Security Vendor Threat Stack has conducted a recent study on the usage patterns of AWS users and found that 73% had some form of misconfiguration that could expose them to potential security risks. The security vendor is all set to present the study at the Amazon Web Services Summit and is said to expose more such vulnerabilities related to cloud security at the event.
The study confirmed that more than 73 percent of AWS cloud service users were leaving the SecureShell(SSH) service open to the public internet on their cloud instances. SSH is nothing but a path to the server instance for a remotely based administrator.
Note- In generalized terms, Secure Shell (SSH) is a cryptographic network protocol which is useful for operating network services securely over an unsecured network.
Technically speaking, SSH is not a vulnerability. But a poor security group configuration which could lead the hackers to private services or the AWS console.
The highlight of this survey is that data collected by Threat Stack which goes back to September of 2016 shows that fewer than 13% of the companies analyzed are not at all interested in keeping software updates current. Taking the seriousness of the issue further, most companies are keeping those unpatched systems online indefinitely- say for more than 3 years.
Sam Bisbee, CTO of Threat Stack said that most companies are not at all interested in taking full advantage of the basic security tools available to them to AWS users. Though AWS has been busy in educating its users on its sophistication, a majority of users are still not configuring their cloud environments in a secure way.
More of these findings which can be termed as cyber threats to AWS users can be learned at the AWS San Francisco Summit held today from 12 PM PST in Moscone West center, Level 3, San Francisco, California.
