cloud-audit 2.0.1

Open-source AWS security scanner with IAM escalation detection, What-If simulator, security trends, AI-SPM (Bedrock/SageMaker), 6 compliance frameworks, 31 attack chain rules, breach cost estimation, and MCP server. 94 checks across 23 services. Every finding includes CLI + Terraform remediation.

cloud-audit

Find AWS attack paths, IAM escalation routes, and the fixes that matter most.

Open-source CLI scanner that helps you decide what to fix first —
not just what's wrong.

Find attack chains and IAM escalation paths  -  Simulate fixes before you apply them  -  Fix root causes, not individual findings

Documentation - Quick Start - Compliance - Attack Chains - IAM Escalation - Simulator - MCP Server

Quick Start

pip install cloud-audit
cloud-audit scan

Uses your default AWS credentials and region. Try without an AWS account:

cloud-audit demo

---

Why It's Different

Most scanners give you findings. cloud-audit helps you decide what to fix first.

+---- Attack Chains (5 detected) -----------------------------------+
|  CRITICAL  Internet-Exposed Admin Instance                         |
|            i-0abc123 - public SG + admin IAM role + IMDSv1         |
|                                                                    |
|  CRITICAL  IAM Privilege Escalation via iam:PassRole               |
|            ci-deploy-role - 3-step path to admin                   |
|                                                                    |
|  CRITICAL  CI/CD to Admin Takeover                                 |
|            github-deploy - OIDC no sub + admin policy              |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

+---- Remediation Plan -------------------------------------------+
|  Fix 4 root causes, break 22 attack chains                       |
|                                                                    |
|  Quick Wins (effort: LOW, chains broken: 14):                      |
|    1. Restrict SG ingress on sg-0abc123    -> breaks 8 chains      |
|    2. Add OIDC sub condition               -> breaks 6 chains      |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

Other tools give you 200 findings sorted by severity. cloud-audit groups them by root cause, shows which single fixes collapse the most attack paths, and lets you simulate the impact before you touch anything:

cloud-audit simulate --fix aws-vpc-002
# Score: 34 -> 58 (+24)  |  Chains broken: 8 of 22  |  Findings resolved: 11

94 checks across 23 AWS services. Every finding includes copy-paste AWS CLI + Terraform remediation.

_{Watch the 1-minute demo}

---

What's New in 2.0

Feature	What it does
IAM Privilege Escalation	25 escalation methods across 6 categories. PMapper has been dead since 2022 -- this is its open-source replacement.
What-If Simulator	cloud-audit simulate --fix aws-vpc-002 shows score change, chains broken, and risk reduction before you apply anything.
Root Cause Grouping	"Fix 4 things, break 22 chains." Groups findings by shared root cause and ranks by impact.
Security Posture Trend	cloud-audit trend tracks health score, chains, and risk over time with sparkline visualization.
AI-SPM	First open-source Bedrock + SageMaker scanner. 5 checks, 3 attack chains (model theft, LLMjacking, data poisoning).

---

Features

Attack Chain Detection

31 rules correlate individual findings into exploitable attack paths.

  Internet --> Public SG --> EC2 (IMDSv1) --> Admin IAM Creds --> Account Takeover
               aws-vpc-002   aws-ec2-004       Detected: AC-01, AC-02

Chain	What it catches
IAM Privilege Escalation	iam:PassRole + lambda:Create + iam:Attach = 3-step path to admin
Internet-Exposed Admin	Public SG + admin IAM role + IMDSv1 = account takeover
CI/CD to Admin Takeover	OIDC without sub condition + admin policy = pipeline hijack
LLMjacking	Bedrock no logging + no guardrails = undetected model abuse

Based on MITRE ATT&CK Cloud and pathfinding.cloud. See all 31 rules.

Remediation + Simulator

Every finding includes AWS CLI, Terraform HCL, and docs links. Export all fixes:

cloud-audit scan --export-fixes fixes.sh

Simulate before applying:

cloud-audit simulate --fix aws-vpc-002
# Score: 34 -> 58 (+24)  |  Chains broken: 8 of 22  |  Findings resolved: 11

cloud-audit simulate --fix aws-vpc-002,aws-ct-001,aws-iam-007
# Score: 34 -> 82 (+48)  |  Chains broken: 19 of 22

Trend Tracking

cloud-audit diff yesterday.json today.json    # Catches ClickOps drift
cloud-audit trend                              # Posture over time

6 Compliance Frameworks

• CIS AWS v3.0 - 62 controls, 55 automated (89%)
• SOC 2 Type II - 43 criteria, 24 automated (56%)
• BSI C5:2020 Beta - 134 criteria, 57 automated/partial
• ISO 27001:2022 Beta - 93 controls, 47 automated/partial
• HIPAA Security Rule Beta - 47 specs, 29 automated/partial
• NIS2 Directive Beta - 43 measures, 33 automated/partial

Breach Cost Estimation

Every finding and chain includes a dollar-range risk estimate based on IBM/Verizon breach data, with source links.

MCP Server for AI Agents

claude mcp add cloud-audit -- uvx --from cloud-audit cloud-audit-mcp

6 tools: scan_aws, get_findings, get_attack_chains, get_remediation, get_health_score, list_checks. Free and standalone.

---

How It Compares

Feature	Prowler	Trivy	cloud-audit
Checks	576	517	94
Attack chains + root-cause grouping	No	No	31 rules
What-If remediation simulator	No	No	Yes
IAM privilege escalation	No	No	25 methods
Remediation per finding	CIS only	No	100% (CLI + TF)
AI-SPM (Bedrock/SageMaker)	No	No	Yes
Compliance frameworks	CIS	--	6

cloud-audit has fewer checks but goes deeper per finding: attack chain correlation, root-cause grouping, cost estimates, and a simulator that shows the impact of each fix before you apply it. If you need exhaustive multi-cloud compliance coverage, use Prowler. If you need to know what to fix first and why, cloud-audit is built for that.

_{Feature snapshot as of v2.0.0 (April 2026).}

---

Reports

cloud-audit scan --format html -o report.html     # Client-ready HTML
cloud-audit scan --format json -o report.json      # Machine-readable
cloud-audit scan --format sarif -o results.sarif   # GitHub Code Scanning
cloud-audit scan --format markdown -o report.md    # PR comments

Installation

pip install cloud-audit          # pip (recommended)
pipx install cloud-audit         # pipx (isolated)
docker run ghcr.io/gebalamariusz/cloud-audit scan  # Docker

Docker with credentials:

docker run -v ~/.aws:/home/cloudaudit/.aws:ro ghcr.io/gebalamariusz/cloud-audit scan

Usage

cloud-audit scan -R                                    # Show remediation
cloud-audit scan --profile prod --regions eu-central-1  # Specific profile/region
cloud-audit scan --regions all                          # All enabled regions
cloud-audit scan --min-severity high                   # Filter by severity
cloud-audit scan --role-arn arn:aws:iam::...:role/audit # Cross-account
cloud-audit scan --quiet                               # Exit code only (CI/CD)
cloud-audit simulate --fix aws-vpc-002                 # What-If simulator
cloud-audit trend                                      # Posture over time
cloud-audit list-checks                                # List all checks

Exit code	Meaning
0	No findings
1	Findings detected
2	Scan error

Configuration file

Create .cloud-audit.yml in your project root:

provider: aws
regions:
  - eu-central-1
  - eu-west-1
min_severity: medium
exclude_checks:
  - aws-eip-001
suppressions:
  - check_id: aws-vpc-001
    resource_id: vpc-abc123
    reason: "Legacy VPC, migration planned for Q3"
    accepted_by: "[e-mail]"
    expires: "2026-09-30"
  - check_id: "aws-cw-*"
    reason: "CloudWatch alarms managed by separate team"
    accepted_by: "[e-mail]"

Environment variables

Variable	Example
CLOUD_AUDIT_REGIONS	eu-central-1,eu-west-1
CLOUD_AUDIT_MIN_SEVERITY	high
CLOUD_AUDIT_EXCLUDE_CHECKS	aws-eip-001,aws-iam-001
CLOUD_AUDIT_ROLE_ARN	arn:aws:iam::...:role/auditor

Precedence: CLI flags > env vars > config file > defaults.

CI/CD

- run: pip install cloud-audit
- run: cloud-audit scan --format sarif --output results.sarif
- uses: github/codeql-action/upload-sarif@v3
  with:
    sarif_file: results.sarif

Ready-to-use workflows: basic scan, daily diff, post-deploy.

AWS Permissions

cloud-audit requires read-only access. Attach SecurityAudit (covers all checks including IAM escalation analysis):

aws iam attach-role-policy --role-name auditor --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/SecurityAudit

cloud-audit never modifies your infrastructure. The simulate command runs locally against scan data -- it does not call AWS APIs.

What It Checks

94 checks across IAM, S3, EC2, VPC, RDS, EIP, EFS, CloudTrail, GuardDuty, KMS, CloudWatch, Lambda, ECS, SSM, Secrets Manager, AWS Config, Security Hub, Account, AWS Backup, Amazon Inspector, AWS WAF, Amazon Bedrock, and Amazon SageMaker.

See all 94 checks by service or run cloud-audit list-checks locally.

Documentation

Full docs at haitmg.pl/cloud-audit:

• Getting Started - installation, quick start, demo mode
• Attack Chains - all 31 rules with MITRE ATT&CK references
• IAM Escalation - 25 methods, 6 categories
• What-If Simulator - simulate remediation impact
• Compliance - 6 frameworks: CIS, SOC 2, BSI C5, ISO 27001, HIPAA, NIS2
• All 94 Checks - full check reference by service

What's Next

• Multi-account scanning (AWS Organizations)
• SCP + permission boundary evaluation in IAM escalation
• Terraform drift detection

Past releases: CHANGELOG.md

Development

git clone https://github.com/gebalamariusz/cloud-audit.git
cd cloud-audit
pip install -e ".[dev]"

pytest -v                          # 496 tests
ruff check src/ tests/             # lint
mypy src/                          # type check

See CONTRIBUTING.md for how to add a new check.

License

MIT - Mariusz Gebala / HAIT