// CLOUD SECURITY

GCP Security Review

Google Cloud Platform assessment covering IAM, GKE, Cloud Storage, and audit logging.

CIS GCPBenchmark
SCCReview
CERT-InEmpanelled
CRESTCertified
Overview

GCP Security Review

Google Cloud Platform has a distinct security model that differs meaningfully from AWS and Azure — its IAM is resource-based rather than policy-based, its organisation hierarchy creates unique privilege inheritance patterns, and services like GKE, Cloud Run, and Cloud Functions have security considerations specific to Google's platform. Intelliroot's GCP Security Review delivers a comprehensive assessment of your GCP security posture aligned to the CIS Google Cloud Platform Foundation Benchmark, with deep analysis of IAM, Cloud Storage, GKE, VPC networking, audit logging, and organisation policy controls.

Our CREST-certified team uses Prowler (GCP), ScoutSuite, and the Security Command Center API alongside manual expert review to identify misconfigurations, overprivileged service account keys, exposed Cloud Storage buckets, and VPC firewall rules that expose internal services. Service account key management — a uniquely high-risk area in GCP — receives dedicated analysis, along with Cloud Run and Cloud Functions security for serverless workloads.

Why This Matters

Why GCP Security Review Is Essential

Service Account Keys Are a Persistent High Risk

GCP service account keys are long-lived, downloadable credentials that grant access equivalent to the service account's IAM permissions. Leaked or poorly managed service account keys are one of the most common root causes of GCP breaches.

Cloud Storage Bucket Policies Are Frequently Misconfigured

Publicly accessible Cloud Storage buckets, overly broad bucket IAM policies, and uniform bucket-level access disabled without adequate object-level controls continue to expose sensitive data in GCP environments.

Org Policy Controls Are Underutilised

GCP Organisation Policies provide powerful controls for enforcing security constraints across all projects — but many organisations leave them at default or implement them inconsistently, creating gaps that bypass intended security boundaries.

GKE and Serverless Introduce Unique Risks

GKE clusters with legacy ABAC enabled, workloads using default service accounts with Editor permissions, and Cloud Run services with overprivileged identity represent common GCP-specific attack paths not covered by generic Kubernetes or cloud security tooling.

Scope

What We Assess

IAM & Service Account Security

  • IAM policy and binding analysis at org, folder, project level
  • Service account key inventory and rotation status
  • Workload Identity vs. service account key usage
  • Privileged role assignments (Owner, Editor) review
  • Domain-restricted sharing org policy review

Storage & Data Security

  • Cloud Storage bucket public access assessment
  • Bucket IAM and uniform bucket-level access review
  • Object lifecycle and retention policy configuration
  • BigQuery dataset permissions and encryption
  • Cloud SQL encryption and authorised networks

Networking & Compute

  • VPC firewall rule review (default-allow-internal, open ingress)
  • Cloud Armor WAF policy review
  • GKE security configuration and Workload Identity
  • Cloud Run and Cloud Functions IAM and networking
  • Private Google Access and VPC Service Controls

Logging, Detection & Org Policy

  • Cloud Audit Log coverage (Admin Activity, Data Access)
  • Security Command Center findings review
  • Organisation Policy constraint enforcement review
  • Log sink configuration and SIEM export
  • CIS GCP Foundations Benchmark compliance mapping
Methodology

Our Assessment Approach

01

Scoping & Organisation Inventory

Enumerate the GCP organisation hierarchy — org, folders, and projects — and agree on access approach. We typically use a custom read-only role combining Security Reviewer and Viewer permissions at organisation scope, avoiding any roles that permit resource modification or data access.

02

Automated Benchmark Assessment

Execute Prowler (GCP) and ScoutSuite across all in-scope projects to establish a CIS GCP Foundations Benchmark compliance baseline. Query the Security Command Center API for existing findings. Triage and prioritise results before manual analysis.

03

IAM & Service Account Deep Dive

Manually analyse IAM bindings across all resource hierarchy levels, enumerate service account keys and their age, assess Workload Identity adoption, and identify privilege escalation paths through IAM condition misconfigurations and overprivileged bindings.

04

Network, Storage & Workload Review

Assess VPC firewall rules, Cloud Storage bucket configurations, GKE cluster security settings, and Cloud Run/Functions IAM. Review Cloud Audit Log coverage and Organisation Policy constraint enforcement across the resource hierarchy.

05

Risk-Rated Reporting & CIS Scorecard

Deliver a risk-rated findings report with GCP-specific attack path narratives, a CIS GCP Foundations Benchmark compliance scorecard, and a prioritised remediation roadmap with gcloud CLI and Terraform remediation examples.

Focus Areas
GCP IAM Cloud Storage GKE Security VPC Firewall Cloud Armor Audit Logging Org Policy Security Command Center CIS GCP Benchmark Service Account Keys
FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

A custom IAM role combining Security Reviewer (roles/iam.securityReviewer) and Viewer (roles/viewer) permissions at organisation scope is sufficient for the assessment. This provides read-only access to IAM bindings, resource configurations, and audit logs without granting access to data stored in Cloud Storage, BigQuery, or other data services. We document every permission requested with its justification prior to engagement kickoff.
Yes. The GCP Security Review covers the full GCP environment — IAM, Cloud Storage, VPC networking, audit logging, organisation policies, and GKE at a posture level. A dedicated Kubernetes Security Assessment provides deeper coverage of GKE cluster internals — RBAC, Pod Security Standards, network policies, etcd, and admission controllers. For GCP-heavy organisations running significant GKE workloads, we recommend combining both engagements.
Yes. Beyond the assessment, we offer advisory services for VPC Service Controls design and implementation — one of the most effective GCP security controls for preventing data exfiltration and lateral movement across project boundaries. This is typically scoped as a separate follow-on advisory engagement and can be combined with the security review at a discounted rate.
Security Command Center Premium provides valuable continuous monitoring and threat detection, but does not perform the manual IAM privilege escalation analysis, service account key lifecycle review, or expert assessment of complex misconfiguration patterns that our review delivers. External assessment also provides independent validation of your security posture that internal tooling cannot — important for compliance, due diligence, and audit purposes.

Deliverables

Executive Summary Report

GCP security posture overview with risk distribution, critical findings, and strategic hardening priorities for CISO and cloud leadership.

Technical Findings Report

Detailed findings across IAM, storage, networking, GKE, and logging — with CVSS scores, GCP-specific attack path narratives, and gcloud CLI/Terraform remediation examples.

CIS GCP Benchmark Scorecard

Control-by-control compliance scorecard against the CIS Google Cloud Platform Foundations Benchmark with current status and remediation recommendations.

Service Account Key Risk Report

Full inventory of service account keys with age, usage status, associated permissions, and prioritised rotation or Workload Identity migration guidance.

Compliance Mapping & Remediation Roadmap

Prioritised 30/60/90-day remediation plan with findings mapped to CIS GCP Benchmark and applicable compliance frameworks for audit submission.

Retest & Closure Certificate

Complimentary retest of critical and high severity findings with a signed closure certificate accepted for compliance and regulatory submissions.

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