cloud-audit 2.0.0

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 chains and get exact fixes.

Open-source CLI that correlates findings into exploitable paths,
generates copy-paste remediation, and simulates fixes before you apply them.

Detect exploitable attack paths  -  Get AWS CLI + Terraform fixes  -  Run locally, no SaaS required

Documentation - Quick Start - Compliance - CIS - SOC 2 - BSI C5 - ISO 27001 - HIPAA - NIS2 - Attack Chains - 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

---

What You Get

+------- Health Score -------+
| 34 / 100                   |   Risk exposure: $1.2M - $9.5M
+----------------------------+

+---- 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      |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

Findings by severity:  CRITICAL: 5  HIGH: 9  MEDIUM: 14  LOW: 6

94 checks across 23 AWS services. Every finding includes AWS CLI + Terraform remediation code. Root-cause grouping tells you which fixes break the most chains so you fix what matters first.

_{Watch the 1-minute demo}

If cloud-audit helped you find something you missed, consider giving it a star. It helps others discover the project.

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Features

Attack Chain Detection

Other scanners give you a flat list of findings. cloud-audit correlates them into attack paths an attacker would actually exploit.

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

Examples from the 31 built-in rules:

Chain	What it catches
IAM Privilege Escalation	iam:PassRole + lambda:Create + iam:Attach = 3-step path to admin
Internet-Exposed Admin Instance	Public SG + admin IAM role + IMDSv1 = account takeover
CI/CD to Admin Takeover	OIDC without sub condition + admin policy = pipeline hijack
SSRF to Credential Theft	Public instance + IMDSv1 + no VPC flow logs = invisible exfiltration
AI Model Data Exfiltration	Bedrock model with public endpoint + no logging = silent data leak

Based on MITRE ATT&CK Cloud and Datadog pathfinding.cloud. See all 31 rules in the docs.

Copy-Paste Remediation + What-If Simulator

Every finding includes AWS CLI commands, Terraform HCL, and documentation links. Export all fixes as a runnable script:

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

Simulate a fix before applying it to see which chains it breaks and how your score changes:

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

Scan Diff and Trend Tracking

Compare scans to track drift. Catches ClickOps changes, manual console edits, and regressions that IaC scanning misses.

cloud-audit diff yesterday.json today.json
cloud-audit trend                              # Time-series posture history

Exit code 0 = no new findings, 1 = regression. See daily-scan-with-diff.yml for a CI/CD workflow.

6 Compliance Frameworks

Built-in compliance engine with per-control evidence, readiness scoring, and auditor-ready reports.

• 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 Annex A 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 includes a dollar-range risk estimate based on published breach data (IBM Cost of a Data Breach 2024, Verizon DBIR, enforcement actions). Attack chains use compound risk multipliers. Every estimate links to its source.

MCP Server for AI Agents

Ask Claude Code, Cursor, or VS Code Copilot to scan your AWS account:

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 - no SaaS account needed.

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How It Compares

Feature	Prowler	Trivy	Checkov	cloud-audit
Checks	576	517	2500+	94
Attack chain detection	No	No	No	31 rules + root-cause grouping
What-If remediation simulator	No	No	No	Yes
IAM privilege escalation paths	No	No	No	25 methods
Remediation per finding	CIS only	No	Links	100% (CLI + Terraform)
Breach cost estimation	No	No	No	Per finding + chain
AI-SPM (Bedrock/SageMaker)	No	No	No	Yes
Compliance frameworks	CIS only	—	—	6 (CIS, SOC 2 + 4 Beta)
MCP server (AI agents)	Paid ($99/mo)	No	No	Free, standalone

cloud-audit has fewer checks than Prowler but goes deeper per finding: remediation code, attack chain correlation, cost estimates, and a What-If simulator that shows the impact of each fix before you apply it. If you need exhaustive compliance coverage across multiple clouds, Prowler is the better choice. If you need a focused scan that shows how findings chain into real attack paths and prioritizes what to fix first, cloud-audit is built for that.

_{Feature snapshot as of v2.0.0 (April 2026). Verify against upstream docs for the latest details.}

---

Reports

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

Format is auto-detected from file extension.

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 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.

Alternatives

• Prowler - 576+ checks, multi-cloud, full CIS coverage, auto-remediation. The most comprehensive open-source scanner.
• Trivy - Container, IaC, and cloud scanner. Strong on containers, growing cloud coverage.
• Steampipe - SQL-based cloud querying. Very flexible.
• AWS Security Hub - Native AWS service with continuous monitoring. Free 30-day trial.

Documentation

cloud-audit has grown beyond what a single README can cover. The full documentation is at haitmg.pl/cloud-audit and includes:

• Getting Started - installation, quick start, demo mode
• Compliance - 6 frameworks: CIS AWS v3.0, SOC 2, BSI C5, ISO 27001, HIPAA, NIS2
• Attack Chains - all 31 rules with MITRE ATT&CK references
• MCP Server - full setup guide for Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code
• Configuration - config file, env vars, suppressions
• CI/CD - GitHub Actions, SARIF, pre-commit hooks
• Reports - HTML, JSON, SARIF, Markdown output formats
• All 94 Checks - full check reference by service

This README covers the essentials. For compliance framework details, advanced configuration, and per-check documentation, see the full docs.

What's Next

• Multi-account scanning (AWS Organizations)
• Terraform drift detection
• Data perimeter checks (S3, KMS, STS boundary policies)

Past releases: CHANGELOG.md

Development

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

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

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

License

MIT - Mariusz Gebala / HAIT