risk of data breaches. Many organizations deploy one or more open-source cloud security solutions in addition to performing data backup and perform integrity checks.
Open-source cloud security solutions are great for companies that have a limited budget but do not want to compromise on the quality of testing whilst being assured of great community support. Below we provide an overview of the best Open Source Cloud Security Tools in 2023 and what to watch out for when it comes to their advantages and limitations.
Table of Contents
- What is Cloud Security?
- What are Open Source Cloud Security Tools?
- Open Source Cloud Security Tools in 2023
- What are the Limitations of Open Source Cloud Security Tools?
- Conclusion
What is Cloud Security?
Cloud security is a collection of systems, applications, and technologies that govern the storage and transmission of data online and keep it safe. Cloud providers host these infrastructures on services and provide services to customers via subscriptions.
Cloud security is comprised of various components such as – identity and access management (IAM), regulatory compliance, threat response, risk mitigation, and digital asset management.
What are Open Source Cloud Security Tools?
Open Source Cloud Security Tools are highly scalable, flexible, cost-effective, and efficient as they are not operated and maintained by a single organization. Open-source software is used in a wide range of cloud computing environments and backed by communities online, which assures their reliability and integrity. The main benefit of using open source cloud security tools is that they are designed with security in mind, unlike traditional cloud computing services.
Open-source cloud security software receives regular updates and is subject to peer reviews. They feature all-round availability and the source code can be viewed, modified, and edited by anyone. The cloud security open source community actively identifies potential vulnerabilities and gaps in these solutions as well and ensures that these programs stay up-to-date.
Open Source Cloud Security Tools in 2023
The top open-source cloud security tools in 2023 are:
1. PingSafe
PingSafe’s Comprehensive Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) automatically detects and remediates cloud misconfigurations and ensures continuous visibility of the security posture of organizations. It lets developers harmlessly conduct simulation attack tests on infrastructures, letting enterprises identify critical flaws, scope vulnerabilities, and actively enhance their cloud security.
Although PingSafe is not open-source, it offers world-class vulnerability management features, identifies cloud resources and assets, agentless scanning, and VM snapshot scanning, all essential to improving overall cloud security postures. It has role-based access controls, provides multi-tenancy support, and features seamless integrations with major platforms like Slack and Jira.
Features
- Real-time secret scanning can detect over 800+ secret types in GitHub, GitLab, and BitBucket
- Exclusive Kubernetes Security Posture Management (KSPM) that identifies defects, defends, and decimates container vulnerabilities and cluster misconfigurations
- Active cloud compliance monitoring for up to 20+ industry standards and regulations like PCI DSS, NIST, and ISO 27001
- Agentless vulnerability management for securing cloud workloads
- Ensures zero-false positives and simulates all forms of attacks on cloud resources to identify exploits by adopting Offensive Security practices
- Proactively detects misconfigurations across CloudFormation, Terraform, and other IaC (Infrastructure as Code) templates and enforces Shift-Left security
Pros
- Secures everything from cloud secrets, containers, images, and workloads, all under one roof
- Automatically tracks S3 bucket data, cloud keys, RDS passwords, and Kubernetes credentials on public repositories
Cons
- There are no cons associated with this product as of the moment
2. Suricata
Suricata is a robust intrusion detection engine designed for proactively monitoring and mitigating cloud cyber threats. It’s one of the best open source cloud security tools in 2023 and uses an extensive rule set to simplify network threat analysis. Suricata is available on Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Unix, and Mac.
Features
- Signature network intrusion detection and intrusion prevention engine
- Offline PCAP file analysis
- Linux Netfilter Firewall advanced integration
- Can store TLS certificates and log HTTP requests
Pros
- Signature-based IDS and IPS engine which results in fewer false positives
- Built-in hardware acceleration, multi-threading, and modern TCP/IP support with a fully scalable flow engine
- Lua scripting, file extraction, and keyword match
Cons
- The installation process is complex
- Even though it is open-source, community support is limited
3. OpenVAS
OpenVAS is one of the top vulnerability scanners and open source cloud security tools that can detect a variety of threats in the cloud ecosystem. It offers daily updates and can perform large-scale scans, and performance tuning, and features different open-source modules which can integrate with other applications.
Features
- Web scanning and asset discovery
- Risk management, prioritization, and asset tagging
- Vulnerability assessments
- Network scanning and cloud threat monitoring
Pros
- Supports multiple OS
- Great community of developers
- Comprehensive coverage and excellent cloud vulnerability scanning
Cons
- The user interface is outdated
- Technical acumen needed to use it
4. OSSEC
OSSEC is one of the best open source cloud security tools that offer host-based intrusion detection. It features the world’s most advanced file integrity monitoring and provides active responses for both on-premise and cloud environments.
Features
- Cloud account audits and export to SIEMS
- Log monitoring and analysis
- Time-based alerts and rootkit detection
- Automated compliance and active response management
Pros
- Protects cloud environments from malicious intruders
- Users can write custom rules and scripts
- Works on multiple platforms
- Very active community, free, and open-source
Cons
- Upgrades can be difficult sometimes
- Lacks data visualization metrics
5. Grapl
Grapl tries to understand user behaviors in cloud environments by logging activities as graphs instead of logs. As one of the leading open source cloud security tools, it converts events into sub-graphs and establishes relationships for effective incident response and detection. It is free, open-source, and also called by many a Graph Analytics Platform.
Features
- Detailed feature graphs and data visualizations
- Charts out attack behavioral patterns and analyzes them
- Does effective incident response, detection, and mitigation
- Natively supports osquery, Symon, and generic JSON logs
- Powerful cybersecurity approach to accelerating team visibility and enhancing cloud security
Pros
- Connects data points with graphs
- Improves cloud security
- Incident response and risk mitigation
- Open-source and free
Cons
- Community support can be limited
- The platform is not stable and there may be some minor bugs
6. GoAudits
GoAudits is one of the top open source cloud security tools designed for performing cloud audits and enables businesses to improve the safety and quality of their inspections. It improves compliance, and operational processes, provides analytics, and monitors standards in real-time.
Features
- Instant reports and actionable workflows
- End-to-end reporting and compliance
- Real-time analytics and data visualizations
- Scheduled reminders and alerts
Pros
- Makes digital checklists and captures critical data for review
- Comprehensive analytics and a great tool for action-planning
- Paperless cloud audits and easy to set up
- Customizable interface, plenty of templates, and a centralized dashboard
Cons
- Reports cannot be customized
7. Wazuh
Wazuh is one of the leading open-source cloud security solutions in 2023 and a great platform that helps in increasing the security of other cloud platforms like GCP, Microsoft Azure, and AWS. It offers continuous threat monitoring for multi-cloud and hybrid environments and assists with compliance configurations as well.
Features
- Host-based intrusion detection and vulnerability scanning
- Custom rules and log data analysis
- Configuration assessments and container security
- Multi-platform agents, lightweight, and no licensing fees
Pros
- Seamless integrations with on-premises and cloud environments
- Great documentation, file integrity monitoring, and robust deployments
- No vendor lock-in and great community support
Cons
- Has drawbacks with Linux OS when it comes to real-time monitoring
8. Osquery
Osquery simplifies cloud security by offering open source cloud security tools and features to organizations. It visualizes resources, helping companies understand better their resource and usage requirements. It complements Cloudquery by seamlessly integrating with it and can perform ad-hoc analysis in real time.
Features
- Visualizes cloud resources and configurations
- Detects misconfigurations and enables multi-factor authentication for all accounts across hybrid and multi-cloud environments
- Performs historical data analysis, real-time investigations, and root cause analysis
Pros
- Cloud-native security and improved visibility into infrastructure components
- Collects data from OS environments, hypervisors, and applications for analysis
- Application performance management, security forensics, and compliance auditing
- The SQL-based interface allows users to make simple and complex queries
Cons
- SQL skills are required to set up and use it
9. SmartCryptor
SmartCryptor manages complete cloud security for organizations right from authentication, auditing, access management, and more. It supports Android mobile devices, helps save expenses on cloud storage, and is among the best open source cloud security tools when it comes to data encryption and governance.
Features
- Encrypts data in real-time and shares it with anyone, anywhere securely
- Maintains audit logs and trails
- Helps gain compliance with government regulations
- Works with the most popular cloud storage services like Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and more
Pros
- Grants full control access rights
- Government-grade data security and encryption
- Ensures no single point of failure with smart key algorithm and cookie-less architecture
- AES 256, ECC, & SHA 512 and smart encryption key management
Cons
- Users haven’t reported any cons
10. CloudSploit
CloudSpoilt is rated highly among the top open-source cloud security tools and for the right reasons so. It offers a great vulnerability scanner and immediately alerts users of any malicious activities going on in multi-cloud environments. The setup process is hassle-free and this is why users prefer it among other open source cloud security solutions.
Features
- Multi-cloud management and access controls
- Behavioral analytics and intrusion detection
- Threat intelligence and endpoint management
- Two-factor authentication and vulnerability assessments
- Open-source security configuration monitoring
- Can create testing repositories for Azure, GitHub, AWS, and Oracle Cloud
- Integrates with PagerDuty and Slack
Pros
- Open-source security configuration monitoring
- Can create testing repositories for Azure, GitHub, AWS, and Oracle Cloud
- Integrates with PagerDuty and Slack
Cons
- Does not provide email attachment protection
- Does not generate web traffic reports and can’t do event tracking
What are the Limitations of Open Source Cloud Security Tools?
Although open-source cloud security tools offers several benefits, they do not come without certain limitations. Following is a list of challenges users may experience when using them:
- Licensing complications – There are many open-source cloud security tools with different licensing and usage specifications. If the licensing criteria are not met, organizations may violate these licenses and risk getting sued or subjected to legal and financial repercussions.
- Technical knowledge needed – Open-source cloud security tools are not beginner-friendly or intuitive in general. They require coding knowledge and technical acumen to operate effectively. Someone with no experience in cloud security practices may have difficulty using these solutions.
- Community-driven – Although community support is a great aspect of using open-source cloud security solutions, the downside is that sometimes it can be very limited. Being open source means that anyone can modify the code and affect platform and application performance.
- Misconfigurations through misuse – Open-source cloud security tools can introduce new misconfigurations and vulnerabilities through misuse. If organizations use outdated versions of open-source programs, they are at risk of having cloud accounts breached and will face cyber attacks.
Conclusion
Open-source cloud computing has been around for decades and it’s no surprise to see technological advancements in the cloud security domain catching up. We will expect to see major improvements made to Open Source Cloud Security Tools in the coming months and developers are constantly working on making the latest updates, bug fixes, and performance enhancements. If you are new to cloud security, trying out open source cloud security tools can be a great way to better understand security perspectives and make adjustments along the way for improving overall cloud security posture.
