CIS Google Cloud Platform Foundation

Benchmark
v1.1.0 - 03-11-2020
Terms of Use
Please see the below link for our current terms of use:
https://www.cisecurity.org/cis-securesuite/cis-securesuite-membership-terms-of-use/

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Table of Contents

Terms of Use ........................................................................................................................................................... 1

Overview .................................................................................................................................................................. 7
Intended Audience ........................................................................................................................................... 7
Consensus Guidance........................................................................................................................................ 7
Typographical Conventions ......................................................................................................................... 8
Scoring Information ........................................................................................................................................ 8
Profile Definitions ............................................................................................................................................ 9
Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................................... 10
Recommendations ............................................................................................................................................. 11
1 Identity and Access Management........................................................................................................ 11
1.1 Ensure that corporate login credentials are used (Scored) ......................................... 12
1.2 Ensure that multi-factor authentication is enabled for all non-service accounts
(Not Scored) ........................................................................................................................................... 14
1.3 Ensure that Security Key Enforcement is enabled for all admin accounts (Not
Scored) ..................................................................................................................................................... 16
1.4 Ensure that there are only GCP-managed service account keys for each service
account (Scored) .................................................................................................................................. 18
1.5 Ensure that Service Account has no Admin privileges (Scored) ................................ 21
1.6 Ensure that IAM users are not assigned the Service Account User or Service
Account Token Creator roles at project level (Scored) ......................................................... 25
1.7 Ensure user-managed/external keys for service accounts are rotated every 90
days or less (Scored) .......................................................................................................................... 29
1.8 Ensure that Separation of duties is enforced while assigning service account
related roles to users (Not Scored) ............................................................................................... 32
1.9 Ensure that Cloud KMS cryptokeys are not anonymously or publicly accessible
(Scored) ................................................................................................................................................... 34
1.10 Ensure KMS encryption keys are rotated within a period of 90 days (Scored) 37
1.11 Ensure that Separation of duties is enforced while assigning KMS related roles
to users (Scored) .................................................................................................................................. 40
1.12 Ensure API keys are not created for a project (Not Scored) ..................................... 43

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 1.13 Ensure API keys are restricted to use by only specified Hosts and Apps (Not
Scored) ..................................................................................................................................................... 45
1.14 Ensure API keys are restricted to only APIs that application needs access (Not
Scored) ..................................................................................................................................................... 47
1.15 Ensure API keys are rotated every 90 days (Not Scored) .......................................... 49
2 Logging and Monitoring .......................................................................................................................... 51
2.1 Ensure that Cloud Audit Logging is configured properly across all services and
all users from a project (Scored) ................................................................................................... 52
2.2 Ensure that sinks are configured for all log entries (Scored) ..................................... 56
2.3 Ensure that retention policies on log buckets are configured using Bucket Lock
(Scored) ................................................................................................................................................... 59
2.4 Ensure log metric filter and alerts exist for project ownership
assignments/changes (Scored) ...................................................................................................... 62
2.5 Ensure that the log metric filter and alerts exist for Audit Configuration changes
(Scored) ................................................................................................................................................... 67
2.6 Ensure that the log metric filter and alerts exist for Custom Role changes
(Scored) ................................................................................................................................................... 71
2.7 Ensure that the log metric filter and alerts exist for VPC Network Firewall rule
changes (Scored) .................................................................................................................................. 75
2.8 Ensure that the log metric filter and alerts exist for VPC network route changes
(Scored) ................................................................................................................................................... 79
2.9 Ensure that the log metric filter and alerts exist for VPC network changes
(Scored) ................................................................................................................................................... 83
2.10 Ensure that the log metric filter and alerts exist for Cloud Storage IAM
permission changes (Scored) .......................................................................................................... 87
2.11 Ensure that the log metric filter and alerts exist for SQL instance configuration
changes (Scored) .................................................................................................................................. 91
3 Networking .................................................................................................................................................. 95
3.1 Ensure that the default network does not exist in a project (Scored) ..................... 96
3.2 Ensure legacy networks do not exist for a project (Scored) ........................................ 99
3.3 Ensure that DNSSEC is enabled for Cloud DNS (Scored) ............................................ 101
3.4 Ensure that RSASHA1 is not used for the key-signing key in Cloud DNS DNSSEC
(Not Scored) ......................................................................................................................................... 103

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 3.5 Ensure that RSASHA1 is not used for the zone-signing key in Cloud DNS DNSSEC
(Not Scored) ......................................................................................................................................... 105
3.6 Ensure that SSH access is restricted from the internet (Scored) ............................. 107
3.7 Ensure that RDP access is restricted from the Internet (Scored) ............................ 110
3.8 Ensure that VPC Flow Logs is enabled for every subnet in a VPC Network
(Scored) ................................................................................................................................................. 113
3.9 Ensure no HTTPS or SSL proxy load balancers permit SSL policies with weak
cipher suites (Not Scored).............................................................................................................. 116
4 Virtual Machines ...................................................................................................................................... 120
4.1 Ensure that instances are not configured to use the default service account
(Scored) ................................................................................................................................................. 121
4.2 Ensure that instances are not configured to use the default service account with
full access to all Cloud APIs (Scored) ......................................................................................... 124
4.3 Ensure "Block Project-wide SSH keys" is enabled for VM instances (Scored) ... 128
4.4 Ensure oslogin is enabled for a Project (Scored) ........................................................... 131
4.5 Ensure 'Enable connecting to serial ports' is not enabled for VM Instance
(Scored) ................................................................................................................................................. 134
4.6 Ensure that IP forwarding is not enabled on Instances (Scored) ............................ 137
4.7 Ensure VM disks for critical VMs are encrypted with Customer-Supplied
Encryption Keys (CSEK) (Scored) ............................................................................................... 140
4.8 Ensure Compute instances are launched with Shielded VM enabled (Scored) .. 144
4.9 Ensure that Compute instances do not have public IP addresses (Scored) ........ 148
4.10 Ensure that App Engine applications enforce HTTPS connections (Not Scored)
................................................................................................................................................................... 151
5 Storage ......................................................................................................................................................... 153
5.1 Ensure that Cloud Storage bucket is not anonymously or publicly accessible
(Scored) ................................................................................................................................................. 154
5.2 Ensure that Cloud Storage buckets have uniform bucket-level access enabled
(Scored) ................................................................................................................................................. 157
6 Cloud SQL Database Services .............................................................................................................. 160
6.1 MySQL Database .............................................................................................................................. 161
6.1.1 Ensure that a MySQL database instance does not allow anyone to connect with
administrative privileges (Scored) ............................................................................................. 162

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 6.1.2 Ensure that the 'local_infile' database flag for a Cloud SQL Mysql instance is set
to 'off' (Scored) ................................................................................................................................... 164
6.2 PostgreSQL Database ..................................................................................................................... 167
6.2.1 Ensure that the 'log_checkpoints' database flag for Cloud SQL PostgreSQL
instance is set to 'on' (Scored) ...................................................................................................... 168
6.2.2 Ensure that the 'log_connections' database flag for Cloud SQL PostgreSQL
instance is set to 'on' (Scored) ...................................................................................................... 171
6.2.3 Ensure that the 'log_disconnections' database flag for Cloud SQL PostgreSQL
instance is set to 'on' (Scored) ...................................................................................................... 174
6.2.4 Ensure that the 'log_lock_waits' database flag for Cloud SQL PostgreSQL
instance is set to 'on' (Scored) ...................................................................................................... 177
6.2.5 Ensure that the 'log_min_messages' database flag for Cloud SQL PostgreSQL
instance is set appropriately (Not Scored) .............................................................................. 180
6.2.6 Ensure that the 'log_temp_files' database flag for Cloud SQL PostgreSQL
instance is set to '0' (on) (Scored)............................................................................................... 183
6.2.7 Ensure that the 'log_min_duration_statement' database flag for Cloud SQL
PostgreSQL instance is set to '-1' (disabled) (Scored) ........................................................ 186
6.3 SQL Server .......................................................................................................................................... 189
6.3.1 Ensure that the 'cross db ownership chaining' database flag for Cloud SQL SQL
Server instance is set to 'off' (Scored) ....................................................................................... 190
6.3.2 Ensure that the 'contained database authentication' database flag for Cloud
SQL on the SQL Server instance is set to 'off' (Scored) ....................................................... 193
6.4 Ensure that the Cloud SQL database instance requires all incoming connections to
use SSL (Scored)...................................................................................................................................... 196
6.5 Ensure that Cloud SQL database instances are not open to the world (Scored) .... 199
6.6 Ensure that Cloud SQL database instances do not have public IPs (Scored) ........... 202
6.7 Ensure that Cloud SQL database instances are configured with automated backups
(Scored) ...................................................................................................................................................... 205
7 BigQuery ..................................................................................................................................................... 207
7.1 Ensure that BigQuery datasets are not anonymously or publicly accessible
(Scored) ................................................................................................................................................. 208
Appendix: Summary Table ........................................................................................................................... 211
Appendix: Change History ............................................................................................................................ 215

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6|Page
Overview
This security configuration benchmark covers foundational elements of Google Cloud
Platform. The recommendations detailed here are important security considerations when
designing your infrastructure on Google Cloud Platform. Most of the recommendations
provided with this release of the benchmark covers security considerations only at
individual Project level and not at the organization level.

Intended Audience
This document is intended for system and application administrators, security specialists,
auditors, help desk, platform deployment, and/or DevOps personnel who plan to develop,
deploy, assess, or secure solutions on Google Cloud Platform.

Consensus Guidance
This benchmark was created using a consensus review process comprised of subject
matter experts. Consensus participants provide perspective from a diverse set of
backgrounds including consulting, software development, audit and compliance, security
research, operations, government, and legal.

Each CIS benchmark undergoes two phases of consensus review. The first phase occurs
during initial benchmark development. During this phase, subject matter experts convene
to discuss, create, and test working drafts of the benchmark. This discussion occurs until
consensus has been reached on benchmark recommendations. The second phase begins
after the benchmark has been published. During this phase, all feedback provided by the
Internet community is reviewed by the consensus team for incorporation in the
benchmark. If you are interested in participating in the consensus process, please visit
https://workbench.cisecurity.org/.

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Typographical Conventions
The following typographical conventions are used throughout this guide:

Convention Meaning
Stylized Monospace font Used for blocks of code, command, and script examples.
Text should be interpreted exactly as presented.

Monospace font Used for inline code, commands, or examples. Text should
be interpreted exactly as presented.

<italic font in brackets> Italic texts set in angle brackets denote a variable
requiring substitution for a real value.

Italic font Used to denote the title of a book, article, or other

publication.

Note Additional information or caveats

Scoring Information
A scoring status indicates whether compliance with the given recommendation impacts the
assessed target's benchmark score. The following scoring statuses are used in this
benchmark:

Scored

Failure to comply with "Scored" recommendations will decrease the final benchmark score.
Compliance with "Scored" recommendations will increase the final benchmark score.

Not Scored

Failure to comply with "Not Scored" recommendations will not decrease the final
benchmark score. Compliance with "Not Scored" recommendations will not increase the
final benchmark score.

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Profile Definitions
The following configuration profiles are defined by this Benchmark:

 Level 1

Items in this profile intend to:

o be practical and prudent;

o provide a clear security benefit; and
o not inhibit the utility of the technology beyond acceptable means.

 Level 2

This profile extends the "Level 1" profile. Items in this profile exhibit one or more of
the following characteristics:

o are intended for environments or use cases where security is paramount

o acts as a defense in depth measure
o may negatively inhibit the utility or performance of the technology.

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Acknowledgements
This benchmark exemplifies the great things a community of users, vendors, and subject matter
experts can accomplish through consensus collaboration. The CIS community thanks the entire
consensus team with special recognition to the following individuals who contributed greatly to
the creation of this guide:

Contributor
Shobha H D
Pravin Goyal
Aditi Sahasrabudhe
Mike Wicks
Jacqueline Kenny
Colin Estep
Robin Drake

Editor
Prabhu Angadi
Parag Patil
Pradeep R B
Iulia Ion
Andrew Kiggins
Anmol Baansal
Iben Rodriguez

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Recommendations
1 Identity and Access Management
This section covers recommendations addressing Identity and Access Management on
Google Cloud Platform.

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1.1 Ensure that corporate login credentials are used (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

Use corporate login credentials instead of personal accounts, such as Gmail accounts.

Rationale:

It is recommended fully-managed corporate Google accounts be used for increased

visibility, auditing, and controlling access to Cloud Platform resources. Email accounts
based outside of the user's organization, such as personal accounts, should not be used for
business purposes.

Audit:

For each Google Cloud Platform project, list the accounts that have been granted access to
that project:

gcloud projects get-iam-policy PROJECT_ID

Also list the accounts added on each folder:

gcloud resource-manager folders get-iam-policy FOLDER_ID

And list your organization's IAM policy:

gcloud organizations get-iam-policy ORGANIZATION_ID

No email accounts outside the organization domain should be granted permissions in the
IAM policies. This excludes Google-owned service accounts.

Remediation:

Follow the documentation and setup corporate login accounts.

Prevention:
To ensure that no email addresses outside the organization can be granted IAM
permissions to its Google Cloud projects, folders or organization, turn on the Organization
Policy for Domain Restricted Sharing. Learn more at:
https://cloud.google.com/resource-manager/docs/organization-policy/restricting-
domains

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Impact:

None.

Default Value:

By default, no email addresses outside the organization's domain have access to its Google
Cloud deployments, but any user email account can be added to the IAM policy for Google
Cloud Platform projects, folders, or organizations.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/docs/enterprise/best-practices-for-enterprise-
organizations#manage-identities
2. https://support.google.com/work/android/answer/6371476
3. https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/organizations/get-iam-policy
4. https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/beta/resource-
manager/folders/get-iam-policy
5. https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/projects/get-iam-policy
6. https://cloud.google.com/resource-manager/docs/organization-policy/org-policy-
constraints
7. https://cloud.google.com/resource-manager/docs/organization-policy/restricting-
domains

CIS Controls:

Version 7

16.2 Configure Centralized Point of Authentication

Configure access for all accounts through as few centralized points of authentication as
possible, including network, security, and cloud systems.

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1.2 Ensure that multi-factor authentication is enabled for all non-service
accounts (Not Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

Setup multi-factor authentication for Google Cloud Platform accounts.

Rationale:

Multi-factor authentication requires more than one mechanism to authenticate a user. This
secures user logins from attackers exploiting stolen or weak credentials.

Audit:

For each Google Cloud Platform project, folder, or organization:

Step 1: Identify non-service accounts.
Step 2: Manually verify that multi-factor authentication for each account is set.

Remediation:

For each Google Cloud Platform project:

Step 1: Identify non-service accounts.
Step 2: Setup multi-factor authentication for each account.

Impact:

None

Default Value:

By default, multi-factor authentication is not set.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/solutions/securing-gcp-account-u2f
2. https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185839

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CIS Controls:

Version 7

16.3 Require Multi-factor Authentication

Require multi-factor authentication for all user accounts, on all systems, whether
managed onsite or by a third-party provider.

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1.3 Ensure that Security Key Enforcement is enabled for all admin
accounts (Not Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 2

Description:

Setup Security Key Enforcement for Google Cloud Platform admin accounts.

Rationale:

Google Cloud Platform users with Organization Administrator roles have the highest level
of privilege in the organization. These accounts should be protected with the strongest
form of two-factor authentication: Security Key Enforcement. Ensure that admins use
Security Keys to log in instead of weaker second factors like SMS or one-time passwords
(OTP). Security Keys are actual physical keys used to access Google Organization
Administrator Accounts. They send an encrypted signature rather than a code, ensuring
that logins cannot be phished.

Audit:

Step 1: Identify users with Organization Administrator privileges:

gcloud organizations get-iam-policy ORGANIZATION_ID

Look for members granted the role "roles/resourcemanager.organizationAdmin".

Step 2: Manually verify that Security Key Enforcement has been enabled for each account.

Remediation:

Step 1: Identify users with the Organization Administrator role.

Step 2: Setup Security Key Enforcement for each account. Learn more at:
https://cloud.google.com/security-key/

Impact:

If an organization administrator loses access to their security key, the user could lose
access to their account. For this reason, it is important to set up backup security keys.

Default Value:

By default, Security Key Enforcement is not enabled for Organization Administrators.

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References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/security-key/
2. https://gsuite.google.com/learn-
more/key_for_working_smarter_faster_and_more_securely.html

CIS Controls:

Version 7

16.3 Require Multi-factor Authentication

Require multi-factor authentication for all user accounts, on all systems, whether
managed onsite or by a third-party provider.

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1.4 Ensure that there are only GCP-managed service account keys for
each service account (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

User managed service accounts should not have user-managed keys.

Rationale:

Anyone who has access to the keys will be able to access resources through the service
account. GCP-managed keys are used by Cloud Platform services such as App Engine and
Compute Engine. These keys cannot be downloaded. Google will keep the keys and
automatically rotate them on an approximately weekly basis. User-managed keys are
created, downloadable, and managed by users. They expire 10 years from creation.

For user-managed keys, the user has to take ownership of key management activities
which include:

 Key storage
 Key distribution
 Key revocation
 Key rotation
 Protecting the keys from unauthorized users
 Key recovery

Even with key owner precautions, keys can be easily leaked by common development
malpractices like checking keys into the source code or leaving them in the Downloads
directory, or accidentally leaving them on support blogs/channels.

It is recommended to prevent user-managed service account keys.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to the IAM page in the GCP Console using

https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/iam
2. In the left navigation pane, click Service accounts. All service accounts and their
corresponding keys are listed.
3. Click the service accounts and check if keys exist.

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From Command Line:
List All the service accounts:

gcloud iam service-accounts list

Identify user-managed service accounts as such account EMAIL ends with

iam.gserviceaccount.com
For each user-managed service account, list the keys managed by the user:

gcloud iam service-accounts keys list --iam-account=<Service Account> --

managed-by=user

No keys should be listed.

Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to the IAM page in the GCP Console using

https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/iam
2. In the left navigation pane, click Service accounts. All service accounts and their
corresponding keys are listed.
3. Click the service account.
4. Click the edit and delete the keys.

From CLI:
To delete a user managed Service Account Key,

gcloud iam service-accounts keys delete --iam-account=<user-managed-service-

account-EMAIL> <KEY-ID>

Prevention:
You can disable service account key creation through the Disable service account key
creation Organization policy by visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-
admin/orgpolicies/iam-disableServiceAccountKeyCreation. Learn more at:
https://cloud.google.com/resource-manager/docs/organization-policy/restricting-
service-accounts
In addition, if you do not need to have service accounts in your project, you can also
prevent the creation of service accounts through the Disable service account creation
Organization policy: https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/orgpolicies/iam-
disableServiceAccountCreation.

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Impact:

Deleting user-managed Service Account Keys may break communication with the
applications using the corresponding keys.

Default Value:

By default, there are no user-managed keys created for user-managed service accounts.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/understanding-service-
accounts#managing_service_account_keys
2. https://cloud.google.com/resource-manager/docs/organization-policy/restricting-
service-accounts

Notes:

A user-managed key cannot be created on GCP-Managed Service Accounts.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

16 Account Monitoring and Control

Account Monitoring and Control

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1.5 Ensure that Service Account has no Admin privileges (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

A service account is a special Google account that belongs to an application or a VM, instead
of to an individual end-user. The application uses the service account to call the service's
Google API so that users aren't directly involved. It's recommended not to use admin access
for ServiceAccount.

Rationale:

Service accounts represent service-level security of the Resources (application or a VM)

which can be determined by the roles assigned to it. Enrolling ServiceAccount with Admin
rights gives full access to an assigned application or a VM. A ServiceAccount Access holder
can perform critical actions like delete, update change settings, etc. without user
intervention. For this reason, it's recommended that service accounts not have Admin
rights.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to IAM & admin/IAM using https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/iam

2. Go to the Members
3. Ensure that there are no User-Managed user created service account(s) with
roles containing *Admin or *admin or role matching Editor or role matching Owner

From Command Line:

1. Get the policy that you want to modify, and write it to a JSON file:
gcloud projects get-iam-policy PROJECT_ID --format json > iam.json
2. The contents of the JSON file will look similar to the following. Note that role of
members group associated with each serviceaccount does not contain *Admin or
*admin or does not match roles/editor or does not match roles/owner.

This recommendation is only applicable to User-Managed user-created service accounts.

These accounts have the nomenclature:
SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com. Note that some Google-
managed, Google-created service accounts have the same naming format, and should be

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excluded (e.g., [email protected] which
needs the Owner role).
Sample Json output:

{
"bindings": [
{
"members": [
"serviceAccount:[email protected]",
],
"role": "roles/appengine.appAdmin"
},
{
"members": [
"user:[email protected]"
],
"role": "roles/owner"
},
{
"members": [
"serviceAccount:[email protected]",
"serviceAccount:[email protected]"
],
"role": "roles/editor"
}
],
"etag": "BwUjMhCsNvY=",
"version": 1
}

Remediation:

From Console

1. Go to IAM & admin/IAM using https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/iam

2. Go to the Members
3. Identify User-Managed user created service account with roles containing *Admin
or *admin or role matching Editor or role matching Owner
4. Click the Delete bin icon to remove the role from the member (service account in
this case)

From Command Line:

1. Using a text editor, Remove Role which contains roles/*Admin or roles/*admin or

matched roles/editor or matches 'roles/owner`. Add a role to the bindings array
that defines the group members and the role for those members.

For example, to grant the role roles/appengine.appViewer to the ServiceAccount which is

roles/editor, you would change the example shown below as follows:

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{
"bindings": [
{
"members": [
"serviceAccount:[email protected]",
],
"role": "roles/appengine.appViewer"
},
{
"members": [
"user:[email protected]"
],
"role": "roles/owner"
},
{
"members": [
"serviceAccount:[email protected]",
"serviceAccount:[email protected]"
],
"role": "roles/editor"
}
],
"etag": "BwUjMhCsNvY="
}

2. Update the project's IAM policy:

gcloud projects set-iam-policy PROJECT_ID iam.json

Impact:

Removing *Admin or*adminorEditororOwner` role assignments from service accounts

may break functionality that uses impacted service accounts. Required role(s) should be
assigned to impacted service accounts in order to restore broken functionalities.

Default Value:

User Managed (and not user-created) default service accounts have the Editor
(roles/editor) role assigned to them to support GCP services they offer.

By default, there are no roles assigned to User Managed User created service accounts.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/iam/service-accounts/
2. https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/understanding-roles
3. https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/understanding-service-accounts

Notes:

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Default (user-managed but not user-created) service accounts have the Editor
(roles/editor) role assigned to them to support GCP services they offer. Such Service
accounts are: [email protected],
[email protected].

CIS Controls:

Version 7

16 Account Monitoring and Control

Account Monitoring and Control

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1.6 Ensure that IAM users are not assigned the Service Account User or
Service Account Token Creator roles at project level (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

It is recommended to assign the Service Account User (iam.serviceAccountUser) and

Service Account Token Creator (iam.serviceAccountTokenCreator) roles to a user for
a specific service account rather than assigning the role to a user at project level.

Rationale:

A service account is a special Google account that belongs to an application or a virtual

machine (VM), instead of to an individual end-user. Application/VM-Instance uses the
service account to call the service's Google API so that users aren't directly involved. In
addition to being an identity, a service account is a resource that has IAM policies attached
to it. These policies determine who can use the service account.

Users with IAM roles to update the App Engine and Compute Engine instances (such as App
Engine Deployer or Compute Instance Admin) can effectively run code as the service
accounts used to run these instances, and indirectly gain access to all the resources for
which the service accounts have access. Similarly, SSH access to a Compute Engine instance
may also provide the ability to execute code as that instance/Service account.

Based on business needs, there could be multiple user-managed service accounts

configured for a project. Granting the iam.serviceAccountUser or
iam.serviceAserviceAccountTokenCreatorccountUser roles to a user for a project gives
the user access to all service accounts in the project, including service accounts that may be
created in the future. This can result in elevation of privileges by using service accounts
and corresponding Compute Engine instances.

In order to implement least privileges best practices, IAM users should not be assigned
the Service Account User or Service Account Token Creator roles at the project level.
Instead, these roles should be assigned to a user for a specific service account, giving that
user access to the service account. The Service Account User allows a user to bind a
service account to a long-running job service, whereas the Service Account Token
Creator role allows a user to directly impersonate (or assert) the identity of a service
account.

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Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to the IAM page in the GCP Console by visiting

https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/iam
2. Click on the filter table text bar, Type Role: Service Account User.
3. Ensure no user is listed as a result of the filter.
4. Click on the filter table text bar, Type Role: Service Account Token Creator.
5. Ensure no user is listed as a result of the filter.

From Command Line:

To ensure IAM users are not assigned Service Account User role at the project level:

gcloud projects get-iam-policy PROJECT_ID --format json | jq

'.bindings[].role' | grep "roles/iam.serviceAccountUser"

gcloud projects get-iam-policy PROJECT_ID --format json | jq

'.bindings[].role' | grep "roles/iam.serviceAccountTokenCreator"

These commands should not return any output.

Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to the IAM page in the GCP Console by visiting:

https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/iam.
2. Click on the filter table text bar. Type Role: Service Account User
3. Click the Delete Bin icon in front of the role Service Account User for every user
listed as a result of a filter.
4. Click on the filter table text bar. Type Role: Service Account Token Creator
5. Click the Delete Bin icon in front of the role Service Account Token Creator for
every user listed as a result of a filter.

From Command Line:

1. Using a text editor, remove the bindings with the roles/iam.serviceAccountUser

or roles/iam.serviceAccountTokenCreator.

For example, you can use the iam.json file shown below as follows:

{
"bindings": [
{
"members": [
"serviceAccount:[email protected]",

26 | P a g e
 ],
"role": "roles/appengine.appViewer"
},
{
"members": [
"user:[email protected]"
],
"role": "roles/owner"
},
{
"members": [
"serviceAccount:[email protected]",
"serviceAccount:[email protected]"
],
"role": "roles/editor"
}
],
"etag": "BwUjMhCsNvY="
}

2. Update the project's IAM policy:

gcloud projects set-iam-policy PROJECT_ID iam.json

Impact:

After revoking Service Account User or Service Account Token Creator roles at the
project level from all impacted user account(s), these roles should be assigned to a user(s)
for specific service account(s) according to business needs.

Default Value:

By default, users do not have the Service Account User or Service Account Token Creator
role assigned at project level.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/service-accounts
2. https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/granting-roles-to-service-accounts
3. https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/understanding-roles
4. https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/granting-changing-revoking-access
5. https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/iam

Notes:

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To assign the role roles/iam.serviceAccountUser or
roles/iam.serviceAccountTokenCreator to a user role on a service account instead of a
project:

1. Go to https://console.cloud.google.com/projectselector/iam-
admin/serviceaccounts
2. Select Target Project
3. Select target service account. Click Permissions on the top bar. It will open
permission pane on right side of the page
4. Add desired members with Service Account User or Service Account Token
Creator role.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

14.6 Protect Information through Access Control Lists

Protect all information stored on systems with file system, network share, claims,
application, or database specific access control lists. These controls will enforce the
principle that only authorized individuals should have access to the information based on
their need to access the information as a part of their responsibilities.

16 Account Monitoring and Control

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1.7 Ensure user-managed/external keys for service accounts are rotated
every 90 days or less (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

Service Account keys consist of a key ID (Private_key_Id) and Private key, which are used to
sign programmatic requests users make to Google cloud services accessible to that
particular service account. It is recommended that all Service Account keys are regularly
rotated.

Rationale:

Rotating Service Account keys will reduce the window of opportunity for an access key that
is associated with a compromised or terminated account to be used. Service Account keys
should be rotated to ensure that data cannot be accessed with an old key that might have
been lost, cracked, or stolen.

Each service account is associated with a key pair managed by Google Cloud Platform
(GCP). It is used for service-to-service authentication within GCP. Google rotates the keys
daily.

GCP provides the option to create one or more user-managed (also called external key
pairs) key pairs for use from outside GCP (for example, for use with Application Default
Credentials). When a new key pair is created, the user is required to download the private
key (which is not retained by Google). With external keys, users are responsible for keeping
the private key secure and other management operations such as key rotation. External
keys can be managed by the IAM API, gcloud command-line tool, or the Service Accounts
page in the Google Cloud Platform Console. GCP facilitates up to 10 external service account
keys per service account to facilitate key rotation.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to APIs & Services\Credentials using

https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials
2. In the section Service Account Keys, for every External (user-managed) service
account key listed ensure the creation date is within the past 90 days.

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From Command Line:

1. List all Service accounts from a project.

gcloud iam service-accounts list

2. For every service account list service account keys.

gcloud iam service-accounts keys list --iam-account

[Service_Account_Email_Id] --format=json

3. Ensure every service account key for a service account has a "validAfterTime"
value within the past 90 days.

Remediation:

From Console:
Delete any external (user-managed) Service Account Key older than 90 days:

1. Go to APIs & Services\Credentials using

https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials
2. In the Section Service Account Keys, for every external (user-managed) service
account key where creation date is greater than or equal to the past 90 days, click
Delete Bin Icon to Delete Service Account key

Create a new external (user-managed) Service Account Key for a Service Account:

1. Go to APIs & Services\Credentials using

https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials
2. Click Create Credentials and Select Service Account Key.
3. Choose the service account in the drop-down list for which an External (user-
managed) Service Account key needs to be created.
4. Select the desired key type format among JSON or P12.
5. Click Create. It will download the private key. Keep it safe.
6. Click Close if prompted.
7. The site will redirect to the APIs & Services\Credentials page. Make a note of the
new ID displayed in the Service account keys section.

Impact:

Rotating service account keys will break communication for dependent applications.
Dependent applications need to be configured manually with the new key ID displayed in
the Service account keyssection and the private key downloaded by the user.

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Default Value:

GCP does not provide an automation option for External (user-managed) Service key
rotation.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/understanding-service-
accounts#managing_service_account_keys
2. https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/iam/service-accounts/keys/list
3. https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/service-accounts

Notes:

For user-managed Service Account key(s), key management is entirely the user's
responsibility.

CIS Controls:

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1.8 Ensure that Separation of duties is enforced while assigning service
account related roles to users (Not Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 2

Description:

It is recommended that the principle of 'Separation of Duties' is enforced while assigning

service-account related roles to users.

Rationale:

The built-in/predefined IAM role Service Account admin allows the user/identity to
create, delete, and manage service account(s). The built-in/predefined IAM role Service
Account User allows the user/identity (with adequate privileges on Compute and App
Engine) to assign service account(s) to Apps/Compute Instances.

Separation of duties is the concept of ensuring that one individual does not have all
necessary permissions to be able to complete a malicious action. In Cloud IAM - service
accounts, this could be an action such as using a service account to access resources that
user should not normally have access to.

Separation of duties is a business control typically used in larger organizations, meant to

help avoid security or privacy incidents and errors. It is considered best practice.

No user should have Service Account Admin and Service Account Userroles assigned at
the same time.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to IAM & Admin/IAM using https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/iam.

2. Ensure no member has the roles Service Account Admin and Service account
User assigned together.

From Command Line:

1. List all users and role assignments:

gcloud projects get-iam-policy [Project_ID]

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 2. Ensure that there are no common users found in the member section for roles
roles/iam.serviceAccountAdmin and roles/iam.serviceAccountUser

Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to IAM & Admin/IAM using https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/iam.

2. For any member having both Service Account Admin and Service account User
roles granted/assigned, click the Delete Bin icon to remove either role from the
member.
Removal of a role should be done based on the business requirements.

Impact:

The removed role should be assigned to a different user based on business needs.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/service-accounts
2. https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/understanding-roles
3. https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/granting-roles-to-service-accounts

Notes:

Users granted with Owner (roles/owner) and Editor (roles/editor) have privileges
equivalent to Service Account Admin and Service Account User. To avoid the misuse,
Owner and Editor roles should be granted to very limited users and Use of these primitive
privileges should be minimal. These requirements are addressed in separate
recommendations.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

14.6 Protect Information through Access Control Lists

Protect all information stored on systems with file system, network share, claims,
application, or database specific access control lists. These controls will enforce the
principle that only authorized individuals should have access to the information based on
their need to access the information as a part of their responsibilities.

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33 | P a g e
1.9 Ensure that Cloud KMS cryptokeys are not anonymously or publicly
accessible (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

It is recommended that the IAM policy on Cloud KMS cryptokeys should restrict
anonymous and/or public access.

Rationale:

Granting permissions to allUsers or allAuthenticatedUsers allows anyone to access the

dataset. Such access might not be desirable if sensitive data is stored at the location. In this
case, ensure that anonymous and/or public access to a Cloud KMS cryptokey is not
allowed.

Audit:

From Command Line:

1. List all Cloud KMS Cryptokeys.

gcloud kms keys list --keyring=[key_ring_name] --location=global --

format=json | jq '.[].name'

2. Ensure the below command's output does not contain allUsers and
allAuthenticatedUsers.

gcloud kms keys get-iam-policy [key_name] --keyring=[key_ring_name] --

location=global --format=json | jq '.bindings[].members[]'

Remediation:

From Command Line:

1. List all Cloud KMS Cryptokeys.

gcloud kms keys list --keyring=[key_ring_name] --location=global --

format=json | jq '.[].name'

2. Remove IAM policy binding for a KMS key to remove access to allUsers and
allAuthenticatedUsers using the below command.

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gcloud kms keys remove-iam-policy-binding [key_name] --
keyring=[key_ring_name] --location=global --member='allAuthenticatedUsers' --
role='[role]'

gcloud kms keys remove-iam-policy-binding [key_name] --

keyring=[key_ring_name] --location=global --member='allUsers' --role='[role]'

Impact:

Removing the binding for allUsers and allAuthenticatedUsers members denies

accessing cryptokeys to anonymous or public users.

Default Value:

By default Cloud KMS does not allow access to allUsers or allAuthenticatedUsers.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/kms/keys/remove-iam-policy-
binding
2. https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/kms/keys/set-iam-policy
3. https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/kms/keys/get-iam-policy
4. https://cloud.google.com/kms/docs/object-hierarchy#key_resource_id

Notes:

[key_ring_name] : Is the resource ID of the key ring, which is the fully-qualified Key ring
name. This value is case-sensitive and in the form:
projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/LOCATION/keyRings/KEY_RING

You can retrieve the key ring resource ID using the Cloud Console:

1. Open the Cryptographic Keys page in the Cloud Console.

2. For the key ring whose resource ID you are retrieving, click the More icon (3
vertical dots).
3. Click Copy Resource ID. The resource ID for the key ring is copied to your
clipboard.

[key_name] : Is the resource ID of the key, which is the fully-qualified CryptoKey name. This
value is case-sensitive and in the form:
projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/LOCATION/keyRings/KEY_RING/cryptoKeys/KEY

You can retrieve the key resource ID using the Cloud Console:

1. Open the Cryptographic Keys page in the Cloud Console.

2. Click the name of the key ring that contains the key.

35 | P a g e
 3. For the key whose resource ID you are retrieving, click the More icon (3 vertical
dots).
4. Click Copy Resource ID. The resource ID for the key is copied to your clipboard.

[role] : The role to remove the member from.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

14.6 Protect Information through Access Control Lists

Protect all information stored on systems with file system, network share, claims,
application, or database specific access control lists. These controls will enforce the
principle that only authorized individuals should have access to the information based on
their need to access the information as a part of their responsibilities.

36 | P a g e
1.10 Ensure KMS encryption keys are rotated within a period of 90 days
(Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

Google Cloud Key Management Service stores cryptographic keys in a hierarchical

structure designed for useful and elegant access control management.

The format for the rotation schedule depends on the client library that is used. For the
gcloud command-line tool, the next rotation time must be in ISO or RFC3339 format, and the
rotation period must be in the form INTEGER[UNIT], where units can be one of seconds (s),
minutes (m), hours (h) or days (d).

Rationale:

Set a key rotation period and starting time. A key can be created with a specified rotation
period, which is the time between when new key versions are generated automatically. A
key can also be created with a specified next rotation time. A key is a named object
representing a cryptographic key used for a specific purpose. The key material, the actual
bits used for encryption, can change over time as new key versions are created.

A key is used to protect some corpus of data. A collection of files could be encrypted with
the same key and people with decrypt permissions on that key would be able to decrypt
those files. Therefore, it's necessary to make sure the rotation period is set to a specific
time.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to Cryptographic Keys by visiting:

https://console.cloud.google.com/security/kms.
2. Click on each key ring, then ensure each key in the keyring has Next Rotation set
for less than 90 days from the current date.

From Command Line:

1. Ensure rotation is scheduled by ROTATION_PERIOD and NEXT_ROTATION_TIME for each

key :

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gcloud kms keys list --keyring=<KEY_RING> --location=<LOCATION> --
format=json'(rotationPeriod)'

Ensure outcome values for rotationPeriod and nextRotationTime satisfy the below
criteria:
rotationPeriod is <= 129600m

rotationPeriod is <= 7776000s

rotationPeriod is <= 2160h

rotationPeriod is <= 90d

nextRotationTime is <= 90days from current DATE

Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to Cryptographic Keys by visiting:

https://console.cloud.google.com/security/kms.
2. Click on the specific key ring
3. From the list of keys, choose the specific key and Click on Right side pop up the
blade (3 dots).
4. Click on Edit rotation period.
5. On the pop-up window, Select a new rotation period in days which should be
less than 90 and then choose Starting on date (date from which the rotation
period begins).

From Command Line:

1. Update and schedule rotation by ROTATION_PERIOD and NEXT_ROTATION_TIME for

each key:

gcloud kms keys update new --keyring=KEY_RING --location=LOCATION --next-

rotation-time=NEXT_ROTATION_TIME --rotation-period=ROTATION_PERIOD

Impact:

After a successful key rotation, the older key version is required in order to decrypt the
data encrypted by that previous key version.

Default Value:

By default, KMS encryption keys are rotated every 90 days.

38 | P a g e
References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/kms/docs/key-rotation#frequency_of_key_rotation
2. https://cloud.google.com/kms/docs/re-encrypt-data

Notes:

 Key rotation does NOT re-encrypt already encrypted data with the newly generated
key version. If you suspect unauthorized use of a key, you should re-encrypt the data
protected by that key and then disable or schedule destruction of the prior key
version.
 It is not recommended to rely solely on irregular rotation, but rather to use irregular
rotation if needed in conjunction with a regular rotation schedule.

CIS Controls:

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16 Account Monitoring and Control

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1.11 Ensure that Separation of duties is enforced while assigning KMS
related roles to users (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 2

Description:

It is recommended that the principle of 'Separation of Duties' is enforced while assigning

KMS related roles to users.

Rationale:

The built-in/predefined IAM role Cloud KMS Admin allows the user/identity to create,
delete, and manage service account(s). The built-in/predefined IAM role Cloud KMS
CryptoKey Encrypter/Decrypter allows the user/identity (with adequate privileges on
concerned resources) to encrypt and decrypt data at rest using an encryption key(s).

The built-in/predefined IAM role Cloud KMS CryptoKey Encrypter allows the
user/identity (with adequate privileges on concerned resources) to encrypt data at rest
using an encryption key(s). The built-in/predefined IAM role Cloud KMS CryptoKey
Decrypter allows the user/identity (with adequate privileges on concerned resources) to
decrypt data at rest using an encryption key(s).

Separation of duties is the concept of ensuring that one individual does not have all
necessary permissions to be able to complete a malicious action. In Cloud KMS, this could
be an action such as using a key to access and decrypt data a user should not normally have
access to. Separation of duties is a business control typically used in larger organizations,
meant to help avoid security or privacy incidents and errors. It is considered best practice.

No user(s) should have Cloud KMS Admin and any of the Cloud KMS CryptoKey
Encrypter/Decrypter, Cloud KMS CryptoKey Encrypter, Cloud KMS CryptoKey
Decrypter roles assigned at the same time.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to IAM & Admin/IAM by visiting: https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-

admin/iam

40 | P a g e
 2. Ensure no member has the roles Cloud KMS Admin and any of the Cloud KMS
CryptoKey Encrypter/Decrypter, Cloud KMS CryptoKey Encrypter, Cloud KMS
CryptoKey Decrypter assigned.

From Command Line:

1. List all users and role assignments:

gcloud projects get-iam-policy PROJECT_ID

2. Ensure that there are no common users found in the member section for roles
cloudkms.admin and any one of Cloud KMS CryptoKey Encrypter/Decrypter,
Cloud KMS CryptoKey Encrypter, Cloud KMS CryptoKey Decrypter

Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to IAM & Admin/IAM using https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/iam

2. For any member having Cloud KMS Admin and any of the Cloud KMS CryptoKey
Encrypter/Decrypter, Cloud KMS CryptoKey Encrypter, Cloud KMS CryptoKey
Decrypter roles granted/assigned, click the Delete Bin icon to remove the role
from the member.

Note: Removing a role should be done based on the business requirement.

Impact:

Removed roles should be assigned to another user based on business needs.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/kms/docs/separation-of-duties

Notes:

Users granted with Owner (roles/owner) and Editor (roles/editor) have privileges
equivalent to Cloud KMS Admin and Cloud KMS CryptoKey Encrypter/Decrypter. To avoid
misuse, Owner and Editor roles should be granted to a very limited group of users. Use of
these primitive privileges should be minimal. These requirements are addressed in
separate recommendations.

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CIS Controls:

Version 7

4 Controlled Use of Administrative Privileges

Controlled Use of Administrative Privileges

14.6 Protect Information through Access Control Lists

Protect all information stored on systems with file system, network share, claims,
application, or database specific access control lists. These controls will enforce the
principle that only authorized individuals should have access to the information based on
their need to access the information as a part of their responsibilities.

16 Account Monitoring and Control

Account Monitoring and Control

42 | P a g e
1.12 Ensure API keys are not created for a project (Not Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 2

Description:

Keys are insecure because they can be viewed publicly, such as from within a browser, or
they can be accessed on a device where the key resides. It is recommended to use standard
authentication flow instead.

Rationale:

Security risks involved in using API-Keys appear below:

 API keys are simple encrypted strings

 API keys do not identify the user or the application making the API request
 API keys are typically accessible to clients, making it easy to discover and steal an
API key

To avoid the security risk in using API keys, it is recommended to use standard
authentication flow instead.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to APIs & Services\Credentials using

https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials
2. In the section API Keys, no API key should be listed.

Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to APIs & Services\Credentials using

https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials
2. In the section API Keys, to delete API Keys: Click the Delete Bin Icon in front of
every API Key Name.

Impact:

Deleting an API key will break dependent applications (if any).

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References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication/api-keys

Notes:

Google recommends using the standard authentication flow instead of using API keys.
However, there are limited cases where API keys are more appropriate. For example, if
there is a mobile application that needs to use the Google Cloud Translation API, but
doesn't otherwise need a backend server, API keys are the simplest way to authenticate to
that API.

If a business requires API keys to be used, then the API keys should be secured properly.

CIS Controls:

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1.13 Ensure API keys are restricted to use by only specified Hosts and
Apps (Not Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

Unrestricted keys are insecure because they can be viewed publicly, such as from within a
browser, or they can be accessed on a device where the key resides. It is recommended to
restrict API key usage to trusted hosts, HTTP referrers and apps.

Rationale:

Security risks involved in using API-Keys appear below:

 API keys are simple encrypted strings

 API keys do not identify the user or the application making the API request
 API keys are typically accessible to clients, making it easy to discover and steal an
API key

In light of these potential risks, Google recommends using the standard authentication flow
instead of API keys. However, there are limited cases where API keys are more appropriate.
For example, if there is a mobile application that needs to use the Google Cloud Translation
API, but doesn't otherwise need a backend server, API keys are the simplest way to
authenticate to that API.

In order to reduce attack vectors, API-Keys can be restricted only to trusted hosts, HTTP
referrers and applications.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to APIs & Services\Credentials using

https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials
2. In the section API Keys, Click the API Key Name. The API Key properties display on a
new page.
3. For every API Key, ensure the section Key restrictions parameter Application
restrictions is not set to None.

Or,
Ensure Application restrictions is set to HTTP referrers and the referrer is not set to

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wild-cards (* or *.[TLD] or *.[TLD]/*) allowing access to any/wide HTTP
referrer(s)
Or,
Ensure Application restrictions is set to IP addresses and referrer is not set to any
host (0.0.0.0 or 0.0.0.0/0 or ::0)

Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to APIs & Services\Credentials using

https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials
2. In the section API Keys, Click the API Key Name. The API Key properties display on a
new page.
3. In the Key restrictions section, set the application restrictions to any of HTTP
referrers, IP Adresses, Android Apps, iOs Apps.
4. Click Save.
5. Repeat steps 2,3,4 for every unrestricted API key.
Note: Do not set HTTP referrers to wild-cards (* or *.[TLD] or .[TLD]/) allowing
access to any/wide HTTP referrer(s)
Do not set IP addresses and referrer to any host (0.0.0.0 or 0.0.0.0/0 or
::0)

Impact:

Setting Application Restrictions may break existing application functioning, if not done
carefully.

Default Value:

By default, Application Restrictions are set to None.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication/api-keys

CIS Controls:

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1.14 Ensure API keys are restricted to only APIs that application needs
access (Not Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

API keys are insecure because they can be viewed publicly, such as from within a browser,
or they can be accessed on a device where the key resides. It is recommended to restrict
API keys to use (call) only APIs required by an application.

Rationale:

Security risks involved in using API-Keys are below:

 API keys are simple encrypted strings

 API keys do not identify the user or the application making the API request
 API keys are typically accessible to clients, making it easy to discover and steal an
API key

In light of these potential risks, Google recommends using the standard authentication flow
instead of API-Keys. However, there are limited cases where API keys are more
appropriate. For example, if there is a mobile application that needs to use the Google
Cloud Translation API, but doesn't otherwise need a backend server, API keys are the
simplest way to authenticate to that API.

In order to reduce attack surfaces by providing least privileges, API-Keys can be

restricted to use (call) only APIs required by an application.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to APIs & Services\Credentials using

https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials
2. In the section API Keys, Click the API Key Name. The API Key properties display on a
new page.
3. For every API Key, ensure the section Key restrictions parameter API
restrictions is not set to None.

Or,
Ensure API restrictions is not set to Google Cloud APIs

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Note: Google Cloud APIs represents the API collection of all cloud services/APIs offered
by Google cloud.

Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to APIs & Services\Credentials using

https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials
2. In the section API Keys, Click the API Key Name. The API Key properties display on a
new page.
3. In the Key restrictions section go to API restrictions.
4. Click the Select API drop-down to choose an API.
5. Click Save.
6. Repeat steps 2,3,4,5 for every unrestricted API key

Note: Do not set API restrictions to Google Cloud APIs, as this option allows access to
all services offered by Google cloud.

Impact:

Setting API restrictions may break existing application functioning, if not done carefully.

Default Value:

By default, API restrictions are set to None.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication/api-keys
2. https://cloud.google.com/apis/docs/overview

CIS Controls:

Version 7

16 Account Monitoring and Control

Account Monitoring and Control

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1.15 Ensure API keys are rotated every 90 days (Not Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

It is recommended to rotate API keys every 90 days.

Rationale:

Security risks involved in using API-Keys are listed below:

 API keys are simple encrypted strings

 API keys do not identify the user or the application making the API request
 API keys are typically accessible to clients, making it easy to discover and steal an
API key

Because of these potential risks, Google recommends using the standard authentication
flow instead of API Keys. However, there are limited cases where API keys are more
appropriate. For example, if there is a mobile application that needs to use the Google
Cloud Translation API, but doesn't otherwise need a backend server, API keys are the
simplest way to authenticate to that API.

Once a key is stolen, it has no expiration, meaning it may be used indefinitely unless the
project owner revokes or regenerates the key. Rotating API keys will reduce the window of
opportunity for an access key that is associated with a compromised or terminated account
to be used.

API keys should be rotated to ensure that data cannot be accessed with an old key that
might have been lost, cracked, or stolen.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to APIs & Services\Credentials using

https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials
2. In the section API Keys, for every key ensure the creation date is less than 90
days.

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Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to APIs & Services\Credentials using

https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials
2. In the section API Keys, Click the API Key Name. The API Key properties display on a
new page.
3. Click REGENERATE KEY to rotate API key.
4. Click Save.
5. Repeat steps 2,3,4 for every API key that has not been rotated in the last 90 days.

Note: Do not set HTTP referrers to wild-cards (* or *.[TLD] or .[TLD]/) allowing access to
any/wide HTTP referrer(s)
Do not set IP addresses and referrer to any host (0.0.0.0 or 0.0.0.0/0 or ::0)

Impact:

Regenerating Key may break existing client connectivity as the client will try to connect
with older API keys they have stored on devices.

References:

1. There is no option to automatically regenerate (rotate) API keys periodically.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

16 Account Monitoring and Control

Account Monitoring and Control

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2 Logging and Monitoring
This section covers recommendations addressing Logging and Monitoring on Google Cloud
Platform.

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2.1 Ensure that Cloud Audit Logging is configured properly across all
services and all users from a project (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

It is recommended that Cloud Audit Logging is configured to track all admin activities and
read, write access to user data.

Rationale:

Cloud Audit Logging maintains two audit logs for each project, folder, and organization:
Admin Activity and Data Access.

1. Admin Activity logs contain log entries for API calls or other administrative actions
that modify the configuration or metadata of resources. Admin Activity audit logs
are enabled for all services and cannot be configured.
2. Data Access audit logs record API calls that create, modify, or read user-provided
data. These are disabled by default and should be enabled.

There are three kinds of Data Access audit log information:

o Admin read: Records operations that read metadata or configuration

information. Admin Activity audit logs record writes of metadata and
configuration information that cannot be disabled.
o Data read: Records operations that read user-provided data.
o Data write: Records operations that write user-provided data.

It is recommended to have an effective default audit config configured in such a way that:

1. logtype is set to DATA_READ (to log user activity tracking) and DATA_WRITES (to
log changes/tampering to user data).
2. audit config is enabled for all the services supported by the Data Access audit logs
feature.
3. Logs should be captured for all users, i.e., there are no exempted users in any of the
audit config sections. This will ensure overriding the audit config will not contradict
the requirement.

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Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to Audit Logs by visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/audit.

2. Ensure that Admin Read, Data Write, and Data Read are enabled for all Google Cloud
services and that no exemptions are allowed.

From Command Line:

1. List the Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies for the project, folder, or
organization:

gcloud organizations get-iam-policy ORGANIZATION_ID

gcloud resource-manager folders get-iam-policy FOLDER_ID
gcloud projects get-iam-policy PROJECT_ID

2. Policy should have a default auditConfigs section which has the logtype set to
DATA_WRITES and DATA_READ for all services. Note that projects inherit settings
from folders, which in turn inherit settings from the organization. When called,
projects get-iam-policy, the result shows only the policies set in the project, not the
policies inherited from the parent folder or organization. Nevertheless, if the parent
folder has Cloud Audit Logging enabled, the project does as well.

Sample output for default audit configs may look like this:

auditConfigs:
- auditLogConfigs:
- logType: ADMIN_READ
- logType: DATA_WRITE
- logType: DATA_READ
service: allServices

3. Any of the auditConfigs sections should not have parameter "exemptedMembers:"

set, which will ensure that Logging is enabled for all users and no user is exempted.

Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to Audit Logs by visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/audit.

2. Follow the steps at https://cloud.google.com/logging/docs/audit/configure-data-
access to enable audit logs for all Google Cloud services. Ensure that no exemptions
are allowed.

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From Command Line:

1. To read the project's IAM policy and store it in a file run a command:

gcloud projects get-iam-policy PROJECT_ID > /tmp/project_policy.yaml

Alternatively, the policy can be set at the organization or folder level. If setting the policy at
the organization level, it is not necessary to also set it for each folder or project.

gcloud organizations get-iam-policy ORGANIZATION_ID > /tmp/org_policy.yaml

gcloud resource-manager folders get-iam-policy FOLDER_ID >
/tmp/folder_policy.yaml

2. Edit policy in /tmp/policy.yaml, adding or changing only the audit logs

configuration to:

auditConfigs:
- auditLogConfigs:
- logType: DATA_WRITE
- logType: DATA_READ
service: allServices

Note: exemptedMembers: is not set as audit logging should be enabled for all the users

3. To write new IAM policy run command:

gcloud organizations set-iam-policy ORGANIZATION_ID /tmp/org_policy.yaml

gcloud resource-manager folders set-iam-policy FOLDER_ID
/tmp/folder_policy.yaml
gcloud projects set-iam-policy PROJECT_ID /tmp/project_policy.yaml

If the preceding command reports a conflict with another change, then repeat these steps,
starting with the first step.

Impact:

There is no charge for Admin Activity audit logs. Enabling the Data Access audit logs might
result in your project being charged for the additional logs usage.

Default Value:

Admin Activity logs are always enabled. They cannot be disabled. Data Access audit logs are
disabled by default because they can be quite large.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/logging/docs/audit/

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 2. https://cloud.google.com/logging/docs/audit/configure-data-access

Notes:

 Log type DATA_READ is equally important to that of DATA_WRITE to track detailed user
activities.
 BigQuery Data Access logs are handled differently from other data access logs.
BigQuery logs are enabled by default and cannot be disabled. They do not count
against logs allotment and cannot result in extra logs charges.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

6.2 Activate audit logging

Ensure that local logging has been enabled on all systems and networking devices.

6.7 Regularly Review Logs

On a regular basis, review logs to identify anomalies or abnormal events.

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2.2 Ensure that sinks are configured for all log entries (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

It is recommended to create a sink that will export copies of all the log entries. This can
help aggregate logs from multiple projects and export them to a Security Information and
Event Management (SIEM).

Rationale:

Log entries are held in Stackdriver Logging. To aggregate logs, export them to a SIEM. To
keep them longer, it is recommended to set up a log sink. Exporting involves writing a filter
that selects the log entries to export, and choosing a destination in Cloud Storage, BigQuery,
or Cloud Pub/Sub. The filter and destination are held in an object called a sink. To ensure
all log entries are exported to sinks, ensure that there is no filter configured for a sink.
Sinks can be created in projects, organizations, folders, and billing accounts.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to Logging/Exports by visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/logs/exports.

2. For every sink, click the 3-dot button for Menu options and select View Filter.
3. Ensure there is at least one sink with an empty sink filter.
4. Additionally, ensure that the resource configured as Destination exists.

From Command Line:

1. Ensure that a sink with an empty filter exists. List the sinks for the project, folder
or organization. If sinks are configured at a folder or organization level, they do not
need to be configured for each project:

gcloud logging sinks list --folder=FOLDER_ID | --organization=ORGANIZATION_ID

| --project=PROJECT_ID

The output should list at least one sink with an empty filter.

2. Additionally, ensure that the resource configured as Destination exists.

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See https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/beta/logging/sinks/list for more
information.

Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to Logging/Logs by visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/logs/viewer.

2. Click the down arrow symbol on Filter Bar at the rightmost corner and select
Convert to Advanced Filter.
3. This step converts Filter Bar to Advanced Filter Bar.
4. Clear any text from the Advanced Filter field. This ensures that the log-filter is
set to empty and captures all the logs.
5. Click Submit Filter and the result should display all logs.
6. Click Create Sink, which opens a menu on the right.
7. Fill out the fields and click Create Sink.

For more information, see

https://cloud.google.com/logging/docs/export/configure_export_v2#dest-create.
From Command Line:
To create a sink to export all log entries in a Google Cloud Storage bucket:

gcloud logging sinks create <sink-name>

storage.googleapis.com/DESTINATION_BUCKET_NAME

Sinks can be created for a folder or organization, which will include all projects.

gcloud logging sinks create <sink-name>

storage.googleapis.com/DESTINATION_BUCKET_NAME --include-children --
folder=FOLDER_ID | --organization=ORGANIZATION_ID

Note:

1. A sink created by the command-line above will export logs in storage buckets.
However, sinks can be configured to export logs into BigQuery, or Cloud Pub/Sub, or
Custom Destination.
2. While creating a sink, the sink option --log-filter is not used to ensure the sink
exports all log entries.
3. A sink can be created at a folder or organization level that collects the logs of all the
projects underneath bypassing the option --include-children in the gcloud
command.

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Impact:

There are no costs or limitations in Stackdriver Logging for exporting logs, but the export
destinations charge for storing or transmitting the log data.

Default Value:

By default, there are no sinks configured.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/logging/docs/reference/tools/gcloud-logging
2. https://cloud.google.com/logging/quotas
3. https://cloud.google.com/logging/docs/export/
4. https://cloud.google.com/logging/docs/export/using_exported_logs
5. https://cloud.google.com/logging/docs/export/configure_export_v2
6. https://cloud.google.com/logging/docs/export/aggregated_exports
7. https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/beta/logging/sinks/list

Notes:

For Command-Line Audit and Remediation, the sink destination of type Cloud Storage
Bucket is considered. However, the destination could be configured to Cloud Storage
Bucket or BigQuery or Cloud Pub\Sub or Custom Destination. Command Line Interface
commands would change accordingly.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

6.2 Activate audit logging

Ensure that local logging has been enabled on all systems and networking devices.

6.4 Ensure adequate storage for logs

Ensure that all systems that store logs have adequate storage space for the logs
generated.

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2.3 Ensure that retention policies on log buckets are configured using
Bucket Lock (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

Enabling retention policies on log buckets will protect logs stored in cloud storage buckets
from being overwritten or accidentally deleted. It is recommended to set up retention
policies and configure Bucket Lock on all storage buckets that are used as log sinks.

Rationale:

Logs can be exported by creating one or more sinks that include a log filter and a
destination. As Stackdriver Logging receives new log entries, they are compared against
each sink. If a log entry matches a sink's filter, then a copy of the log entry is written to the
destination.

Sinks can be configured to export logs in storage buckets. It is recommended to configure a

data retention policy for these cloud storage buckets and to lock the data retention policy;
thus permanently preventing the policy from being reduced or removed. This way, if the
system is ever compromised by an attacker or a malicious insider who wants to cover their
tracks, the activity logs are definitely preserved for forensics and security investigations.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Open the Cloud Storage browser in the Google Cloud Console by visiting
https://console.cloud.google.com/storage/browser.
2. In the Column display options menu, make sure Retention policy is checked.
3. In the list of buckets, the retention period of each bucket is found in the Retention
policy column. If the retention policy is locked, an image of a lock appears directly
to the left of the retention period.

From Command Line:

1. To list all sinks destined to storage buckets:

gcloud logging sinks list --folder=FOLDER_ID | --organization=ORGANIZATION_ID

| --project=PROJECT_ID

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 2. For every storage bucket listed above, verify that retention policies and Bucket Lock
are enabled:

gsutil retention get gs://BUCKET_NAME

For more information, see https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/using-bucket-

lock#view-policy.

Remediation:

From Console:

1. If sinks are not configured, first follow the instructions in the recommendation:
Ensure that sinks are configured for all Log entries.
2. For each storage bucket configured as a sink, go to the Cloud Storage browser at
https://console.cloud.google.com/storage/browser/<BUCKET_NAME>.
3. Select the Bucket Lock tab near the top of the page.
4. In the Retention policy entry, click the Add Duration link. The Set a retention
policy dialog box appears.
5. Enter the desired length of time for the retention period and click Save policy.
6. Set the Lock status for this retention policy to Locked.

From Command Line:

1. To list all sinks destined to storage buckets:

gcloud logging sinks list --folder=FOLDER_ID | --organization=ORGANIZATION_ID

| --project=PROJECT_ID

2. For each storage bucket listed above, set a retention policy and lock it:

gsutil retention set [TIME_DURATION] gs://[BUCKET_NAME]

gsutil retention lock gs://[BUCKET_NAME]

For more information, visit https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/using-bucket-

lock#set-policy.

Impact:

Locking a bucket is an irreversible action. Once you lock a bucket, you cannot remove the
retention policy from the bucket or decrease the retention period for the policy.

Default Value:

By default, storage buckets used as log sinks do not have retention policies and Bucket Lock
configured.
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References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/bucket-lock
2. https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/using-bucket-lock

CIS Controls:

Version 7

6 Maintenance, Monitoring and Analysis of Audit Logs

Maintenance, Monitoring and Analysis of Audit Logs

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2.4 Ensure log metric filter and alerts exist for project ownership
assignments/changes (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

In order to prevent unnecessary project ownership assignments to users/service-accounts

and further misuses of projects and resources, all roles/Owner assignments should be
monitored.

Members (users/Service-Accounts) with a role assignment to primitive role roles/Owner

are project owners.

The project owner has all the privileges on the project the role belongs to. These are
summarized below:

- All viewer permissions on all GCP Services within the project

- Permissions for actions that modify the state of all GCP services within
the project

- Manage roles and permissions for a project and all resources within the
project

- Set up billing for a project

Granting the owner role to a member (user/Service-Account) will allow that member to
modify the Identity and Access Management (IAM) policy. Therefore, grant the owner role
only if the member has a legitimate purpose to manage the IAM policy. This is because the
project IAM policy contains sensitive access control data. Having a minimal set of users
allowed to manage IAM policy will simplify any auditing that may be necessary.

Rationale:

Project ownership has the highest level of privileges on a project. To avoid misuse of
project resources, the project ownership assignment/change actions mentioned above
should be monitored and alerted to concerned recipients.

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- Sending project ownership invites

- Acceptance/Rejection of project ownership invite by user

- Adding `role\Owner` to a user/service-account

- Removing a user/Service account from `role\Owner`

Audit:

From Console:
Ensure that the prescribed log metric is present:

1. Go to Logging/Metrics by visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/logs/metrics.

2. In the User-defined Metrics section, ensure that at least one metric
<Log_Metric_Name> is present with filter text:

(protoPayload.serviceName="cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com")
AND (ProjectOwnership OR projectOwnerInvitee)
OR (protoPayload.serviceData.policyDelta.bindingDeltas.action="REMOVE"
AND protoPayload.serviceData.policyDelta.bindingDeltas.role="roles/owner")
OR (protoPayload.serviceData.policyDelta.bindingDeltas.action="ADD"
AND protoPayload.serviceData.policyDelta.bindingDeltas.role="roles/owner")

Ensure that the prescribed Alerting Policy is present:

3. Go to Alerting by visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/monitoring/alerting.

4. Under the Policies section, ensure that at least one alert policy exists for the log
metric above. Clicking on the policy should show that it is configured with a
condition. For example, Violates when: Any logging.googleapis.com/user/<Log
Metric Name> stream is above a threshold of zero(0) for greater than
zero(0) seconds means that the alert will trigger for any new owner change. Verify
that the chosen alerting thresholds make sense for your organization.
5. Ensure that the appropriate notifications channels have been set up.
the

From Command Line:

Ensure that the prescribed log metric is present:

1. List the log metrics:

gcloud beta logging metrics list --format json

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 2. Ensure that the output contains at least one metric with filter set to:

(protoPayload.serviceName="cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com")
AND (ProjectOwnership OR projectOwnerInvitee)
OR (protoPayload.serviceData.policyDelta.bindingDeltas.action="REMOVE"
AND protoPayload.serviceData.policyDelta.bindingDeltas.role="roles/owner")
OR (protoPayload.serviceData.policyDelta.bindingDeltas.action="ADD"
AND protoPayload.serviceData.policyDelta.bindingDeltas.role="roles/owner")

3. Note the value of the property metricDescriptor.type for the identified metric, in
the format logging.googleapis.com/user/<Log Metric Name>.

Ensure that the prescribed alerting policy is present:

4. List the alerting policies:

gcloud alpha monitoring policies list --format json

5. Ensure that the output contains an least one alert policy where:

 conditions.conditionThreshold.filter is set to
metric.type=\"logging.googleapis.com/user/<Log Metric Name>\"
 AND enabled is set to true

Remediation:

From Console:
Create the prescribed log metric:

1. Go to Logging/Logs by visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/logs/metrics and

click "CREATE METRIC".
2. Click the down arrow symbol on the Filter Bar at the rightmost corner and select
Convert to Advanced Filter.
3. Clear any text and add:

(protoPayload.serviceName="cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com")
AND (ProjectOwnership OR projectOwnerInvitee)
OR (protoPayload.serviceData.policyDelta.bindingDeltas.action="REMOVE"
AND protoPayload.serviceData.policyDelta.bindingDeltas.role="roles/owner")
OR (protoPayload.serviceData.policyDelta.bindingDeltas.action="ADD"
AND protoPayload.serviceData.policyDelta.bindingDeltas.role="roles/owner")

4. Click Submit Filter. The logs display based on the filter text entered by the user.

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 5. In the Metric Editor menu on the right, fill out the name field. Set Units to 1
(default) and the Type to Counter. This ensures that the log metric counts the
number of log entries matching the advanced logs query.
6. Click Create Metric.

Create the display prescribed Alert Policy:

1. Identify the newly created metric under the section User-defined Metrics at
https://console.cloud.google.com/logs/metrics.
2. Click the 3-dot icon in the rightmost column for the desired metric and select Create
alert from Metric. A new page opens.
3. Fill out the alert policy configuration and click Save. Choose the alerting threshold
and configuration that makes sense for the user's organization. For example, a
threshold of zero(0) for the most recent value will ensure that a notification is
triggered for every owner change in the project:

Set `Aggregator` to `Count`

Set `Configuration`:

- Condition: above

- Threshold: 0

- For: most recent value

4. Configure the desired notifications channels in the section Notifications.

5. Name the policy and click Save.

From Command Line:

Create a prescribed Log Metric:

 Use the command: gcloud beta logging metrics create

 Reference for Command Usage:
https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/beta/logging/metrics/create

Create prescribed Alert Policy

 Use the command: gcloud alpha monitoring policies create

 Reference for Command Usage:
https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/alpha/monitoring/policies/create

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Impact:

Based on the user's service tiers, the Stackdriver account may be charged.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/logging/docs/logs-based-metrics/
2. https://cloud.google.com/monitoring/custom-metrics/
3. https://cloud.google.com/monitoring/alerts/
4. https://cloud.google.com/logging/docs/reference/tools/gcloud-logging

Notes:

1. Before considering this recommendation, ensure the target GCP project is

configured with a Stackdriver account.
2. Project ownership assignments for a user cannot be done using the gcloud utility as
assigning project ownership to a user requires sending, and the user accepting, an
invitation.
3. Project Ownership assignment to a service account does not send any invites.
SetIAMPolicy to role/owneris directly performed on service accounts.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

6.2 Activate audit logging

Ensure that local logging has been enabled on all systems and networking devices.

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2.5 Ensure that the log metric filter and alerts exist for Audit
Configuration changes (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) services write audit log entries to the Admin Activity and Data
Access logs to help answer the questions of, "who did what, where, and when?" within GCP
projects.

Cloud audit logging records information includes the identity of the API caller, the time of
the API call, the source IP address of the API caller, the request parameters, and the
response elements returned by GCP services. Cloud audit logging provides a history of GCP
API calls for an account, including API calls made via the console, SDKs, command-line
tools, and other GCP services.

Rationale:

Admin activity and data access logs produced by cloud audit logging enable security
analysis, resource change tracking, and compliance auditing.

Configuring the metric filter and alerts for audit configuration changes ensures the
recommended state of audit configuration is maintained so that all activities in the project
are audit-able at any point in time.

Audit:

From Console:
Ensure the prescribed log metric is present:

1. Go to Logging/Metrics by visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/logs/metrics.

2. In the User-defined Metrics section, ensure that at least one metric
<Log_Metric_Name> is present with the filter text:

protoPayload.methodName="SetIamPolicy" AND
protoPayload.serviceData.policyDelta.auditConfigDeltas:*

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Ensure that the prescribed alerting policy is present:

3. Go to Alerting by visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/monitoring/alerting.

4. Under the Policies section, ensure that at least one alert policy exists for the log
metric above. Clicking on the policy should show that it is configured with a
condition. For example, Violates when: Any logging.googleapis.com/user/<Log
Metric Name> stream is above a threshold of 0 for greater than zero(0)
seconds, means that the alert will trigger for any new owner change. Verify that the
chosen alerting thresholds make sense for the user's organization.
5. Ensure that appropriate notifications channels have been set up.

From Command Line:

Ensure that the prescribed log metric is present:

1. List the log metrics:

gcloud beta logging metrics list --format json

2. Ensure that the output contains at least one metric with the filter set to:

protoPayload.methodName="SetIamPolicy" AND
protoPayload.serviceData.policyDelta.auditConfigDeltas:*

3. Note the value of the property metricDescriptor.type for the identified metric, in
the format logging.googleapis.com/user/<Log Metric Name>.

Ensure that the prescribed alerting policy is present:

4. List the alerting policies:

gcloud alpha monitoring policies list --format json

5. Ensure that the output contains at least one alert policy where:

 conditions.conditionThreshold.filter is set to
metric.type=\"logging.googleapis.com/user/<Log Metric Name>\"
 AND enabled is set to true

Remediation:

From Console:
Create the prescribed log metric:

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 1. Go to Logging/Logs by visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/logs/metrics and
click "CREATE METRIC".
2. Click the down arrow symbol on the Filter Bar at the rightmost corner and select
Convert to Advanced Filter.
3. Clear any text and add:

protoPayload.methodName="SetIamPolicy" AND
protoPayload.serviceData.policyDelta.auditConfigDeltas:*

4. Click Submit Filter. Display logs appear based on the filter text entered by the
user.
5. In the Metric Editor menu on the right, fill out the name field. Set Units to 1
(default) and Type to Counter. This will ensure that the log metric counts the
number of log entries matching the user's advanced logs query.
6. Click Create Metric.

Create a prescribed Alert Policy:

1. Identify the new metric the user just created, under the section User-defined
Metrics at https://console.cloud.google.com/logs/metrics.
2. Click the 3-dot icon in the rightmost column for the new metric and select Create
alert from Metric. A new page opens.
3. Fill out the alert policy configuration and click Save. Choose the alerting threshold
and configuration that makes sense for the organization. For example, a threshold of
zero(0) for the most recent value will ensure that a notification is triggered for
every owner change in the project:

Set `Aggregator` to `Count`

Set `Configuration`:

- Condition: above

- Threshold: 0

- For: most recent value

4. Configure the desired notifications channels in the section Notifications.

5. Name the policy and click Save.

From Command Line:

Create a prescribed Log Metric:

 Use the command: gcloud beta logging metrics create

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  Reference for command usage:
https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/beta/logging/metrics/create

Create prescribed Alert Policy

 Use the command: gcloud alpha monitoring policies create
 Reference for command usage:
https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/alpha/monitoring/policies/create

Impact:

Based on the user's service tiers, the Stackdriver account may be charged.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/logging/docs/logs-based-metrics/
2. https://cloud.google.com/monitoring/custom-metrics/
3. https://cloud.google.com/monitoring/alerts/
4. https://cloud.google.com/logging/docs/reference/tools/gcloud-logging
5. https://cloud.google.com/logging/docs/audit/configure-data-access#getiampolicy-
setiampolicy

Notes:

Before considering this recommendation, ensure that the target GCP project is configured
with a Stackdriver account.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

6.2 Activate audit logging

Ensure that local logging has been enabled on all systems and networking devices.

6.3 Enable Detailed Logging

Enable system logging to include detailed information such as an event source, date,
user, timestamp, source addresses, destination addresses, and other useful elements.

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2.6 Ensure that the log metric filter and alerts exist for Custom Role
changes (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

It is recommended that a metric filter and alarm be established for changes to Identity and
Access Management (IAM) role creation, deletion and updating activities.

Rationale:

Google Cloud IAM provides predefined roles that give granular access to specific Google
Cloud Platform resources and prevent unwanted access to other resources. However, to
cater to organization-specific needs, Cloud IAM also provides the ability to create custom
roles. Project owners and administrators with the Organization Role Administrator role or
the IAM Role Administrator role can create custom roles. Monitoring role creation, deletion
and updating activities will help in identifying any over-privileged role at early stages.

Audit:

From Console:
Ensure that the prescribed log metric is present:

1. Go to Logging/Metrics by visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/logs/metrics.

2. In the User-defined Metrics section, ensure that at least one metric
<Log_Metric_Name> is present with filter text:

resource.type="iam_role"
AND protoPayload.methodName = "google.iam.admin.v1.CreateRole"
OR protoPayload.methodName="google.iam.admin.v1.DeleteRole"
OR protoPayload.methodName="google.iam.admin.v1.UpdateRole"

Ensure that the prescribed alerting policy is present:

3. Go to Alerting by visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/monitoring/alerting.

4. Under the Policies section, ensure that at least one alert policy exists for the log
metric above. Clicking on the policy should show that it is configured with a
condition. For example, Violates when: Any logging.googleapis.com/user/<Log
Metric Name> stream is above a threshold of zero(0) for greater than
zero(0) seconds means that the alert will trigger for any new owner change. Verify
that the chosen alerting thresholds make sense for the user's organization.

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 5. Ensure that the appropriate notifications channels have been set up.

From Command Line:

Ensure that the prescribed log metric is present:

1. List the log metrics:

gcloud beta logging metrics list --format json

2. Ensure that the output contains at least one metric with the filter set to:

resource.type="iam_role" AND protoPayload.methodName =

"google.iam.admin.v1.CreateRole" OR
protoPayload.methodName="google.iam.admin.v1.DeleteRole" OR
protoPayload.methodName="google.iam.admin.v1.UpdateRole"

3. Note the value of the property metricDescriptor.type for the identified metric, in
the format logging.googleapis.com/user/<Log Metric Name>.

Ensure that the prescribed alerting policy is present:

4. List the alerting policies:

gcloud alpha monitoring policies list --format json

5. Ensure that the output contains an least one alert policy where:

 conditions.conditionThreshold.filter is set to
metric.type=\"logging.googleapis.com/user/<Log Metric Name>\"
 AND enabled is set to true.

Remediation:

From Console:
Create the prescribed log metric:

1. Go to Logging/Logs by visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/logs/metrics and

click "CREATE METRIC".
2. Click the down arrow symbol on the Filter Bar at the rightmost corner and select
Convert to Advanced Filter.
3. Clear any text and add:

resource.type="iam_role"
AND protoPayload.methodName = "google.iam.admin.v1.CreateRole"
OR protoPayload.methodName="google.iam.admin.v1.DeleteRole"
OR protoPayload.methodName="google.iam.admin.v1.UpdateRole"

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 4. Click Submit Filter. Display logs appear based on the filter text entered by the
user.
5. In the Metric Editor menu on the right, fill out the name field. Set Units to 1
(default) and Type to Counter. This ensures that the log metric counts the number of
log entries matching the advanced logs query.
6. Click Create Metric.

Create a prescribed Alert Policy:

1. Identify the new metric that was just created under the section User-defined
Metrics at https://console.cloud.google.com/logs/metrics.
2. Click the 3-dot icon in the rightmost column for the metric and select Create alert
from Metric. A new page displays.
3. Fill out the alert policy configuration and click Save. Choose the alerting threshold
and configuration that makes sense for the user's organization. For example, a
threshold of zero(0) for the most recent value ensures that a notification is triggered
for every owner change in the project:

Set `Aggregator` to `Count`

Set `Configuration`:

- Condition: above

- Threshold: 0

- For: most recent value

4. Configure the desired notification channels in the section Notifications.

5. Name the policy and click Save.

From Command Line:

Create the prescribed Log Metric:

 Use the command: gcloud beta logging metrics create

 Reference for command usage:
https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/beta/logging/metrics/create

Create the prescribed Alert Policy:

 Use the command: gcloud alpha monitoring policies create

 Reference for command usage:
https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/alpha/monitoring/policies/create

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Impact:

Based on the user's service tiers, the Stackdriver account may be charged.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/logging/docs/logs-based-metrics/
2. https://cloud.google.com/monitoring/custom-metrics/
3. https://cloud.google.com/monitoring/alerts/
4. https://cloud.google.com/logging/docs/reference/tools/gcloud-logging
5. https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/understanding-custom-roles

Notes:

Before considering this recommendation, ensure that the target GCP project is configured
with a Stackdriver account.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

6.2 Activate audit logging

Ensure that local logging has been enabled on all systems and networking devices.

6.3 Enable Detailed Logging

Enable system logging to include detailed information such as an event source, date,
user, timestamp, source addresses, destination addresses, and other useful elements.

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2.7 Ensure that the log metric filter and alerts exist for VPC Network
Firewall rule changes (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

It is recommended that a metric filter and alarm be established for Virtual Private Cloud
(VPC) Network Firewall rule changes.

Rationale:

Monitoring for Create or Update Firewall rule events gives insight to network access
changes and may reduce the time it takes to detect suspicious activity.

Audit:

From Console:
Ensure that the prescribed log metric is present:

1. Go to Logging/Metrics by visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/logs/metrics.

2. In the User-defined Metrics section, ensure at least one metric
<Log_Metric_Name> is present with this filter text:

resource.type="gce_firewall_rule"
AND jsonPayload.event_subtype="compute.firewalls.patch"
OR jsonPayload.event_subtype="compute.firewalls.insert"

Ensure that the prescribed alerting policy is present:

3. Go to Alerting by visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/monitoring/alerting.

4. Under the Policies section, ensure that at least one alert policy exists for the log
metric above. Clicking on the policy should show that it is configured with a
condition. For example, Violates when: Any logging.googleapis.com/user/<Log
Metric Name> stream is above a threshold of zero(0) for greater than
zero(0) seconds means that the alert will trigger for any new owner change. Verify
that the chosen alerting thresholds make sense for the user's organization.
5. Ensure that appropriate notification channels have been set up.

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From Command Line:
Ensure that the prescribed log metric is present:

1. List the log metrics:

gcloud beta logging metrics list --format json

2. Ensure that the output contains at least one metric with the filter set to:

resource.type="gce_firewall_rule"
AND jsonPayload.event_subtype="compute.firewalls.patch"
OR jsonPayload.event_subtype="compute.firewalls.insert"

3. Note the value of the property metricDescriptor.type for the identified metric, in
the format logging.googleapis.com/user/<Log Metric Name>.

Ensure that the prescribed alerting policy is present:

4. List the alerting policies:

gcloud alpha monitoring policies list --format json

5. Ensure that the output contains an least one alert policy where:

 conditions.conditionThreshold.filter is set to
metric.type=\"logging.googleapis.com/user/<Log Metric Name>\"
 AND enabled is set to true

Remediation:

From Console:
Create the prescribed log metric:

1. Go to Logging/Logs by visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/logs/metrics and

click "CREATE METRIC".
2. Click the down arrow symbol on the Filter Bar at the rightmost corner and select
Convert to Advanced Filter.
3. Clear any text and add:

resource.type="gce_firewall_rule"
AND jsonPayload.event_subtype="compute.firewalls.patch"
OR jsonPayload.event_subtype="compute.firewalls.insert"

4. Click Submit Filter. Display logs appear based on the filter text entered by the
user.

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 5. In the Metric Editor menu on the right, fill out the name field. Set Units to 1
(default) and Type to Counter. This ensures that the log metric counts the number of
log entries matching the advanced logs query.
6. Click Create Metric.

Create the prescribed Alert Policy:

1. Identify the newly created metric under the section User-defined Metrics at
https://console.cloud.google.com/logs/metrics.
2. Click the 3-dot icon in the rightmost column for the new metric and select Create
alert from Metric. A new page displays.
3. Fill out the alert policy configuration and click Save. Choose the alerting threshold
and configuration that makes sense for the user's organization. For example, a
threshold of zero(0) for the most recent value ensures that a notification is triggered
for every owner change in the project:

Set `Aggregator` to `Count`

Set `Configuration`:

- Condition: above

- Threshold: 0

- For: most recent value

4. Configure the desired notifications channels in the section Notifications.

5. Name the policy and click Save.

From Command Line:

Create the prescribed Log Metric

 Use the command: gcloud beta logging metrics create

 Reference for command usage:
https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/beta/logging/metrics/create

Create the prescribed alert policy:

 Use the command: gcloud alpha monitoring policies create

 Reference for command usage:
https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/alpha/monitoring/policies/create

Impact:

Based on the user's service tiers, the Stackdriver account may be charged.

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References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/logging/docs/logs-based-metrics/
2. https://cloud.google.com/monitoring/custom-metrics/
3. https://cloud.google.com/monitoring/alerts/
4. https://cloud.google.com/logging/docs/reference/tools/gcloud-logging
5. https://cloud.google.com/vpc/docs/firewalls

Notes:

Before considering this recommendation, Ensure that the target GCP project is configured
with a Stackdriver account.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

6.2 Activate audit logging

Ensure that local logging has been enabled on all systems and networking devices.

6.3 Enable Detailed Logging

Enable system logging to include detailed information such as an event source, date,
user, timestamp, source addresses, destination addresses, and other useful elements.

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2.8 Ensure that the log metric filter and alerts exist for VPC network
route changes (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

It is recommended that a metric filter and alarm be established for Virtual Private Cloud
(VPC) network route changes.

Rationale:

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) routes define the paths network traffic takes from a VM
instance to another destination. The other destination can be inside the organization VPC
network (such as another VM) or outside of it. Every route consists of a destination and a
next hop. Traffic whose destination IP is within the destination range is sent to the next hop
for delivery.

Monitoring changes to route tables will help ensure that all VPC traffic flows through an
expected path.

Audit:

From Console:
Ensure that the prescribed Log metric is present:

1. Go to Logging/Metrics by visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/logs/metrics.

2. In the User-defined Metrics section, ensure that at least one metric
<Log_Metric_Name> is present with the filter text:

resource.type="gce_route"
AND jsonPayload.event_subtype="compute.routes.delete"
OR jsonPayload.event_subtype="compute.routes.insert"

Ensure the prescribed alerting policy is present:

3. Go to Alerting by visiting: https://console.cloud.google.com/monitoring/alerting.

4. Under the Policies section, ensure that at least one alert policy exists for the log
metric above. Clicking on the policy should show that it is configured with a
condition. For example, Violates when: Any logging.googleapis.com/user/<Log
Metric Name> stream is above a threshold of 0 for greater than zero(0)

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 seconds means that the alert will trigger for any new owner change. Verify that the
chosen alert thresholds make sense for the user's organization.
5. Ensure that the appropriate notification channels have been set up.

From Command Line:

Ensure the prescribed log metric is present:

1. List the log metrics:

gcloud beta logging metrics list --format json

2. Ensure that the output contains at least one metric with the filter set to:

resource.type="gce_route"
AND jsonPayload.event_subtype="compute.routes.delete"
OR jsonPayload.event_subtype="compute.routes.insert"

3. Note the value of the property metricDescriptor.type for the identified metric, in
the format logging.googleapis.com/user/<Log Metric Name>.

Ensure that the prescribed alerting policy is present:

4. List the alerting policies:

gcloud alpha monitoring policies list --format json

5. Ensure that the output contains an least one alert policy where:

 conditions.conditionThreshold.filter is set to
metric.type=\"logging.googleapis.com/user/<Log Metric Name>\"
 AND enabled is set to true

Remediation:

From Console:
Create the prescribed Log Metric:

1. Go to Logging/Logs by visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/logs/metrics and

click "CREATE METRIC".
2. Click the down arrow symbol on the Filter Bar at the rightmost corner and select
Convert to Advanced Filter
3. Clear any text and add:

resource.type="gce_route"
AND jsonPayload.event_subtype="compute.routes.delete"
OR jsonPayload.event_subtype="compute.routes.insert"

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 4. Click Submit Filter. Display logs appear based on the filter text entered by the
user.
5. In the Metric Editor menu on the right, fill out the name field. Set Units to 1
(default) and Type to Counter. This ensures that the log metric counts the number of
log entries matching the user's advanced logs query.
6. Click Create Metric.

Create the prescribed alert policy:

1. Identify the newly created metric under the section User-defined Metrics at
https://console.cloud.google.com/logs/metrics.
2. Click the 3-dot icon in the rightmost column for the new metric and select Create
alert from Metric. A new page displays.
3. Fill out the alert policy configuration and click Save. Choose the alerting threshold
and configuration that makes sense for the user's organization. For example, a
threshold of zero(0) for the most recent value ensures that a notification is triggered
for every owner change in the project:

Set `Aggregator` to `Count`

Set `Configuration`:

- Condition: above

- Threshold: 0

- For: most recent value

4. Configure the desired notification channels in the section Notifications.

5. Name the policy and click Save.

From Command Line:

Create the prescribed Log Metric:

 Use the command: gcloud beta logging metrics create

 Reference for command usage:
https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/beta/logging/metrics/create

Create the prescribed the alert policy:

 Use the command: gcloud alpha monitoring policies create

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  Reference for command usage:
https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/alpha/monitoring/policies/create

Impact:

Based on the user's service tiers, the Stackdriver account may be charged.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/logging/docs/logs-based-metrics/
2. https://cloud.google.com/monitoring/custom-metrics/
3. https://cloud.google.com/monitoring/alerts/
4. https://cloud.google.com/logging/docs/reference/tools/gcloud-logging
5. https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/access-control/iam

Notes:

Before considering this recommendation, ensure that the target GCP project is configured
with a Stackdriver account.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

6.2 Activate audit logging

Ensure that local logging has been enabled on all systems and networking devices.

6.3 Enable Detailed Logging

Enable system logging to include detailed information such as an event source, date,
user, timestamp, source addresses, destination addresses, and other useful elements.

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2.9 Ensure that the log metric filter and alerts exist for VPC network
changes (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

It is recommended that a metric filter and alarm be established for Virtual Private Cloud
(VPC) network changes.

Rationale:

It is possible to have more than one VPC within a project. In addition, it is also possible to
create a peer connection between two VPCs enabling network traffic to route between
VPCs.

Monitoring changes to a VPC will help ensure VPC traffic flow is not getting impacted.

Audit:

From Console:
Ensure the prescribed log metric is present:

1. Go to Logging/Metrics by visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/logs/metrics.

2. In the User-defined Metrics section, ensure at least one metric
<Log_Metric_Name> is present with filter text:

resource.type=gce_network
AND jsonPayload.event_subtype="compute.networks.insert"
OR jsonPayload.event_subtype="compute.networks.patch"
OR jsonPayload.event_subtype="compute.networks.delete"
OR jsonPayload.event_subtype="compute.networks.removePeering"
OR jsonPayload.event_subtype="compute.networks.addPeering"

Ensure the prescribed alerting policy is present:

3. Go to Alerting by visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/monitoring/alerting.

4. Under the Policies section, ensure that at least one alert policy exists for the log
metric above. Clicking on the policy should show that it is configured with a
condition. For example, Violates when: Any logging.googleapis.com/user/<Log
Metric Name> stream is above a threshold of 0 for greater than 0 seconds
means that the alert will trigger for any new owner change. Verify that the chosen
alerting thresholds make sense for the user's organization.

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 5. Ensure that appropriate notification channels have been set up.

From Command Line:

Ensure the log metric is present:

1. List the log metrics:

gcloud beta logging metrics list --format json

2. Ensure that the output contains at least one metric with filter set to:

resource.type=gce_network
AND jsonPayload.event_subtype="compute.networks.insert"
OR jsonPayload.event_subtype="compute.networks.patch"
OR jsonPayload.event_subtype="compute.networks.delete"
OR jsonPayload.event_subtype="compute.networks.removePeering"
OR jsonPayload.event_subtype="compute.networks.addPeering"

3. Note the value of the property metricDescriptor.type for the identified metric, in
the format logging.googleapis.com/user/<Log Metric Name>.

Ensure the prescribed alerting policy is present:

4. List the alerting policies:

gcloud alpha monitoring policies list --format json

5. Ensure that the output contains at least one alert policy where:

 conditions.conditionThreshold.filter is set to
metric.type=\"logging.googleapis.com/user/<Log Metric Name>\"
 AND enabled is set to true

Remediation:

From Console:
Create the prescribed log metric:

1. Go to Logging/Logs by visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/logs/metrics and

click "CREATE METRIC".
2. Click the down arrow symbol on Filter Bar at the rightmost corner and select
Convert to Advanced Filter.
3. Clear any text and add:

resource.type=gce_network
AND jsonPayload.event_subtype="compute.networks.insert"

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OR jsonPayload.event_subtype="compute.networks.patch"
OR jsonPayload.event_subtype="compute.networks.delete"
OR jsonPayload.event_subtype="compute.networks.removePeering"
OR jsonPayload.event_subtype="compute.networks.addPeering"

4. Click Submit Filter. Display logs appear based on the filter text entered by the
user.
5. In the Metric Editor menu on the right, fill out the name field. Set Units to 1
(default) and Type to Counter. This ensures that the log metric counts the number of
log entries matching the user's advanced logs query.
6. Click Create Metric.

Create the prescribed alert policy:

1. Identify the newly created metric under the section User-defined Metrics at
https://console.cloud.google.com/logs/metrics.
2. Click the 3-dot icon in the rightmost column for the new metric and select Create
alert from Metric. A new page appears.
3. Fill out the alert policy configuration and click Save. Choose the alerting threshold
and configuration that makes sense for the user's organization. For example, a
threshold of 0 for the most recent value will ensure that a notification is triggered
for every owner change in the project:

Set `Aggregator` to `Count`

Set `Configuration`:

- Condition: above

- Threshold: 0

- For: most recent value

4. Configure the desired notification channels in the section Notifications.

5. Name the policy and click Save.

From Command Line:

Create the prescribed Log Metric:

 Use the command: gcloud beta logging metrics create

 Reference for command usage:
https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/beta/logging/metrics/create

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Create the prescribed alert policy:

 Use the command: gcloud alpha monitoring policies create

 Reference for command usage:
https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/alpha/monitoring/policies/create

Impact:

Based on the user's service tiers, the Stackdriver account may be charged.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/logging/docs/logs-based-metrics/
2. https://cloud.google.com/monitoring/custom-metrics/
3. https://cloud.google.com/monitoring/alerts/
4. https://cloud.google.com/logging/docs/reference/tools/gcloud-logging
5. https://cloud.google.com/vpc/docs/overview

Notes:

Before considering this recommendation, ensure that the target GCP project is configured
with a Stackdriver account.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

6.2 Activate audit logging

Ensure that local logging has been enabled on all systems and networking devices.

6.3 Enable Detailed Logging

Enable system logging to include detailed information such as an event source, date,
user, timestamp, source addresses, destination addresses, and other useful elements.

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2.10 Ensure that the log metric filter and alerts exist for Cloud Storage
IAM permission changes (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

It is recommended that a metric filter and alarm be established for Cloud Storage Bucket
IAM changes.

Rationale:

Monitoring changes to cloud storage bucket permissions may reduce the time needed to
detect and correct permissions on sensitive cloud storage buckets and objects inside the
bucket.

Audit:

From Console:
Ensure the prescribed log metric is present:

1. For each project that contains cloud storage buckets, go to Logging/Metrics by

visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/logs/metrics.
2. In the User-defined Metrics section, ensure at least one metric
<Log_Metric_Name> is present with the filter text:

resource.type=gcs_bucket
AND protoPayload.methodName="storage.setIamPermissions"

Ensure that the prescribed alerting policy is present:

3. Go to Alerting by visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/monitoring/alerting.

4. Under the Policies section, ensure that at least one alert policy exists for the log
metric above. Clicking on the policy should show that it is configured with a
condition. For example, Violates when: Any logging.googleapis.com/user/<Log
Metric Name> stream is above a threshold of 0 for greater than 0 seconds
means that the alert will trigger for any new owner change. Verify that the chosen
alerting thresholds make sense for the user's organization.
5. Ensure that the appropriate notifications channels have been set up.

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From Command Line:
Ensure that the prescribed log metric is present:

1. List the log metrics:

gcloud beta logging metrics list --format json

2. Ensure that the output contains at least one metric with the filter set to:

resource.type=gcs_bucket
AND protoPayload.methodName="storage.setIamPermissions"

3. Note the value of the property metricDescriptor.type for the identified metric, in
the format logging.googleapis.com/user/<Log Metric Name>.

Ensure the prescribed alerting policy is present:

4. List the alerting policies:

gcloud alpha monitoring policies list --format json

5. Ensure that the output contains an least one alert policy where:

 conditions.conditionThreshold.filter is set to
metric.type=\"logging.googleapis.com/user/<Log Metric Name>\"
 AND enabled is set to true

Remediation:

From Console:
Create the prescribed log metric:

1. Go to Logging/Logs by visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/logs/metrics and

click "CREATE METRIC".
2. Click the down arrow symbol on the Filter Bar at the rightmost corner and select
Convert to Advanced Filter.
3. Clear any text and add:

resource.type=gcs_bucket
AND protoPayload.methodName="storage.setIamPermissions"

4. Click Submit Filter. Display logs appear based on the filter text entered by the
user.

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 5. In the Metric Editor menu on right, fill out the name field. Set Units to 1 (default)
and Type to Counter. This ensures that the log metric counts the number of log
entries matching the user's advanced logs query.
6. Click Create Metric.

Create the prescribed Alert Policy:

1. Identify the newly created metric under the section User-defined Metrics at
https://console.cloud.google.com/logs/metrics.
2. Click the 3-dot icon in the rightmost column for the new metric and select Create
alert from Metric. A new page appears.
3. Fill out the alert policy configuration and click Save. Choose the alerting threshold
and configuration that makes sense for the user's organization. For example, a
threshold of zero(0) for the most recent value will ensure that a notification is
triggered for every owner change in the project:

Set `Aggregator` to `Count`

Set `Configuration`:

- Condition: above

- Threshold: 0

- For: most recent value

4. Configure the desired notifications channels in the section Notifications.

5. Name the policy and click Save.

From Command Line:

Create the prescribed Log Metric:

 Use the command: gcloud beta logging metrics create

 Reference for command usage:
https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/beta/logging/metrics/create

Create the prescribed alert policy:

 Use the command: gcloud alpha monitoring policies create

 Reference for command usage:
https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/alpha/monitoring/policies/create

Impact:

Based on the user's service tiers, the Stackdriver account may be charged.

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References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/logging/docs/logs-based-metrics/
2. https://cloud.google.com/monitoring/custom-metrics/
3. https://cloud.google.com/monitoring/alerts/
4. https://cloud.google.com/logging/docs/reference/tools/gcloud-logging
5. https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/overview
6. https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/access-control/iam-roles

Notes:

Before considering this recommendation, ensure that the target GCP project is configured
with a Stackdriver account.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

6.2 Activate audit logging

Ensure that local logging has been enabled on all systems and networking devices.

6.3 Enable Detailed Logging

Enable system logging to include detailed information such as an event source, date,
user, timestamp, source addresses, destination addresses, and other useful elements.

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2.11 Ensure that the log metric filter and alerts exist for SQL instance
configuration changes (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

It is recommended that a metric filter and alarm be established for SQL instance
configuration changes.

Rationale:

Monitoring changes to SQL instance configuration changes may reduce the time needed to
detect and correct misconfigurations done on the SQL server.

Below are a few of the configurable options which may the impact security posture of an
SQL instance:

 Enable auto backups and high availability: Misconfiguration may adversely impact
business continuity, disaster recovery, and high availability
 Authorize networks: Misconfiguration may increase exposure to untrusted
networks

Audit:

From Console:
Ensure the prescribed log metric is present:

1. For each project that contains Cloud SQL instances, go to Logging/Metrics by

visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/logs/metrics.
2. In the User-defined Metrics section, ensure that at least one metric
<Log_Metric_Name> is present with the filter text:

protoPayload.methodName="cloudsql.instances.update"

Ensure that the prescribed alerting policy is present:

3. Go to Alerting by visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/monitoring/alerting.

4. Under the Policies section, ensure that at least one alert policy exists for the log
metric above. Clicking on the policy should show that it is configured with a
condition. For example, Violates when: Any logging.googleapis.com/user/<Log
Metric Name> stream is above a threshold of zero(0) for greater than

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 zero(0) seconds means that the alert will trigger for any new owner change. Verify
that the chosen alerting thresholds make sense for the user's organization.
5. Ensure that the appropriate notifications channels have been set up.

From Command Line:

Ensure that the prescribed log metric is present:

1. List the log metrics:

gcloud beta logging metrics list --format json

2. Ensure that the output contains at least one metric with the filter set to

protoPayload.methodName="cloudsql.instances.update"

3. Note the value of the property metricDescriptor.type for the identified metric, in
the format logging.googleapis.com/user/<Log Metric Name>.

Ensure that the prescribed alerting policy is present:

4. List the alerting policies:

gcloud alpha monitoring policies list --format json

5. Ensure that the output contains at least one alert policy where:

 conditions.conditionThreshold.filter is set to
metric.type=\"logging.googleapis.com/user/<Log Metric Name>\"
 AND enabled is set to true

Remediation:

From Console:
Create the prescribed Log Metric:

1. Go to Logging/Logs by visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/logs/metrics and

click "CREATE METRIC".
2. Click the down arrow symbol on the Filter Bar at the rightmost corner and select
Convert to Advanced Filter.
3. Clear any text and add:

protoPayload.methodName="cloudsql.instances.update"

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 4. Click Submit Filter. Display logs appear based on the filter text entered by the
user.
5. In the Metric Editor menu on right, fill out the name field. Set Units to 1 (default)
and Type to Counter. This ensures that the log metric counts the number of log
entries matching the user's advanced logs query.
6. Click Create Metric.

Create the prescribed alert policy:

1. Identify the newly created metric under the section User-defined Metrics at
https://console.cloud.google.com/logs/metrics.
2. Click the 3-dot icon in the rightmost column for the new metric and select Create
alert from Metric. A new page appears.
3. Fill out the alert policy configuration and click Save. Choose the alerting threshold
and configuration that makes sense for the user's organization. For example, a
threshold of zero(0) for the most recent value will ensure that a notification is
triggered for every owner change in the user's project:

Set `Aggregator` to `Count`

Set `Configuration`:

- Condition: above

- Threshold: 0

- For: most recent value

4. Configure the desired notification channels in the section Notifications.

5. Name the policy and click Save.

From Command Line:

Create the prescribed log metric:

 Use the command: gcloud beta logging metrics create

 Reference for command usage:
https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/beta/logging/metrics/create

Create the prescribed alert policy:

 Use the command: gcloud alpha monitoring policies create

 Reference for command usage:
https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/alpha/monitoring/policies/create

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Impact:

Based on the user's service tiers, the Stackdriver account may be charged.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/logging/docs/logs-based-metrics/
2. https://cloud.google.com/monitoring/custom-metrics/
3. https://cloud.google.com/monitoring/alerts/
4. https://cloud.google.com/logging/docs/reference/tools/gcloud-logging
5. https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/overview
6. https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/
7. https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/mysql/
8. https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/postgres/

Notes:

Before considering this recommendation, ensure that the target GCP project is configured
with a Stackdriver account.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

6.2 Activate audit logging

Ensure that local logging has been enabled on all systems and networking devices.

6.3 Enable Detailed Logging

Enable system logging to include detailed information such as an event source, date,
user, timestamp, source addresses, destination addresses, and other useful elements.

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3 Networking
This section covers recommendations addressing networking on Google Cloud Platform.

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3.1 Ensure that the default network does not exist in a project (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 2

Description:

To prevent use of default network, a project should not have a default network.

Rationale:

The default network has a preconfigured network configuration and automatically

generates the following insecure firewall rules:

 default-allow-internal: Allows ingress connections for all protocols and ports among
instances in the network.
 default-allow-ssh: Allows ingress connections on TCP port 22(SSH) from any source
to any instance in the network.
 default-allow-rdp: Allows ingress connections on TCP port 3389(RDP) from any
source to any instance in the network.
 default-allow-icmp: Allows ingress ICMP traffic from any source to any instance in
the network.

These automatically created firewall rules do not get audit logged and cannot be configured
to enable firewall rule logging.

Furthermore, the default network is an auto mode network, which means that its subnets
use the same predefined range of IP addresses, and as a result, it's not possible to use Cloud
VPN or VPC Network Peering with the default network.

Based on organization security and networking requirements, the organization should

create a new network and delete the default network.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to the VPC networks page by visiting:

https://console.cloud.google.com/networking/networks/list.
2. Ensure that a network with the name default is not present.

From Command Line:

1. Set the project name in the Google Cloud Shell:

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gcloud config set project PROJECT_ID

2. List the networks configured in that project:

gcloud compute networks list

It should not list default as one of the available networks in that project.

Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to the VPC networks page by visiting:

https://console.cloud.google.com/networking/networks/list.
2. Click the network named default.
3. On the network detail page, click EDIT.
4. Click DELETE VPC NETWORK.
5. If needed, create a new network to replace the default network.

From Command Line:

For each Google Cloud Platform project,

1. Delete the default network:

gcloud compute networks delete default

2. If needed, create a new network to replace it:

gcloud compute networks create NETWORK_NAME

Prevention:
The user can prevent the default network and its insecure default firewall rules from being
created by setting up an Organization Policy to Skip default network creation at
https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/orgpolicies/compute-
skipDefaultNetworkCreation.

Impact:

When an organization deletes the default network, it may need to migrate or service onto a
new network.

Default Value:

By default, for each project, a default network is created.

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References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/networking#firewall_rules
2. https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/reference/latest/networks/insert
3. https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/reference/latest/networks/delete
4. https://cloud.google.com/vpc/docs/firewall-rules-logging
5. https://cloud.google.com/vpc/docs/vpc#default-network
6. https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/compute/networks/delete

CIS Controls:

Version 7

11.1 Maintain Standard Security Configurations for Network Devices

Maintain standard, documented security configuration standards for all authorized
network devices.

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3.2 Ensure legacy networks do not exist for a project (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

In order to prevent use of legacy networks, a project should not have a legacy network
configured.

Rationale:

Legacy networks have a single network IPv4 prefix range and a single gateway IP address
for the whole network. The network is global in scope and spans all cloud regions.
Subnetworks cannot be created in a legacy network and are unable to switch from legacy to
auto or custom subnet networks. Legacy networks can have an impact for high network
traffic projects and are subject to a single point of contention or failure.

Audit:

For each Google Cloud Platform project,

1. Set the project name in the Google Cloud Shell:

gcloud config set project <Project-ID>

2. List the networks configured in that project:

gcloud compute networks list

None of the listed networks should be in the legacy mode.

Remediation:

For each Google Cloud Platform project,

1. Follow the documentation and create a non-legacy network suitable for the
organization's requirements.
2. Follow the documentation and delete the networks in the legacy mode.

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Impact:

None.

Default Value:

By default, networks are not created in the legacy mode.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/vpc/docs/using-legacy#creating_a_legacy_network
2. https://cloud.google.com/vpc/docs/using-legacy#deleting_a_legacy_network

CIS Controls:

Version 7

11.1 Maintain Standard Security Configurations for Network Devices

Maintain standard, documented security configuration standards for all authorized
network devices.

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3.3 Ensure that DNSSEC is enabled for Cloud DNS (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

Cloud Domain Name System (DNS) is a fast, reliable and cost-effective domain name system
that powers millions of domains on the internet. Domain Name System Security Extensions
(DNSSEC) in Cloud DNS enables domain owners to take easy steps to protect their domains
against DNS hijacking and man-in-the-middle and other attacks.

Rationale:

Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) adds security to the DNS protocol by
enabling DNS responses to be validated. Having a trustworthy DNS that translates a domain
name like www.example.com into its associated IP address is an increasingly important
building block of today’s web-based applications. Attackers can hijack this process of
domain/IP lookup and redirect users to a malicious site through DNS hijacking and man-in-
the-middle attacks. DNSSEC helps mitigate the risk of such attacks by cryptographically
signing DNS records. As a result, it prevents attackers from issuing fake DNS responses that
may misdirect browsers to nefarious websites.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to Cloud DNS by visiting https://console.cloud..google.com/net-

services/dns/zones.
2. For each zone of Type Public, ensure that DNSSEC is set to On.

From Command Line:

1. List all the Managed Zones in a project:

gcloud dns managed-zones list

2. For each zone of VISIBILITY public, get its metadata:

gcloud dns managed-zones describe ZONE_NAME

3. Ensure that dnssecConfig.state property is on.

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Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to Cloud DNS by visiting https://console.cloud..google.com/net-

services/dns/zones.
2. For each zone of Type Public, set DNSSEC to On.

From Command Line:

Use the below command to enable DNSSEC for Cloud DNS Zone Name.

gcloud dns managed-zones update ZONE_NAME --dnssec-state on

Default Value:

By default DNSSEC is not enabled.

References:

1. https://cloudplatform.googleblog.com/2017/11/DNSSEC-now-available-in-Cloud-
DNS.html
2. https://cloud.google.com/dns/dnssec-config#enabling
3. https://cloud.google.com/dns/dnssec

CIS Controls:

Version 7

11.1 Maintain Standard Security Configurations for Network Devices

Maintain standard, documented security configuration standards for all authorized
network devices.

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3.4 Ensure that RSASHA1 is not used for the key-signing key in Cloud
DNS DNSSEC (Not Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

DNSSEC algorithm numbers in this registry may be used in CERT RRs. Zone signing
(DNSSEC) and transaction security mechanisms (SIG(0) and TSIG) make use of particular
subsets of these algorithms. The algorithm used for key signing should be a recommended
one and it should be strong.

Rationale:

Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) algorithm numbers in this registry
may be used in CERT RRs. Zonesigning (DNSSEC) and transaction security mechanisms
(SIG(0) and TSIG) make use of particular subsets of these algorithms.

The algorithm used for key signing should be a recommended one and it should be strong.
When enabling DNSSEC for a managed zone, or creating a managed zone with DNSSEC, the
user can select the DNSSEC signing algorithms and the denial-of-existence type. Changing
the DNSSEC settings is only effective for a managed zone if DNSSEC is not already enabled.
If there is a need to change the settings for a managed zone where it has been enabled, turn
DNSSEC off and then re-enable it with different settings.

Audit:

Currently there is no support to audit this setting through console.

From Command Line: Ensure the property algorithm for keyType keySigning is not using
RSASHA1.

gcloud dns managed-zones describe ZONENAME --

format="json(dnsName,dnssecConfig.state,dnssecConfig.defaultKeySpecs)"

Remediation:

1. If it is necessary to change the settings for a managed zone where it has been
enabled, NSSEC must be turned off and re-enabled with different settings. To turn
off DNSSEC, run the following command:

gcloud dns managed-zones update ZONE_NAME --dnssec-state off

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 2. To update key-signing for a reported managed DNS Zone, run the following
command:

gcloud dns managed-zones update ZONE_NAME --dnssec-state on --ksk-algorithm

KSK_ALGORITHM --ksk-key-length KSK_KEY_LENGTH --zsk-algorithm ZSK_ALGORITHM -
-zsk-key-length ZSK_KEY_LENGTH --denial-of-existence DENIAL_OF_EXISTENCE

Supported algorithm options and key lengths are as follows.

Algorithm KSK Length ZSK Length

--------- ---------- ----------
RSASHA1 1024,2048 1024,2048
RSASHA256 1024,2048 1024,2048
RSASHA512 1024,2048 1024,2048
ECDSAP256SHA256 256 256
ECDSAP384SHA384 384 384

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/dns/dnssec-advanced#advanced_signing_options

Notes:

1. RSASHA1 key-signing support may be required for compatibility reasons.

2. Remediation CLI works well with gcloud-cli version 221.0.0 and later.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

11.1 Maintain Standard Security Configurations for Network Devices

Maintain standard, documented security configuration standards for all authorized
network devices.

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3.5 Ensure that RSASHA1 is not used for the zone-signing key in Cloud
DNS DNSSEC (Not Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

DNSSEC algorithm numbers in this registry may be used in CERT RRs. Zone signing
(DNSSEC) and transaction security mechanisms (SIG(0) and TSIG) make use of particular
subsets of these algorithms. The algorithm used for key signing should be a recommended
one and it should be strong.

Rationale:

DNSSEC algorithm numbers in this registry may be used in CERT RRs. Zonesigning
(DNSSEC) and transaction security mechanisms (SIG(0) and TSIG) make use of particular
subsets of these algorithms.

The algorithm used for key signing should be a recommended one and it should be strong.
When enabling DNSSEC for a managed zone, or creating a managed zone with DNSSEC, the
DNSSEC signing algorithms and the denial-of-existence type can be selected. Changing the
DNSSEC settings is only effective for a managed zone if DNSSEC is not already enabled. If
the need exists to change the settings for a managed zone where it has been enabled, turn
DNSSEC off and then re-enable it with different settings.

Audit:

Currently there is no support to audit this setting through the console.

From Command Line:
Ensure the property algorithm for keyType zoneSigning is not using RSASHA1.

gcloud dns managed-zones describe --

format="json(dnsName,dnssecConfig.state,dnssecConfig.defaultKeySpecs)"

Remediation:

1. If the need exists to change the settings for a managed zone where it has been
enabled, DNSSEC must be turned off and then re-enabled with different settings. To
turn off DNSSEC, run following command:

gcloud dns managed-zones update ZONE_NAME --dnssec-state off

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 2. To update zone-signing for a reported managed DNS Zone, run the following
command:

gcloud dns managed-zones update ZONE_NAME --dnssec-state on --ksk-algorithm

KSK_ALGORITHM --ksk-key-length KSK_KEY_LENGTH --zsk-algorithm ZSK_ALGORITHM -
-zsk-key-length ZSK_KEY_LENGTH --denial-of-existence DENIAL_OF_EXISTENCE

Supported algorithm options and key lengths are as follows.

Algorithm KSK Length ZSK Length

--------- ---------- ----------
RSASHA1 1024,2048 1024,2048
RSASHA256 1024,2048 1024,2048
RSASHA512 1024,2048 1024,2048
ECDSAP256SHA256 256 384
ECDSAP384SHA384 384 384

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/dns/dnssec-advanced#advanced_signing_options

Notes:

1. RSASHA1 zone-signing support may be required for compatibility reasons.

2. The remediation CLI works well with gcloud-cli version 221.0.0 and later.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

11.1 Maintain Standard Security Configurations for Network Devices

Maintain standard, documented security configuration standards for all authorized
network devices.

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3.6 Ensure that SSH access is restricted from the internet (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 2

Description:

GCP Firewall Rules are specific to a VPC Network. Each rule either allows or denies
traffic when its conditions are met. Its conditions allow the user to specify the type of
traffic, such as ports and protocols, and the source or destination of the traffic, including IP
addresses, subnets, and instances.

Firewall rules are defined at the VPC network level and are specific to the network in which
they are defined. The rules themselves cannot be shared among networks. Firewall rules
only support IPv4 traffic. When specifying a source for an ingress rule or a destination for
an egress rule by address, only an IPv4 address or IPv4 block in CIDR notation can be
used. Generic (0.0.0.0/0) incoming traffic from the internet to VPC or VM instance using
SSH on Port 22 can be avoided.

Rationale:

GCP Firewall Rules within a VPC Network apply to outgoing (egress) traffic from
instances and incoming (ingress) traffic to instances in the network. Egress and ingress
traffic flows are controlled even if the traffic stays within the network (for example,
instance-to-instance communication). For an instance to have outgoing Internet access, the
network must have a valid Internet gateway route or custom route whose destination IP is
specified. This route simply defines the path to the Internet, to avoid the most general
(0.0.0.0/0) destination IP Range specified from the Internet through SSH with the default
Port 22. Generic access from the Internet to a specific IP Range needs to be restricted.

Audit:

From the Console

1. Go to VPC network.
2. Go to the Firewall Rules.
3. Ensure that Port is not equal to 22 and Action is not set to Allow.
4. Ensure IP Ranges is not equal to 0.0.0.0/0 under Source filters.

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From Command Line:

gcloud compute firewall-rules list --

format=table'(name,direction,sourceRanges,allowed)'

Ensure that there is no rule matching the below criteria:

 SOURCE_RANGES is 0.0.0.0/0
 AND DIRECTION is INGRESS
 AND IPProtocol is tcp or ALL
 AND PORTS is set to 22 or range containing 22 or Null (not set)

Note:

 When ALL TCP ports are allowed in a rule, PORT does not have any value set (NULL)
 When ALL Protocols are allowed in a rule, PORT does not have any value set (NULL)

Remediation:

From the Console

1. Go to VPC Network.
2. Go to the Firewall Rules.
3. Click the Firewall Rule you want to modify.
4. Click Edit.
5. Modify Source IP ranges to specific IP.
6. Click Save.

From Command Line:

1.Update the Firewall rule with the new SOURCE_RANGE from the below command:

gcloud compute firewall-rules update FirewallName --allow=[PROTOCOL[:PORT[-

PORT]],...] --source-ranges=[CIDR_RANGE,...]

Impact:

All Secure Shell (SSH) connections from outside of the network to the concerned VPC(s)
will be blocked. There could be a business need where SSH access is required from outside
of the network to access resources associated with the VPC. In that case, specific source
IP(s) should be mentioned in firewall rules to white-list access to SSH port for the
concerned VPC(s).

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/vpc/docs/firewalls#blockedtraffic

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Notes:

Currently, GCP VPC only supports IPV4; however, Google is already working on adding
IPV6 support for VPC. In that case along with source IP range 0.0.0.0, the rule should be
checked for IPv6 equivalent ::0 as well.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

9.2 Ensure Only Approved Ports, Protocols and Services Are Running
Ensure that only network ports, protocols, and services listening on a system with
validated business needs, are running on each system.

12.4 Deny Communication over Unauthorized Ports

Deny communication over unauthorized TCP or UDP ports or application traffic to
ensure that only authorized protocols are allowed to cross the network boundary in or out
of the network at each of the organization's network boundaries.

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3.7 Ensure that RDP access is restricted from the Internet (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 2

Description:

GCP Firewall Rules are specific to a VPC Network. Each rule either allows or denies
traffic when its conditions are met. Its conditions allow users to specify the type of traffic,
such as ports and protocols, and the source or destination of the traffic, including IP
addresses, subnets, and instances.

Firewall rules are defined at the VPC network level and are specific to the network in which
they are defined. The rules themselves cannot be shared among networks. Firewall rules
only support IPv4 traffic. When specifying a source for an ingress rule or a destination for
an egress rule by address, an IPv4 address or IPv4 block in CIDR notation can be used.
Generic (0.0.0.0/0) incoming traffic from the Internet to a VPC or VM instance using RDP
on Port 3389 can be avoided.

Rationale:

GCP Firewall Rules within a VPC Network. These rules apply to outgoing (egress) traffic
from instances and incoming (ingress) traffic to instances in the network. Egress and
ingress traffic flows are controlled even if the traffic stays within the network (for example,
instance-to-instance communication). For an instance to have outgoing Internet access, the
network must have a valid Internet gateway route or custom route whose destination IP is
specified. This route simply defines the path to the Internet, to avoid the most general
(0.0.0.0/0) destination IP Range specified from the Internet through RDP with the default
Port 3389. Generic access from the Internet to a specific IP Range should be restricted.

Audit:

From the Console

1. Go to VPC network.
2. Go to the Firewall Rules.
3. Ensure Port is not equal to 3389 and Action is not Allow.
4. Ensure IP Ranges is not equal to 0.0.0.0/0 under Source filters.

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From Command Line:

gcloud compute firewall-rules list --

format=table'(name,direction,sourceRanges,allowed.ports)'

Ensure that there is no rule matching the below criteria:


SOURCE_RANGES is 0.0.0.0/0
 AND DIRECTION is INGRESS
 AND IPProtocol is TCP or ALL
 AND PORTS is set to 3389 or range containing 3389 or Null (not set)

Note:

 When ALL TCP ports are allowed in a rule, PORT does not have any value set (NULL)
 When ALL Protocols are allowed in a rule, PORT does not have any value set (NULL)

Remediation:

From the Console

1. Go to VPC Network.
2. Go to the Firewall Rules.
3. Click the Firewall Rule to be modified.
4. Click Edit.
5. Modify Source IP ranges to specific IP.
6. Click Save.

From Command Line:

1.Update RDP Firewall rule with new SOURCE_RANGE from the below command:

gcloud compute firewall-rules update FirewallName --allow=[PROTOCOL[:PORT[-

PORT]],...] --source-ranges=[CIDR_RANGE,...]

Impact:

All Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) connections from outside of the network to the
concerned VPC(s) will be blocked. There could be a business need where secure shell
access is required from outside of the network to access resources associated with the VPC.
In that case, specific source IP(s) should be mentioned in firewall rules to white-list access
to RDP port for the concerned VPC(s).

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References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/vpc/docs/firewalls#blockedtraffic

Notes:

Currently, GCP VPC only supports IPV4; however, Google is already working on adding
IPV6 support for VPC. In that case along with source IP range 0.0.0.0, the rule should be
checked for IPv6 equivalent ::0 as well.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

9.2 Ensure Only Approved Ports, Protocols and Services Are Running
Ensure that only network ports, protocols, and services listening on a system with
validated business needs, are running on each system.

12.4 Deny Communication over Unauthorized Ports

Deny communication over unauthorized TCP or UDP ports or application traffic to
ensure that only authorized protocols are allowed to cross the network boundary in or out
of the network at each of the organization's network boundaries.

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3.8 Ensure that VPC Flow Logs is enabled for every subnet in a VPC
Network (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

Flow Logs is a feature that enables users to capture information about the IP traffic going to
and from network interfaces in the organization's VPC Subnets. Once a flow log is created,
the user can view and retrieve its data in Stackdriver Logging. It is recommended that Flow
Logs be enabled for every business-critical VPC subnet.

Rationale:

VPC networks and subnetworks provide logically isolated and secure network partitions
where GCP resources can be launched. When Flow Logs is enabled for a subnet, VMs within
that subnet start reporting on all Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram
Protocol (UDP) flows. Each VM samples the TCP and UDP flows it sees, inbound and
outbound, whether the flow is to or from another VM, a host in the on-premises datacenter,
a Google service, or a host on the Internet. If two GCP VMs are communicating, and both are
in subnets that have VPC Flow Logs enabled, both VMs report the flows.

Flow Logs supports the following use cases:

 Network monitoring
 Understanding network usage and optimizing network traffic expenses
 Network forensics
 Real-time security analysis

Flow Logs provide visibility into network traffic for each VM inside the subnet and can be
used to detect anomalous traffic or insight during security workflows.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to the VPC network GCP Console visiting

https://console.cloud.google.com/networking/networks/list
2. From the list of network subnets,
make sure for each subnet Flow Logs is set to On

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From Command Line:

gcloud compute networks subnets describe [SUBNET_NAME] --region [REGION] --

format json | jq '.enableFlowLogs'

The output of the above command returns true, if Flow Logs is set to On.
If Flow Logs is set to Off the above command will return false or null (no-output).

Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to the VPC network GCP Console visiting

https://console.cloud.google.com/networking/networks/list
2. Click the name of a subnet, The Subnet details page displays.
3. Click the EDIT button.
4. Set Flow Logs to On.
5. Click Save.

From Command Line:

To set Private Google access for a network subnet, run the following command:

gcloud compute networks subnets update [SUBNET_NAME] --region [REGION] --

enable-flow-logs

Impact:

Standard pricing for Stackdriver Logging, BigQuery, or Cloud Pub/Sub applies. VPC Flow
Logs generation will be charged starting in GA as described in reference:
https://cloud.google.com/vpc/

Default Value:

By default, Flow Logs is set to Off when a new VPC network subnet is created.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/vpc/docs/using-flow-logs#enabling_vpc_flow_logging
2. https://cloud.google.com/vpc/

CIS Controls:

Version 7

6.2 Activate audit logging

Ensure that local logging has been enabled on all systems and networking devices.

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12.8 Deploy NetFlow Collection on Networking Boundary Devices
Enable the collection of NetFlow and logging data on all network boundary devices.

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3.9 Ensure no HTTPS or SSL proxy load balancers permit SSL policies with
weak cipher suites (Not Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) policies determine what port Transport Layer Security (TLS)
features clients are permitted to use when connecting to load balancers. To prevent usage
of insecure features, SSL policies should use (a) at least TLS 1.2 with the MODERN profile;
or (b) the RESTRICTED profile, because it effectively requires clients to use TLS 1.2
regardless of the chosen minimum TLS version; or (3) a CUSTOM profile that does not
support any of the following features:

TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256

TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384

TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA

TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA

TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA

Rationale:

Load balancers are used to efficiently distribute traffic across multiple servers. Both SSL
proxy and HTTPS load balancers are external load balancers, meaning they distribute
traffic from the Internet to a GCP network. GCP customers can configure load balancer SSL
policies with a minimum TLS version (1.0, 1.1, or 1.2) that clients can use to establish a
connection, along with a profile (Compatible, Modern, Restricted, or Custom) that specifies
permissible cipher suites. To comply with users using outdated protocols, GCP load
balancers can be configured to permit insecure cipher suites. In fact, the GCP default SSL
policy uses a minimum TLS version of 1.0 and a Compatible profile, which allows the
widest range of insecure cipher suites. As a result, it is easy for customers to configure a
load balancer without even knowing that they are permitting outdated cipher suites.

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Audit:

From Console:

1. See all load balancers by visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/net-

services/loadbalancing/loadBalancers/list.
2. For each load balancer for SSL (Proxy) or HTTPS, click on its name to go the Load
balancer details page.
3. Ensure that each target proxy entry in the Frontend table has an SSL Policy
configured.
4. Click on each SSL policy to go to its SSL policy details page.
5. Ensure that the SSL policy satisfies one of the following conditions:

 has a Min TLS set to TLS 1.2 and Profile set to Modern profile, or
 has Profile set to Restricted. Note that a Restricted profile effectively requires
clients to use TLS 1.2 regardless of the chosen minimum TLS version, or
 has Profile set to Custom and the following features are all disabled:

TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA
TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA

From Command Line:

1. List all TargetHttpsProxies and TargetSslProxies.

gcloud compute target-https-proxies list

gcloud compute target-ssl-proxies list

2. For each target proxy, list its properties:

gcloud compute target-https-proxies describe TARGET_HTTPS_PROXY_NAME

gcloud compute target-ssl-proxies describe TARGET_SSL_PROXY_NAME

3. Ensure that the sslPolicy field is present and identifies the name of the SSL policy:

sslPolicy:
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/global/sslPolicies/
SSL_POLICY_NAME

If the sslPolicy field is missing from the configuration, it means that the GCP default policy
is used, which is insecure.

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 4. Describe the SSL policy:

gcloud compute ssl-policies describe SSL_POLICY_NAME

5. Ensure that the policy satisfies one of the following conditions:

 has Profile set to Modern and minTlsVersion set to TLS_1_2, or

 has Profile set to Restricted, or
 has Profile set to Custom and enabledFeatures does not contain any of the
following values:

TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA
TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA

Remediation:

From Console:
If the TargetSSLProxy or TargetHttpsProxy does not have an SSL policy configured, create a
new SSL policy. Otherwise, modify the existing insecure policy.

2. Navigate to the SSL Policies page by visiting:

https://console.cloud.google.com/net-security/sslpolicies
3. Click on the name of the insecure policy to go to its SSL policy details page.
4. Click EDIT.
5. Set Minimum TLS version to TLS 1.2.
6. Set Profile to Modern or Restricted.
7. Alternatively, if teh user selects the profile Custom, make sure that the following
features are disabled:

TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA
TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA

From Command Line:

1. For each insecure SSL policy, update it to use secure cyphers:

gcloud compute ssl-policies update NAME [--profile

COMPATIBLE|MODERN|RESTRICTED|CUSTOM] --min-tls-version 1.2 [--custom-features
FEATURES]

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 2. If the target proxy has a GCP default SSL policy, use the following command
corresponding to the proxy type to update it.

gcloud compute target-ssl-proxies update TARGET_SSL_PROXY_NAME --ssl-policy

SSL_POLICY_NAME
gcloud compute target-https-proxies update TARGET_HTTPS_POLICY_NAME --ssl-
policy SSL_POLICY_NAME

Impact:

Creating more secure SSL policies can prevent clients using older TLS versions from
establishing a connection.

Default Value:

The GCP default SSL policy is the least secure setting: Min TLS 1.0 and Compatible profile

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/load-balancing/docs/use-ssl-policies
2. https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/SpecialPublications/NIST.SP.800-52r2.pdf

CIS Controls:

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13 Data Protection
Data Protection

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4 Virtual Machines
This section covers recommendations addressing virtual machines on Google Cloud
Platform.

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4.1 Ensure that instances are not configured to use the default service
account (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

It is recommended to configure your instance to not use the default Compute Engine
service account because it has the Editor role on the project.

Rationale:

The default Compute Engine service account has the Editor role on the project, which
allows read and write access to most Google Cloud Services. To defend against privilege
escalations if your VM is compromised and prevent an attacker from gaining access to all of
your project, it is recommended to not use the default Compute Engine service account.
Instead, you should create a new service account and assigning only the permissions
needed by your instance.

The default Compute Engine service account is named [PROJECT_NUMBER]-

[email protected].

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to the VM instances page by visiting:

https://console.cloud.google.com/compute/instances.
2. Click on each instance name to go to its VM instance details page.
3. Under the section Service Account, ensure that the default Compute Engine service
account is not used. This account is named [PROJECT_NUMBER]-
[email protected].

From Command Line:

1. List the instances in your project:

gcloud compute instances list

2. Get the details on each instance:

gcloud compute instances describe INSTANCE_NAME --zone ZONE

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 3. Ensure that the service account section does not have an email that matches the
pattern used does not match the pattern [PROJECT_NUMBER]-
[email protected].

Exception:
VMs created by GKE should be excluded. These VMs have names that start with gke- and
are labeled goog-gke-node.

Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to the VM instances page by visiting:

https://console.cloud.google.com/compute/instances.
2. Click on the instance name to go to its VM instance details page.
3. Click STOP and then click EDIT.
4. Under the section Service Account, select a service account other that the default
Compute Engine service account. You may first need to create a new service
account.
5. Click Save and then click START.

From Command Line:

1. Stop the instance:

gcloud compute instances stop INSTANCE_NAME

2. Update the instance:

gcloud compute instances set-service-account INSTANCE_NAME --service-

account=SERVICE_ACCOUNT

3. Restart the instance:

gcloud compute instances start INSTANCE_NAME

Impact:

None.

Default Value:

By default, Compute instances are configured to use the default Compute Engine service
account.

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References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/access/service-accounts
2. https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/access/create-enable-service-accounts-
for-instances
3. https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/compute/instances/set-service-
account

CIS Controls:

Version 7

4.7 Limit Access to Script Tools

Limit access to scripting tools (such as Microsoft PowerShell and Python) to only
administrative or development users with the need to access those capabilities.

16 Account Monitoring and Control

Account Monitoring and Control

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4.2 Ensure that instances are not configured to use the default service
account with full access to all Cloud APIs (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

To support principle of least privileges and prevent potential privilege escalation it is

recommended that instances are not assigned to default service account Compute Engine
default service account with Scope Allow full access to all Cloud APIs.

Rationale:

Along with ability to optionally create, manage and use user managed custom service
accounts, Google Compute Engine provides default service account Compute Engine
default service account for an instances to access necessary cloud services. Project
Editor role is assigned to Compute Engine default service account hence, This service
account has almost all capabilities over all cloud services except billing. However, when
Compute Engine default service account assigned to an instance it can operate in 3
scopes.

1. Allow default access: Allows only minimum access required to run an

Instance (Least Privileges)

2. Allow full access to all Cloud APIs: Allow full access to all the cloud
APIs/Services (Too much access)

3. Set access for each API: Allows Instance administrator to choose only
those APIs that are needed to perform specific business functionality
expected by instance

When an instance is configured with Compute Engine default service account with
Scope Allow full access to all Cloud APIs, based on IAM roles assigned to the user(s)
accessing Instance, it may allow user to perform cloud operations/API calls that user is not
supposed to perform leading to successful privilege escalation.

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Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to the VM instances page by visiting:

https://console.cloud.google.com/compute/instances.
2. Click on each instance name to go to its VM instance details page.
3. If the Default Compute Engine service account is selected under Service
Account, ensure that Cloud API access scopes is not set to Allow full access to
all Cloud APIs.

From Command Line:

1. List Instances from project

gcloud compute instances list

2. Get the details on each instance:

gcloud compute instances describe INSTANCE_NAME --zone ZONE

3. Ensure that the instance is not configured to allow the

https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform scope for the default
Compute Engine service account:

serviceAccounts:
- email: [PROJECT_NUMBER][email protected]
scopes:
- https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform

Exception: Instances created by GKE should be excluded. These instances have names that
start with "gke-" and are labeled "goog-gke-node"

Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to the VM instances page by visiting:

https://console.cloud.google.com/compute/instances.
2. Click on the impacted VM instance.
3. If the instance is not stopped, click the Stop button. Wait for the instance to be
stopped.
4. Next, click the Edit button.
5. Scroll down to the Service Account section.
6. Select a different service account or ensure that Allow full access to all Cloud
APIs is not selected.

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 7. Click the Save button to save your changes and then click START.

From Command Line:

1. Stop the instance:

gcloud compute instances stop INSTANCE_NAME

2. Update the instance:

gcloud compute instances set-service-account INSTANCE_NAME --service-

account=SERVICE_ACCOUNT --scopes [SCOPE1, SCOPE2...]

3. Restart the instance:

gcloud compute instances start INSTANCE_NAME

Impact:

In order to change service account or scope for an instance, it needs to be stopped.

Default Value:

While creating an VM instance, default service account is used with scope Allow default
access.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/access/create-enable-service-accounts-
for-instances
2. https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/access/service-accounts

Notes:

 User IAM roles will override service account scope but configuring minimal scope
ensures defense in depth
 Non-default service accounts do not offer selection of access scopes like default
service account. IAM roles with non-default service accounts should be used to
control VM access.

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CIS Controls:

Version 7

4.7 Limit Access to Script Tools

Limit access to scripting tools (such as Microsoft PowerShell and Python) to only
administrative or development users with the need to access those capabilities.

16 Account Monitoring and Control

Account Monitoring and Control

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4.3 Ensure "Block Project-wide SSH keys" is enabled for VM instances
(Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

It is recommended to use Instance specific SSH key(s) instead of using common/shared

project-wide SSH key(s) to access Instances.

Rationale:

Project-wide SSH keys are stored in Compute/Project-meta-data. Project wide SSH keys
can be used to login into all the instances within project. Using project-wide SSH keys eases
the SSH key management but if compromised, poses the security risk which can impact all
the instances within project. It is recommended to use Instance specific SSH keys which can
limit the attack surface if the SSH keys are compromised.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to the VM instances page by visiting

https://console.cloud.google.com/compute/instances. It will list all the instances in
your project.
2. For every instance, click on the name of the instance.
3. Under SSH Keys, ensure Block project-wide SSH keys is selected.

From Command Line:

1. List all instances in a project:

gcloud compute instances list

2. For every instance, get the instance metadata:

gcloud compute instances describe INSTANCE_NAME

3. Ensure key: block-project-ssh-keys set to value: 'true'.

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Exception:
Instances created by GKE should be excluded. These instances have names that start with
"gke-" and are labeled "goog-gke-node".

Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to the VM instances page by visiting:

https://console.cloud.google.com/compute/instances. It will list all the instances in
your project.
2. Click on the name of the Impacted instance
3. Click Edit in the toolbar
4. Under SSH Keys, go to the Block project-wide SSH keys checkbox
5. To block users with project-wide SSH keys from connecting to this instance, select
Block project-wide SSH keys
6. Click Save at the bottom of the page
7. Repeat steps for every impacted Instance

From Command Line:

Block project-wide public SSH keys, set the metadata value to TRUE:

gcloud compute instances add-metadata INSTANCE_NAME --metadata block-project-

ssh-keys=TRUE

Impact:

Users already having Project-wide ssh key pairs and using third party SSH clients will lose
access to the impacted Instances. For Project users using gcloud or GCP Console based SSH
option, no manual key creation and distribution is required and will be handled by GCE
(Google Compute Engine) itself. To access Instance using third party SSH clients Instance
specific SSH key pairs need to be created and distributed to the required users.

Default Value:

By Default Block Project-wide SSH keys is not enabled.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/instances/adding-removing-ssh-keys

Notes:

If OS Login is enabled, SSH keys in instance metadata are ignored, and therefore blocking
project-wide SSH keys is not necessary.

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CIS Controls:

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16 Account Monitoring and Control

Account Monitoring and Control

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4.4 Ensure oslogin is enabled for a Project (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

Enabling OS login binds SSH certificates to IAM users and facilitates effective SSH certificate
management.

Rationale:

Enabling osLogin ensures that SSH keys used to connect to instances are mapped with IAM
users. Revoking access to IAM user will revoke all the SSH keys associated with that
particular user. It facilitates centralized and automated SSH key pair management which is
useful in handling cases like response to compromised SSH key pairs and/or revocation of
external/third-party/Vendor users.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to the VM compute metadata page by visiting

https://console.cloud.google.com/compute/metadata.
2. Ensure that key enable-oslogin is present with value set to TRUE.
3. Because instances can override project settings, ensure that no instance has custom
metadata with key enable-oslogin and value FALSE.

From Command Line:

1. Ensure that OS login is enabled on the project:

gcloud compute project-info describe

2. Verify that the section commonInstanceMetadata has a key enable-oslogin set to

value TRUE.
3. Ensure that no instance in the project overrides the project setting:

gcloud compute instances describe INSTANCE_NAME

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Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to the VM compute metadata page by visiting:

https://console.cloud.google.com/compute/metadata.
2. Click Edit.
3. Add a metadata entry where the key is enable-oslogin and the value is TRUE.
4. Click Save to apply the changes.
5. For every instances that overrides the project setting, go to the VM Instances page
at https://console.cloud.google.com/compute/instances.
6. Click the name of the instance on which you want to remove the metadata value.
7. At the top of the instance details page, click Edit to edit the instance settings.
8. Under Custom metadata, remove any entry with key enable-oslogin and the value
is FALSE
9. At the bottom of the instance details page, click Save to apply your changes to the
instance.

From Command Line:

1. Configure oslogin on the project:

gcloud compute project-info add-metadata --metadata enable-oslogin=TRUE

2. Remove instance metadata that overrides the project setting.

gcloud compute instances remove-metadata INSTANCE_NAME --keys=enable-oslogin

Optionally, you can enable two factor authentication fir OS login. For more information,
see: https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/oslogin/setup-two-factor-authentication.

Impact:

Enabling OS Login on project disables metadata-based SSH key configurations on all

instances from a project. Disabling OS Login restores SSH keys that you have configured in
project or instance meta-data.

Default Value:

By default, parameter enable-oslogin is not set, which is equivalent to setting it to FALSE.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/instances/managing-instance-access

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 2. https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/instances/managing-instance-
access#enable_oslogin
3. https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/compute/instances/remove-
metadata
4. https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/oslogin/setup-two-factor-authentication

Notes:

1. In order to use osLogin, instance using Custom Images must have the latest version
of the Linux Guest Environment installed. The following image families do not yet
support OS Login:

Project cos-cloud (Container-Optimized OS) image family cos-stable.

All project coreos-cloud (CoreOS) image families

Project suse-cloud (SLES) image family sles-11

All Windows Server and SQL Server image families

2. Project enable-oslogin can be over-ridden by setting enable-oslogin parameter to an

instance metadata individually.

CIS Controls:

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16 Account Monitoring and Control

Account Monitoring and Control

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4.5 Ensure 'Enable connecting to serial ports' is not enabled for VM
Instance (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

Interacting with a serial port is often referred to as the serial console, which is similar to
using a terminal window, in that input and output is entirely in text mode and there is no
graphical interface or mouse support.

If you enable the interactive serial console on an instance, clients can attempt to connect to
that instance from any IP address. Therefore interactive serial console support should be
disabled.

Rationale:

A virtual machine instance has four virtual serial ports. Interacting with a serial port is
similar to using a terminal window, in that input and output is entirely in text mode and
there is no graphical interface or mouse support. The instance's operating system, BIOS,
and other system-level entities often write output to the serial ports, and can accept input
such as commands or answers to prompts. Typically, these system-level entities use the
first serial port (port 1) and serial port 1 is often referred to as the serial console.

The interactive serial console does not support IP-based access restrictions such as IP
whitelists. If you enable the interactive serial console on an instance, clients can attempt to
connect to that instance from any IP address. This allows anybody to connect to that
instance if they know the correct SSH key, username, project ID, zone, and instance name.

Therefore interactive serial console support should be disabled.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Login to Google Cloud console

2. Go to Computer Engine
3. Go to VM instances
4. Click on the Specific VM
5. Ensure Enable connecting to serial ports below Remote access block is
unselected.

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From Command Line:
Ensure the below command's output shows null:

gcloud compute instances describe <vmName> --zone=<region> --

format="json(metadata.items[].key,metadata.items[].value)"

or key and value properties from below command's json response are equal to serial-
port-enable and 0 or false respectively.

{
"metadata": {
"items": [
{
"key": "serial-port-enable",
"value": "0"
}
]
}
}

Remediation:

From Console:

1. Login to Google Cloud console

2. Go to Computer Engine
3. Go to VM instances
4. Click on the Specific VM
5. Click EDIT
6. Unselect Enable connecting to serial ports below Remote access block.
7. Click Save

From Command Line:

Use the below command to disable

gcloud compute instances add-metadata INSTANCE_NAME --zone=ZONE --

metadata=serial-port-enable=false

or

gcloud compute instances add-metadata INSTANCE_NAME --zone=ZONE --

metadata=serial-port-enable=0

Prevention:
You can prevent VMs from having serial port access enable by Disable VM serial port
access organization policy:

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https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/orgpolicies/compute-
disableSerialPortAccess.

Default Value:

By default, connecting to serial ports is not enabled.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/instances/interacting-with-serial-console

CIS Controls:

Version 7

9.2 Ensure Only Approved Ports, Protocols and Services Are Running
Ensure that only network ports, protocols, and services listening on a system with
validated business needs, are running on each system.

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4.6 Ensure that IP forwarding is not enabled on Instances (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

Compute Engine instance cannot forward a packet unless the source IP address of the
packet matches the IP address of the instance. Similarly, GCP won't deliver a packet whose
destination IP address is different than the IP address of the instance receiving the packet.
However, both capabilities are required if you want to use instances to help route packets.

Forwarding of data packets should be disabled to prevent data loss or information

disclosure.

Rationale:

Compute Engine instance cannot forward a packet unless the source IP address of the
packet matches the IP address of the instance. Similarly, GCP won't deliver a packet whose
destination IP address is different than the IP address of the instance receiving the packet.
However, both capabilities are required if you want to use instances to help route packets.
To enable this source and destination IP check, disable the canIpForward field, which
allows an instance to send and receive packets with non-matching destination or source
IPs.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to the VM Instances page by visiting:

https://console.cloud.google.com/compute/instances.
2. For every instance, click on its name to go to the VM instance details page.
3. Under the Network interfaces section, ensure that IP forwarding is set to Off for
every network interface.

From Command Line:

1. List all instances:

gcloud compute instances list --format='table(name,canIpForward)'

2. Ensure that CAN_IP_FORWARD column in the output of above command does not
contain True for any VM instance.

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Exception:
Instances created by GKE should be excluded because they need to have IP forwarding
enabled and cannot be changed. Instances created by GKE have names that start with "gke-
".

Remediation:

You only edit the canIpForward setting at instance creation time. Therefore, you need to
delete the instance and create a new one where canIpForward is set to false.
From Console:

1. Go to the VM Instances page by visiting:

https://console.cloud.google.com/compute/instances.
2. Select the VM Instance you want to remediate.
3. Click the Delete button.
4. On the 'VM Instances' page, click `CREATE INSTANCE'.
5. Create a new instance with the desired configuration. By default, the instance is
configured to not allow IP forwarding.

From Command Line:

1. Delete the instance:

gcloud compute instances delete INSTANCE_NAME

2. Create a new instance to replace it, with IP forwarding set to Off

gcloud compute instances create

Impact:

Deleting instance(s) acting as routers/packet forwarders may break the network

connectivity.

Default Value:

By default, instances are not configured to allow IP forwarding.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/vpc/docs/using-routes#canipforward

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Notes:

You can only set the canIpForward field at instance creation time. After an instance is
created, the field becomes read-only.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

11.1 Maintain Standard Security Configurations for Network Devices

Maintain standard, documented security configuration standards for all authorized
network devices.

11.2 Document Traffic Configuration Rules

All configuration rules that allow traffic to flow through network devices should be
documented in a configuration management system with a specific business reason for
each rule, a specific individual’s name responsible for that business need, and an expected
duration of the need.

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4.7 Ensure VM disks for critical VMs are encrypted with Customer-
Supplied Encryption Keys (CSEK) (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 2

Description:

Customer-Supplied Encryption Keys (CSEK) are a feature in Google Cloud Storage and
Google Compute Engine. If you supply your own encryption keys, Google uses your key to
protect the Google-generated keys used to encrypt and decrypt your data. By default,
Google Compute Engine encrypts all data at rest. Compute Engine handles and manages
this encryption for you without any additional actions on your part. However, if you
wanted to control and manage this encryption yourself, you can provide your own
encryption keys.

Rationale:

By default, Google Compute Engine encrypts all data at rest. Compute Engine handles and
manages this encryption for you without any additional actions on your part. However, if
you wanted to control and manage this encryption yourself, you can provide your own
encryption keys.

If you provide your own encryption keys, Compute Engine uses your key to protect the
Google-generated keys used to encrypt and decrypt your data. Only users who can provide
the correct key can use resources protected by a customer-supplied encryption key.

Google does not store your keys on its servers and cannot access your protected data
unless you provide the key. This also means that if you forget or lose your key, there is no
way for Google to recover the key or to recover any data encrypted with the lost key.

At least business critical VMs should have VM disks encrypted with CSEK.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to Compute Engine Disks by visiting:

https://console.cloud.google.com/compute/disks.
2. Click on the disk for your critical VMs to see its configuration details.
3. Ensure that Encryption type is set to Customer supplied.

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From Command Line:
Ensure diskEncryptionKey property in the below command's response is not null, and
contains key sha256 with corresponding value

gcloud compute disks describe DISK_NAME --zone ZONE --

format="json(diskEncryptionKey,name)"

Remediation:

Currently there is no way to update the encryption of an existing disk. Therefore you
should create a new disk with Encryption set to Customer supplied.
From Console:

1. Go to Compute Engine Disks by visiting:

https://console.cloud.google.com/compute/disks.
2. Click CREATE DISK.
3. Set Encryption type to Customer supplied,
4. Provide the Key in the box.
5. Select Wrapped key.
6. Click Create.

From Command Line:

In the gcloud compute tool, encrypt a disk using the --csek-key-file flag during instance
creation. If you are using an RSA-wrapped key, use the gcloud beta component:

gcloud (beta) compute instances create INSTANCE_NAME --csek-key-file

<example-file.json>

To encrypt a standalone persistent disk:

gcloud (beta) compute disks create DISK_NAME --csek-key-file <example-

file.json>

Impact:

If you lose your encryption key, you will not be able to recover the data.

Default Value:

By default, VM disks are encrypted with Google-managed keys. They are not encrypted
with Customer-Supplied Encryption Keys.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/disks/customer-supplied-
encryption#encrypt_a_new_persistent_disk_with_your_own_keys
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 2. https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/reference/rest/v1/disks/get
3. https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/disks/customer-supplied-
encryption#key_file

Notes:

Note 1: When you delete a persistent disk, Google discards the cipher keys, rendering the
data irretrievable. This process is irreversible.

Note 2: It is up to you to generate and manage your key. You must provide a key that is a
256-bit string encoded in RFC 4648 standard base64 to Compute Engine.

Note 3: An example key file looks like this.

"uri": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/myproject/zones/us-
central1-a/disks/example-disk",

"key": "acXTX3rxrKAFTF0tYVLvydU1riRZTvUNC4g5I11NY-c=",

"key-type": "raw"

},

"uri":
"https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/myproject/global/snapshots/my
-private-snapshot",

"key":
"ieCx/NcW06PcT7Ep1X6LUTc/hLvUDYyzSZPPVCVPTVEohpeHASqC8uw5TzyO9U+Fka9JFHz0mBib
XUInrC/jEk014kCK/NPjYgEMOyssZ4ZINPKxlUh2zn1bV+MCaTICrdmuSBTWlUUiFoDD6PYznLwh8
ZNdaheCeZ8ewEXgFQ8V+sDroLaN3Xs3MDTXQEMMoNUXMCZEIpg9Vtp9x2oeQ5lAbtt7bYAAHf5l+g
JWw3sUfs0/Glw5fpdjT8Uggrr+RMZezGrltJEF293rvTIjWOEB3z5OHyHwQkvdrPDFcTqsLfh+8Hr
8g+mf+7zVPEC8nEbqpdl3GPv3A7AwpFp7MA=="

"key-type": "rsa-encrypted"

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CIS Controls:

Version 7

13 Data Protection
Data Protection

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4.8 Ensure Compute instances are launched with Shielded VM enabled
(Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 2

Description:

To defend against against advanced threats and ensure that the boot loader and firmware
on your VMs are signed and untampered, it is recommended that Compute instances are
launched with Shielded VM enabled.

Rationale:

Shielded VMs are virtual machines (VMs) on Google Cloud Platform hardened by a set of
security controls that help defend against rootkits and bootkits.

Shielded VM offers verifiable integrity of your Compute Engine VM instances, so you can be
confident your instances haven't been compromised by boot- or kernel-level malware or
rootkits. Shielded VM's verifiable integrity is achieved through the use of Secure Boot,
virtual trusted platform module (vTPM)-enabled Measured Boot, and integrity monitoring.

Shielded VM instances run firmware which is signed and verified using Google's Certificate
Authority, ensuring that the instance's firmware is unmodified and establishing the root of
trust for Secure Boot.

Integrity monitoring helps you understand and make decisions about the state of your VM
instances and the Shielded VM vTPM enables Measured Boot by performing the
measurements needed to create a known good boot baseline, called the integrity policy
baseline. The integrity policy baseline is used for comparison with measurements from
subsequent VM boots to determine if anything has changed.

Secure Boot helps ensure that the system only runs authentic software by verifying the
digital signature of all boot components, and halting the boot process if signature
verification fails.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to the VM instances page by visiting:

https://console.cloud.google.com/compute/instances.

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 2. Click on the instance name to see its VM instance details page.
3. Under the section Shielded VM, ensure that Turn on vTPM and Turn on Integrity
Monitoring are enabled.

From Command Line:

1. For each instance in your project, get its metadata:

gcloud compute instances describe INSTANCE_NAME

2. Ensure that there is a shieldedInstanceConfig configuration and that

configuration has the enableIntegrityMonitoring and enableVtpm set to true. If
the VM is not a Shield VM image, you will not see a shieldedInstanceConfig` in the
output.

Remediation:

To be able turn on Shielded VM on an instance, your instance must use an image with
Shielded VM support.
From Console:

1. Go to the VM instances page by visiting:

https://console.cloud.google.com/compute/instances.
2. Click on the instance name to see its VM instance details page.
3. Click STOP to stop the instance.
4. When the instance has stopped, click EDIT.
5. In the Shielded VM section, select Turn on vTPM and Turn on Integrity
Monitoring.
6. Optionally, if you do not use any custom or unsigned drivers on the instance, also
select Turn on Secure Boot.
7. Click the Save button to modify the instance and then click START to restart it.

From Command Line:

You can only enable Shielded VM options on instances that have Shielded VM support. For a
list of Shielded VM public images, run the gcloud compute images list command with the
following flags:

gcloud compute images list --project gce-uefi-images --no-standard-images

1. Stop the instance:

gcloud compute instances stop INSTANCE_NAME

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 2. Update the instance:

gcloud compute instances update INSTANCE_NAME --shielded-vtpm --shielded-vm-

integrity-monitoring

3. Optionally, if you do not use any custom or unsigned drivers on the instance, also
turn on secure boot.

gcloud compute instances update INSTANCE_NAME --shielded-vm-secure-boot

4. Restart the instance:

gcloud compute instances start INSTANCE_NAME

Prevention:
You can ensure that all new VMs will be created with Shielded VM enabled by setting up an
Organization Policy to for Shielded VM at https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-
admin/orgpolicies/compute-requireShieldedVm. Learn more at:
https://cloud.google.com/security/shielded-cloud/shielded-vm#organization-policy-
constraint.

Impact:

None.

Default Value:

By default, Compute Instances do not have Shielded VM enabled.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/instances/modifying-shielded-vm
2. https://cloud.google.com/shielded-vm
3. https://cloud.google.com/security/shielded-cloud/shielded-vm#organization-
policy-constraint

Notes:

If you do use custom or unsigned drivers on the instance, enabling Secure Boot will cause
the machine to no longer boot. Turn on Secure Boot only on instances that have been
verified to not have any custom drivers installed.

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13 Data Protection
Data Protection

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4.9 Ensure that Compute instances do not have public IP addresses
(Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 2

Description:

Compute instances should not be configured to have external IP addresses.

Rationale:

To reduce your attack surface, Compute instances should not have public IP addresses.
Instead, instances should be configured behind load balancers, to minimize the instance's
exposure to the internet.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to the VM instances page by visiting:

https://console.cloud.google.com/compute/instances.
2. For every VM, ensure that there is no External IP configured.

From Command Line:

1. List the instances in your project:

gcloud compute instances list

2. For every instance, list its configuration:

gcloud compute instances describe INSTANCE_NAME --zone=ZONE

3. The output should not contain an accessConfigs section under networkInterfaces.

Note that the natIP value is present only for instances that are running or for
instances that are stoped but have a static IP address. For instances that are stopped
and are configured to have an ephemeral public IP address, the natIP field will not
be present. Example output:

networkInterfaces:
- accessConfigs:
- kind: compute#accessConfig
name: External NAT

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 networkTier: STANDARD
type: ONE_TO_ONE_NAT

Exception:
Instances created by GKE should be excluded because some of them have external IP
addresses and cannot be changed by editing the instance settings. Instances created by GKE
should be excluded. These instances have names that start with "gke-" and are labeled
"goog-gke-node".

Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to the VM instances page by visiting:

https://console.cloud.google.com/compute/instances.
2. Click on the instance name to go the the Instance detail page.
3. Click Edit.
4. For each Network interface, ensure that External IP is set to None.
5. Click Done and then click Save.

From Command Line:

1. Describe the instance properties:

gcloud compute instances describe INSTANCE_NAME --zone=ZONE

2. Identify the access config name that contains the external IP address. This access
config appears in the following format:

networkInterfaces:
- accessConfigs:
- kind: compute#accessConfig
name: External NAT
natIP: 130.211.181.55
type: ONE_TO_ONE_NAT

2. Delete the access config.

gcloud compute instances delete-access-config INSTANCE_NAME --zone=ZONE --

access-config-name "ACCESS_CONFIG_NAME"

In the above example, the ACCESS_CONFIG_NAME is External NAT. The name of your access
config might be different.
Prevention:
You can configure the Define allowed external IPs for VM instances Organization

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Policy to prevent VMs from being configured with public IP addresses. Learn more at:
https://console.cloud.google.com/orgpolicies/compute-vmExternalIpAccess

Impact:

Removing the external IP address from your Compute instance may cause some
applications to stop working.

Default Value:

By default, Compute instances have a public IP address.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/load-balancing/docs/backend-
service#backends_and_external_ip_addresses
2. https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/instances/connecting-
advanced#sshbetweeninstances
3. https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/instances/connecting-to-instance
4. https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/ip-addresses/reserve-static-external-ip-
address#unassign_ip
5. https://cloud.google.com/resource-manager/docs/organization-policy/org-policy-
constraints

Notes:

You can connect to Linux VMs that do not have public IP addresses by using Identity-Aware
Proxy for TCP forwarding. Learn more at
https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/instances/connecting-
advanced#sshbetweeninstances

For Windows VMs, see https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/instances/connecting-to-

instance.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

13 Data Protection
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4.10 Ensure that App Engine applications enforce HTTPS connections
(Not Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 2

Description:

In order to maintain the highest level of security all connections to an application should be
secure by default.

Rationale:

Insecure HTTP connections maybe subject to eavesdropping which can expose sensitive
data.

Audit:

Verify that the app.yaml file controlling the application contains a line which enforces
secure connections. For example

handlers:
- url: /.*
secure: always
redirect_http_response_code: 301
script: auto

https://cloud.google.com/appengine/docs/standard/python3/config/appref

Remediation:

Add a line to the app.yaml file controlling the application which enforces secure
connections. For example

handlers:
- url: /.*
**secure: always**
redirect_http_response_code: 301
script: auto

[https://cloud.google.com/appengine/docs/standard/python3/config/appref]

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Impact:

All connections to appengine will automatically be redirected to the HTTPS endpoint

ensuring that all connections are secured by TLS.

Default Value:

By default both HTTP and HTTP are supported

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/appengine/docs/standard/python3/config/appref
2. https://cloud.google.com/appengine/docs/flexible/nodejs/configuring-your-app-
with-app-yaml

CIS Controls:

Version 7

18.5 Use Only Standardized and Extensively Reviewed Encryption Algorithms

Use only standardized and extensively reviewed encryption algorithms.

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5 Storage
This section covers recommendations addressing storage on Google Cloud Platform.

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5.1 Ensure that Cloud Storage bucket is not anonymously or publicly
accessible (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

It is recommended that IAM policy on Cloud Storage bucket does not allows anonymous or
public access.

Rationale:

Allowing anonymous or public access grants permissions to anyone to access bucket

content. Such access might not be desired if you are storing any sensitive data. Hence,
ensure that anonymous or public access to a bucket is not allowed.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to Storage browser by visiting

https://console.cloud.google.com/storage/browser.
2. Click on each bucket name to go to its Bucket details page.
3. Click on the Permissions tab.
4. Ensure that allUsers and allAuthenticatedUsers are not in the Members list.

From Command Line:

1. List all buckets in a project

gsutil ls

2. Check the IAM Policy for each bucket:

gsutil iam get gs://BUCKET_NAME

No role should contain allUsers and/or allAuthenticatedUsers as a member.

Using Rest API

1. List all buckets in a project

Get https://www.googleapis.com/storage/v1/b?project=<ProjectName>

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 2. Check the IAM Policy for each bucket

GET https://www.googleapis.com/storage/v1/b/<bucketName>/iam

No role should contain allUsers and/or allAuthenticatedUsers as a member.

Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to Storage browser by visiting

https://console.cloud.google.com/storage/browser.
2. Click on the bucket name to go to its Bucket details page.
3. Click on the Permissions tab.
4. Click Delete button in front of allUsers and allAuthenticatedUsers to remove
that particular role assignment.

From Command Line:

Remove allUsers and allAuthenticatedUsers access.

gsutil iam ch -d allUsers gs://BUCKET_NAME

gsutil iam ch -d allAuthenticatedUsers gs://BUCKET_NAME

Prevention:
You can prevent Storage buckets from becoming publicly accessible by setting up the
Domain restricted sharing organization policy at:
https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/orgpolicies/iam-
allowedPolicyMemberDomains .

Impact:

No storage buckets would be publicly accessible. You would have to explicitly administer
bucket access.

Default Value:

By Default, Storage buckets are not publicly shared.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/access-control/iam-reference
2. https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/access-control/making-data-public
3. https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/gsutil/commands/iam

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Notes:

To implement Access restrictions on buckets, configuring Bucket IAM is preferred way than
configuring Bucket ACL. On GCP console, "Edit Permissions" for bucket exposes IAM
configurations only. Bucket ACLs are configured automatically as per need in order to
implement/support User enforced Bucket IAM policy. In-case administrator changes
bucket ACL using command-line (gsutils)/API bucket IAM also gets updated automatically.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

12.4 Deny Communication over Unauthorized Ports

Deny communication over unauthorized TCP or UDP ports or application traffic to
ensure that only authorized protocols are allowed to cross the network boundary in or out
of the network at each of the organization's network boundaries.

16 Account Monitoring and Control

Account Monitoring and Control

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5.2 Ensure that Cloud Storage buckets have uniform bucket-level access
enabled (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 2

Description:

It is recommended that uniform bucket-level access is enabled on Cloud Storage buckets.

Rationale:

It is recommended to use uniform bucket-level access to unify and simplify how you grant
access to your Cloud Storage resources.

Cloud Storage offers two systems for granting users permission to access your buckets and
objects: Cloud Identity and Access Management (Cloud IAM) and Access Control Lists
(ACLs). These systems act in parallel - in order for a user to access a Cloud Storage
resource, only one of the systems needs to grant the user permission. Cloud IAM is used
throughout Google Cloud and allows you to grant a variety of permissions at the bucket and
project levels. ACLs are used only by Cloud Storage and have limited permission options,
but they allow you to grant permissions on a per-object basis.

In order to support a uniform permissioning system, Cloud Storage has uniform bucket-
level access. Using this feature disables ACLs for all Cloud Storage resources: access to
Cloud Storage resources then is granted exclusively through Cloud IAM. Enabling uniform
bucket-level access guarantees that if a Storage bucket is not publicly accessible, no object
in the bucket is publicly accessible either.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Open the Cloud Storage browser in the Google Cloud Console by visiting:
https://console.cloud.google.com/storage/browser
2. For each bucket, make sure that Access control column has the value Uniform.

From Command Line:

1. List all buckets in a project

gsutil ls

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 2. For each bucket, verify that uniform bucket-level access is enabled.

gsutil uniformbucketlevelaccess get gs://BUCKET_NAME/

If uniform bucket-level access is enabled, the response looks like:

Uniform bucket-level access setting for gs://BUCKET_NAME/:

Enabled: True
LockedTime: LOCK_DATE

Remediation:

From Console:

1. Open the Cloud Storage browser in the Google Cloud Console by visiting:
https://console.cloud.google.com/storage/browser
2. In the list of buckets, click on the name of the desired bucket.
3. Select the Permissions tab near the top of the page.
4. In the text box that starts with This bucket uses fine-grained access
control..., click Edit.
5. In the pop-up menu that appears, select Uniform.
6. Click Save.

From Command Line:

Use the on option in a uniformbucketlevelaccess set command:

gsutil uniformbucketlevelaccess set on gs://BUCKET_NAME/

Prevention
You can set up an Organization Policy to enforce that any new bucket has uniform bucket
level access enabled. Learn more at:
https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/setting-org-policies#uniform-bucket

Impact:

If you enable uniform bucket-level access, you revoke access from users who gain their
access solely through object ACLs.

Certain Google Cloud services, such as Stackdriver, Cloud Audit Logs, and Datastore, cannot
export to Cloud Storage buckets that have uniform bucket-level access enabled.

Default Value:

By default, Cloud Storage buckets do not have uniform bucket-level access enabled.

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References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/uniform-bucket-level-access
2. https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/using-uniform-bucket-level-access
3. https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/setting-org-policies#uniform-bucket

Notes:

Uniform bucket-level access can no longer be disabled if it has been active on a bucket for
90 consecutive days.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

14.6 Protect Information through Access Control Lists

Protect all information stored on systems with file system, network share, claims,
application, or database specific access control lists. These controls will enforce the
principle that only authorized individuals should have access to the information based on
their need to access the information as a part of their responsibilities.

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6 Cloud SQL Database Services
This section covers security recommendations to follow to secure Cloud SQL database
services.

The recommendations in this section on setting up database flags are also present in the
CIS Oracle MySQL Community Server 5.7 Benchmarks and in the CIS PostgreSQL 12
Benchmarks. We, nevertheless, include them here as well, the remediation instructions are
different on Cloud SQL. Settings these flags require superuser privileges and can only be
configured through GCP controls.

Learn more at: https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/postgres/users and

https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/mysql/flags.

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6.1 MySQL Database
This section covers recommendations addressing Cloud SQL for MySQL on Google Cloud
Platform.

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6.1.1 Ensure that a MySQL database instance does not allow anyone to
connect with administrative privileges (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

It is recommended to set a password for the administrative user (root by default) to

prevent unauthorized access to the SQL database instances.

This recommendation is applicable only for MySQL Instances. PostgreSQL does not offer
any setting for No Password from the cloud console.

Rationale:

At the time of MySQL Instance creation, not providing an administrative password allows
anyone to connect to the SQL database instance with administrative privileges. The root
password should be set to ensure only authorized users have these privileges.

Audit:

From Command Line:

1. List All SQL database instances of type MySQL.

gcloud sql instances list --filter='DATABASE_VERSION:MYSQL*'

2. For every MySQL instance try to connect from an authorized network:

mysql -u root -h <Instance_IP>

The command should return either an error message or a password prompt.

Sample Error message:

ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'[Inatance_IP]' (using

password: NO)

If a command produces the mysql prompt, the SQL instance allows anyone to connect with
administrative privileges without needing a password.
Note: The No Password setting is exposed only at the time of MySQL instance creation.
Once the instance is created, the Google Cloud Platform Console does not expose the set to
confirm whether a password for an administrative user is set to a MySQL instance.

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Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to the Cloud SQL Instances page in the Google Cloud Platform Console using
https://console.cloud.google.com/sql/
2. Select the instance to open its Overview page.
3. Select Access Control > Users.
4. Click the more actions icon for the user to be updated.
5. Select Change password, specify a new password, and click OK.

From Command Line:

Set a password to a MySql instance:

gcloud sql users set-password [USER_NAME] [HOST] --instance=[INSTANCE_NAME] -

-password=[PASSWORD]

Impact:

Connection strings for administrative clients need to be reconfigured to use a password.

Default Value:

From the Google Cloud Platform Console, the Create Instance workflow enforces the rule
to enter the root password unless the option No Password is selected explicitly.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/mysql/create-manage-users
2. https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/mysql/create-instance

CIS Controls:

Version 7

4.2 Change Default Passwords

Before deploying any new asset, change all default passwords to have values consistent
with administrative level accounts.

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6.1.2 Ensure that the 'local_infile' database flag for a Cloud SQL Mysql
instance is set to 'off' (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

It is recommended to set the local_infile database flag for a Cloud SQL MySQL instance
to off.

Rationale:

The local_infile flag controls the server-side LOCAL capability for LOAD DATA
statements. Depending on the local_infile setting, the server refuses or permits local
data loading by clients that have LOCAL enabled on the client side.

To explicitly cause the server to refuse LOAD DATA LOCAL statements (regardless of how
client programs and libraries are configured at build time or runtime), start mysqld with
local_infile disabled. local_infile can also be set at runtime.

Due to security issues associated with the local_infile flag, it is recommended to disable
it. This recommendation is applicable to MySQL database instances.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to the Cloud SQL Instances page in the Google Cloud Console by visiting
https://console.cloud.google.com/sql/instances.
2. Select the instance to open its Instance Overview page
3. Ensure the database flag local_infile that has been set is listed under the
Database flags section.

From Command Line:

1. List all Cloud SQL database instances:

gcloud sql instances list

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 2. Ensure the below command returns off for every Cloud SQL MySQL database
instance.

gcloud sql instances describe INSTANCE_NAME --format=json | jq

'.settings.databaseFlags[] | select(.name=="local_infile")|.value'

Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to the Cloud SQL Instances page in the Google Cloud Console by visiting
https://console.cloud.google.com/sql/instances.
2. Select the MySQL instance where the database flag needs to be enabled.
3. Click Edit.
4. Scroll down to the Flags section.
5. To set a flag that has not been set on the instance before, click Add item, choose the
flag local_infile from the drop-down menu, and set its value to off.
6. Click Save.
7. Confirm the changes under Flags on the Overview page.

From Command Line:

1. List all Cloud SQL database instances using the following command:

gcloud sql instances list

2. Configure the local_infile database flag for every Cloud SQL Mysql database
instance using the below command:

gcloud sql instances patch INSTANCE_NAME --database-flags local_infile=off

Note :

This command will overwrite all database flags that were previously set. To
keep those and add new ones, include the values for all flags to be set on
the instance; any flag not specifically included is set to its default value.
For flags that do not take a value, specify the flag name followed by an
equals sign ("=").

Impact:

Disabling local_infile makes the server refuse local data loading by clients that have
LOCAL enabled on the client side.

Default Value:

By default local_infile is on.

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References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/mysql/flags
2. https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/server-system-
variables.html#sysvar_local_infile
3. https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/load-data-local.html

Notes:

"WARNING: This patch modifies database flag values, which may require

the instance to be restarted. Check the list of supported flags -

https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/mysql/flags - to see if your instance will

be restarted when this patch is submitted.

Note: some database flag settings can affect instance availability or

stability, and remove the instance from the Cloud SQL SLA. For information
about these flags, see Operational Guidelines."

Note: Configuring the above flag restarts the Cloud SQL instance.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

13 Data Protection
Data Protection

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6.2 PostgreSQL Database
This section covers recommendations addressing Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL on Google
Cloud Platform.

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6.2.1 Ensure that the 'log_checkpoints' database flag for Cloud SQL
PostgreSQL instance is set to 'on' (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

Ensure that the log_checkpoints database flag for the Cloud SQL PostgreSQL instance is
set to on.

Rationale:

Enabling log_checkpoints causes checkpoints and restart points to be logged in the server
log. Some statistics are included in the log messages, including the number of buffers
written and the time spent writing them. This parameter can only be set in the
postgresql.conf file or on the server command line. This recommendation is applicable to
PostgreSQL database instances.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to the Cloud SQL Instances page in the Google Cloud Console by visiting
https://console.cloud.google.com/sql/instances.
2. Select the instance to open its Instance Overview page.
3. Ensure that the database flag log_checkpoints that has been set is listed under the
Database flags section.

From Command Line:

1. List all Cloud SQL database instances using the following command:

gcloud sql instances list

2. Ensure that the below command returns on for every Cloud SQL PostgreSQL
database instance.

gcloud sql instances describe INSTANCE_NAME --format=json | jq

'.settings.databaseFlags[] | select(.name=="log_checkpoints")|.value'

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Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to the Cloud SQL Instances page in the Google Cloud Console by visiting
https://console.cloud.google.com/sql/instances.
2. Select the PostgreSQL instance where the database flag needs to be enabled.
3. Click Edit.
4. Scroll down to the Flags section.
5. To set a flag that has not been set on the instance before, click Add item, choose the
flag log_checkpoints from the drop-down menu, and set its value.
6. Click Save.
7. Confirm the changes under Flags on the Overview page.

From Command Line:

1. List all Cloud SQL database instances using the following command:

gcloud sql instances list

2. Configure the log_checkpoints database flag for every Cloud SQL PosgreSQL
database instance using the below command:

gcloud sql instances patch INSTANCE_NAME --database-flags log_checkpoints=on

Note:

This command will overwrite all previously set database flags. To keep those
and add new ones, include the values for all flags to be set on the instance.
Any flag not specifically included is set to its default value. For flags
that do not take a value, specify the flag name followed by an equals sign
("=").

Default Value:

By default log_checkpoints is off.

References:

1. https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.6/runtime-config-logging.html#RUNTIME-
CONFIG-LOGGING-WHAT
2. https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/postgres/flags#setting_a_database_flag

Notes:

WARNING: This patch modifies database flag values, which may require

your instance to be restarted. Check the list of supported flags -

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https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/postgres/flags - to see if your

instance will be restarted when this patch is submitted.

Note: some database flag settings can affect instance availability or

stability, and remove the instance from the Cloud SQL SLA. For information
about these flags, see Operational Guidelines.

Note: Configuring the above flag restarts the Cloud SQL instance.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

6.3 Enable Detailed Logging

Enable system logging to include detailed information such as an event source, date,
user, timestamp, source addresses, destination addresses, and other useful elements.

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6.2.2 Ensure that the 'log_connections' database flag for Cloud SQL
PostgreSQL instance is set to 'on' (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

Enabling the log_connections setting causes each attempted connection to the server to
be logged, along with successful completion of client authentication. This parameter cannot
be changed after the session starts.

Rationale:

PostgreSQL does not log attempted connections by default. Enabling the log_connections
setting will create log entries for each attempted connection as well as successful
completion of client authentication which can be useful in troubleshooting issues and to
determine any unusual connection attempts to the server. This recommendation is
applicable to PostgreSQL database instances.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to the Cloud SQL Instances page in the Google Cloud Console by visiting
https://console.cloud.google.com/sql/instances.
2. Select the instance to open its Instance Overview page.
3. Go to the Configuration card.
4. Under Database flags, check the value of log_connections flag to determine if it is
configured as expected.

From Command Line:

1. List all Cloud SQL database instances using the following command:

gcloud sql instances list

2. Ensure the below command returns on for every Cloud SQL PostgreSQL database
instance:

gcloud sql instances describe INSTANCE_NAME --format=json | jq

'.settings.databaseFlags[] | select(.name=="log_connections")|.value'

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Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to the Cloud SQL Instances page in the Google Cloud Console by visiting
https://console.cloud.google.com/sql/instances.
2. Select the PostgreSQL instance for which you want to enable the database flag.
3. Click Edit.
4. Scroll down to the Flags section.
5. To set a flag that has not been set on the instance before, click Add item, choose the
flag log_connections from the drop-down menu and set the value as on.
6. Click Save.
7. Confirm the changes under Flags on the Overview page.

From Command Line:

1. List all Cloud SQL database instances using the following command:

gcloud sql instances list

2. Configure the log_connections database flag for every Cloud SQL PosgreSQL
database instance using the below command.

gcloud sql instances patch INSTANCE_NAME --database-flags log_connections=on

Note:
This command will overwrite all previously set database flags. To keep those
and add new ones, include the values for all flags to be set on the instance;
any flag not specifically included is set to its default value. For flags
that do not take a value, specify the flag name followed by an equals sign
("=").

Default Value:

By default log_connections is off.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/postgres/flags
2. https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.6/runtime-config-logging.html#RUNTIME-
CONFIG-LOGGING-WHAT

Notes:

WARNING: This patch modifies database flag values, which may require your
instance to be restarted. Check the list of supported flags -
https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/postgres/flags - to see if your instance
will be restarted when this patch is submitted.

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Note: some database flag settings can affect instance availability or
stability and remove the instance from the Cloud SQL SLA. For information
about these flags, see the Operational Guidelines.

Note: Configuring the above flag does not require restarting the Cloud SQL
instance.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

6.3 Enable Detailed Logging

Enable system logging to include detailed information such as an event source, date,
user, timestamp, source addresses, destination addresses, and other useful elements.

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6.2.3 Ensure that the 'log_disconnections' database flag for Cloud SQL
PostgreSQL instance is set to 'on' (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

Enabling the log_disconnections setting logs the end of each session, including the
session duration.

Rationale:

PostgreSQL does not log session details such as duration and session end by default.
Enabling the log_disconnections setting will create log entries at the end of each session
which can be useful in troubleshooting issues and determine any unusual activity across a
time period. The log_disconnections and log_connections work hand in hand and
generally, the pair would be enabled/disabled together. This recommendation is applicable
to PostgreSQL database instances.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to the Cloud SQL Instances page in the Google Cloud Console by visiting
https://console.cloud.google.com/sql/instances.
2. Select the instance to open its Instance Overview page
3. Go to the Configuration card.
4. Under Database flags, check the value of log_disconnections flag is configured as
expected.

From Command Line:

1. List all Cloud SQL database Instances using the following command:

gcloud sql instances list

2. Ensure the below command returns on for every Cloud SQL PostgreSQL database
instance:

gcloud sql instances describe INSTANCE_NAME --format=json | jq

'.settings.databaseFlags[] | select(.name=="log_disconnections")|.value'

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Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to the Cloud SQL Instances page in the Google Cloud Console by visiting
https://console.cloud.google.com/sql/instances.
2. Select the PostgreSQL instance where the database flag needs to be enabled.
3. Click Edit.
4. Scroll down to the Flags section.
5. To set a flag that has not been set on the instance before, click Add item, choose the
flag log_disconnections from the drop-down menu and set the value as on.
6. Click Save.
7. Confirm the changes under Flags on the Overview page.

From Command Line:

1. List all Cloud SQL database Instances using the following command:

gcloud sql instances list

2. Configure the log_disconnections database flag for every Cloud SQL PosgreSQL
database instance using the below command:

gcloud sql instances patch INSTANCE_NAME --database-flags

log_disconnections=on

Note: This command will overwrite all previously setdatabase flags. To keep
those and add new ones, include the values for all flags to be set on the
instance; any flag not specifically included is set to its default value. For
flags that do not take a value, specify the flag name followed by an equals
sign ("=").

Default Value:

By default log_disconnections is off.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/postgres/flags
2. https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.6/runtime-config-logging.html#RUNTIME-
CONFIG-LOGGING-WHAT

Notes:

WARNING: This patch modifies database flag values, which may require your
instance to be restarted. Check the list of supported flags -
https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/postgres/flags - to see if your instance
will be restarted when this patch is submitted.

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Note: some database flag settings can affect instance availability or
stability and remove the instance from the Cloud SQL SLA. For information
about these flags, see Operational Guidelines.

Note: Configuring the above flag does not require restarting the Cloud SQL
instance.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

6.3 Enable Detailed Logging

Enable system logging to include detailed information such as an event source, date,
user, timestamp, source addresses, destination addresses, and other useful elements.

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6.2.4 Ensure that the 'log_lock_waits' database flag for Cloud SQL
PostgreSQL instance is set to 'on' (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

Enabling the log_lock_waits flag for a PostgreSQL instance creates a log for any session
waits that take longer than the alloted deadlock_timeout time to acquire a lock.

Rationale:

The deadlock timeout defines the time to wait on a lock before checking for any conditions.
Frequent run overs on deadlock timeout can be an indication of an underlying issue.
Logging such waits on locks by enabling the log_lock_waits flag can be used to identify
poor performance due to locking delays or if a specially-crafted SQL is attempting to starve
resources through holding locks for excessive amounts of time. This recommendation is
applicable to PostgreSQL database instances.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to the Cloud SQL Instances page in the Google Cloud Console by visiting
https://console.cloud.google.com/sql/instances.
2. Select the instance to open its Instance Overview page.
3. Go to the Configuration card.
4. Under Database flags, check if the value of the log_lock_waits flag is configured
as expected.

From Command Line:

1. List all Cloud SQL database Instances using the following command:

gcloud sql instances list

2. Ensure the below command returns on for every Cloud SQL PostgreSQL database
instance

gcloud sql instances describe INSTANCE_NAME --format=json | jq

'.settings.databaseFlags[] | select(.name=="log_lock_waits")|.value'

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Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to the Cloud SQL Instances page in the Google Cloud Console by visiting
https://console.cloud.google.com/sql/instances.
2. Select the PostgreSQL instance where the database flag needs to be enabled.
3. Click Edit.
4. Scroll down to the Flags section.
5. To set a flag that has not been set on the instance before, click Add item, choose the
flag log_lock_waits from the drop-down menu and set the value as on.
6. Click Save.
7. Confirm the changes under Flags on the Overview page.

From Command Line:

1. List all Cloud SQL database instances using the following command:

gcloud sql instances list

2. Configure the log_lock_waits database flag for every Cloud SQL PosgreSQL
database instance using the below command:

gcloud sql instances patch INSTANCE_NAME --database-flags log_lock_waits=on

Note: This command will overwrite all database flags previously set. To keep
those and add new ones, include the values for all flags to be set on the
instance; any flag not specifically included is set to its default value. For
flags that do not take a value, specify the flag name followed by an equals
sign ("=").

Default Value:

By default log_lock_waits is off.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/postgres/flags
2. https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.6/runtime-config-logging.html#GUC-LOG-MIN-
DURATION-STATEMENT

Notes:

WARNING: This patch modifies database flag values, which may require your
instance to be restarted. Check the list of supported flags -
https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/postgres/flags - to see if your instance
will be restarted when this patch is submitted.

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Note: Some database flag settings can affect instance availability or
stability and remove the instance from the Cloud SQL SLA. For information
about these flags, see the Operational Guidelines.

Note: Configuring the above flag does not require restarting the Cloud SQL
instance.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

6.3 Enable Detailed Logging

Enable system logging to include detailed information such as an event source, date,
user, timestamp, source addresses, destination addresses, and other useful elements.

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6.2.5 Ensure that the 'log_min_messages' database flag for Cloud SQL
PostgreSQL instance is set appropriately (Not Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

The log_min_error_statement flag defines the minimum message severity level that is
considered as an error statement. Messages for error statements are logged with the SQL
statement. Valid values include DEBUG5, DEBUG4, DEBUG3, DEBUG2, DEBUG1, INFO, NOTICE,
WARNING, ERROR, LOG, FATAL, and PANIC. Each severity level includes the subsequent levels
mentioned above.

Note: To effectively turn off logging failing statements, set this parameter to PANIC.

ERROR is considered the best practice setting. Changes should only be made in accordance
with the organization's logging policy.

Rationale:

Auditing helps in troubleshooting operational problems and also permits forensic analysis.
If log_min_error_statement is not set to the correct value, messages may not be classified
as error messages appropriately. Considering general log messages as error messages
would make it difficult to find actual errors, while considering only stricter severity levels
as error messages may skip actual errors to log their SQL statements. The
log_min_error_statement flag should be set in accordance with the organization's logging
policy. This recommendation is applicable to PostgreSQL database instances.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to the Cloud SQL Instances page in the Google Cloud Console by visiting
https://console.cloud.google.com/sql/instances.
2. Select the instance to open its Instance Overview page.
3. Go to the Configuration card.
4. Under Database flags, check the value of log_min_error_statement flag is in
accordance with the organization's logging policy.

From Command Line:

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 1. List all Cloud SQL database Instances using the following command:

gcloud sql instances list

2. Use the below command for every Cloud SQL PostgreSQL database instance to verify
that the value of log_min_error_statement is in accordance with the organization's
logging policy.

gcloud sql instances describe INSTANCE_NAME --format=json | jq

'.settings.databaseFlags[] | select(.name=="log_min_error_statement")|.value'

Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to the Cloud SQL Instances page in the Google Cloud Console by visiting
https://console.cloud.google.com/sql/instances.
2. Select the PostgreSQL instance for which you want to enable the database flag.
3. Click Edit.
4. Scroll down to the Flags section.
5. To set a flag that has not been set on the instance before, click Add item, choose the
flag log_min_error_statement from the drop-down menu and set appropriate
value.
6. Click Save to save the changes.
7. Confirm the changes under Flags on the Overview page.

From Command Line:

1. List all Cloud SQL database Instances using the following command:

gcloud sql instances list

2. Configure the log_min_error_statement database flag for every Cloud SQL

PosgreSQL database instance using the below command.

gcloud sql instances patch INSTANCE_NAME --database-flags

log_min_error_statement=<DEBUG5|DEBUG4|DEBUG3|DEBUG2|DEBUG1|INFO|NOTICE|WARNI
NG|ERROR|LOG|FATAL|PANIC>

Note: This command will overwrite all database flags previously set. To keep
those and add new ones, include the values for all flags to be set on the
instance; any flag not specifically included is set to its default value. For
flags that do not take a value, specify the flag name followed by an equals
sign ("=").

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Default Value:

By default log_min_error_statement is ERROR.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/postgres/flags
2. https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.6/runtime-config-logging.html#RUNTIME-
CONFIG-LOGGING-WHEN

Notes:

WARNING: This patch modifies database flag values, which may require your
instance to be restarted. Check the list of supported flags -
https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/postgres/flags - to see if your instance
will be restarted when this patch is submitted.

Note: Some database flag settings can affect instance availability or

stability and remove the instance from the Cloud SQL SLA. For information
about these flags, see Operational Guidelines.

Note: Configuring the above flag does not require restarting the Cloud SQL
instance.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

6.3 Enable Detailed Logging

Enable system logging to include detailed information such as an event source, date,
user, timestamp, source addresses, destination addresses, and other useful elements.

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6.2.6 Ensure that the 'log_temp_files' database flag for Cloud SQL
PostgreSQL instance is set to '0' (on) (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

PostgreSQL can create a temporary file for actions such as sorting, hashing and temporary
query results when these operations exceed work_mem. The log_temp_files flag controls
logging names and the file size when it is deleted. Configuring log_temp_files to 0 causes
all temporary file information to be logged, while positive values log only files whose size is
greater than or equal to the specified number of kilobytes. A value of -1 disables temporary
file information logging.

Rationale:

If all temporary files are not logged, it may be more difficult to identify potential
performance issues that may be due to either poor application coding or deliberate
resource starvation attempts.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to the Cloud SQL Instances page in the Google Cloud Console by visiting
https://console.cloud.google.com/sql/instances.
2. Select the instance to open its Instance Overview page
3. Go to the Configuration card.
4. Under Database flags, check that the value of log_temp_files flag is set to 0.

From Command Line:

1. List all Cloud SQL database Instances using the following command:

gcloud sql instances list

2. Ensure that the below command returns 0 for every Cloud SQL PostgreSQL database
instance

gcloud sql instances describe INSTANCE_NAME --format=json | jq

'.settings.databaseFlags[] | select(.name=="log_temp_files")|.value'

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Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to the Cloud SQL Instances page in the Google Cloud Console by visiting
https://console.cloud.google.com/sql/instances.
2. Select the PostgreSQL instance where the database flag needs to be enabled.
3. Click Edit.
4. Scroll down to the Flags section.
5. To set a flag that has not been set on the instance before, click Add item, choose the
flag log_temp_files from the drop-down menu and set the value as 0.
6. Click Save.
7. Confirm the changes under Flags on the Overview page.

From Command Line:

1. List all Cloud SQL database instances using the following command:

gcloud sql instances list

2. Configure the log_temp_files database flag for every Cloud SQL PosgreSQL
database instance using the below command.

gcloud sql instances patch INSTANCE_NAME --database-flags log_temp_files=`0`

Note: This command will overwrite all database flags previously set. To keep
those and add new ones, include the values for all flags to be set on the
instance; any flag not specifically included is set to its default value. For
flags that do not take a value, specify the flag name followed by an equals
sign ("=").

Default Value:

By default log_temp_files is -1.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/postgres/flags
2. https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.6/runtime-config-logging.html#GUC-LOG-
TEMP-FILES

Notes:

WARNING: This patch modifies database flag values, which may require your
instance to be restarted. Check the list of supported flags -
https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/postgres/flags - to see if your instance
will be restarted when this patch is submitted.

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Note: some database flag settings can affect instance availability or
stability and remove the instance from the Cloud SQL SLA. For information
about these flags, see Operational Guidelines.

Note: Configuring the above flag does not require restarting the Cloud SQL
instance.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

6.3 Enable Detailed Logging

Enable system logging to include detailed information such as an event source, date,
user, timestamp, source addresses, destination addresses, and other useful elements.

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6.2.7 Ensure that the 'log_min_duration_statement' database flag for
Cloud SQL PostgreSQL instance is set to '-1' (disabled) (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

The log_min_duration_statement flag defines the minimum amount of execution time of a

statement in milliseconds where the total duration of the statement is logged. Ensure that
log_min_duration_statement is disabled, i.e., a value of -1 is set.

Rationale:

Logging SQL statements may include sensitive information that should not be recorded in
logs. This recommendation is applicable to PostgreSQL database instances.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to the Cloud SQL Instances page in the Google Cloud Console by visiting
https://console.cloud.google.com/sql/instances.
2. Select the instance to open its Instance Overview page.
3. Go to the Configuration card.
4. Under Database flags, check that the value of log_min_duration_statement flag is
set to -1.

From Command Line:

1. List all Cloud SQL database instances using the following command:

gcloud sql instances list

2. Use the below command for every Cloud SQL PostgreSQL database instance to verify
the value of log_min_duration_statement is set to -1.

gcloud sql instances describe INSTANCE_NAME --format=json | jq

'.settings.databaseFlags[] |
select(.name=="log_min_duration_statement")|.value'

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Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to the Cloud SQL Instances page in the Google Cloud Console by visiting
https://console.cloud.google.com/sql/instances.
2. Select the PostgreSQL instance where the database flag needs to be enabled.
3. Click Edit.
4. Scroll down to the Flags section.
5. To set a flag that has not been set on the instance before, click Add item, choose the
flag log_min_duration_statement from the drop-down menu and set a value of -1.
6. Click Save.
7. Confirm the changes under Flags on the Overview page.

From Command Line:

1. List all Cloud SQL database instances using the following command:

gcloud sql instances list

2. Configure the log_min_duration_statement flag for every Cloud SQL PosgreSQL

database instance using the below command:

gcloud sql instances patch INSTANCE_NAME --database-flags

log_min_duration_statement=-1

Note: This command will overwrite all database flags previously set. To keep
those and add new ones, include the values for all flags to be set on the
instance; any flag not specifically included is set to its default value. For
flags that do not take a value, specify the flag name followed by an equals
sign ("=").

Default Value:

By default log_min_duration_statement is -1.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/postgres/flags
2. https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/runtime-config-
logging.html#RUNTIME-CONFIG-LOGGING-WHAT

Notes:

WARNING: This patch modifies database flag values, which may require your
instance to be restarted. Check the list of supported flags -
https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/postgres/flags - to see if your instance
will be restarted when this patch is submitted.

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Note: Some database flag settings can affect instance availability or
stability and remove the instance from the Cloud SQL SLA. For information
about these flags, see Operational Guidelines.

Note: Configuring the above flag does not require restarting the Cloud SQL
instance.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

6.3 Enable Detailed Logging

Enable system logging to include detailed information such as an event source, date,
user, timestamp, source addresses, destination addresses, and other useful elements.

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6.3 SQL Server
This section covers recommendations addressing Cloud SQL for SQL Server on Google
Cloud Platform.

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6.3.1 Ensure that the 'cross db ownership chaining' database flag for
Cloud SQL SQL Server instance is set to 'off' (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

It is recommended to set cross db ownership chaining database flag for Cloud SQL SQL
Server instance to off.

Rationale:

Use the cross db ownership for chaining option to configure cross-database ownership
chaining for an instance of Microsoft SQL Server. This server option allows you to control
cross-database ownership chaining at the database level or to allow cross-database
ownership chaining for all databases. Enabling cross db ownership is not recommended
unless all of the databases hosted by the instance of SQL Server must participate in cross-
database ownership chaining and you are aware of the security implications of this
setting.This recommendation is applicable to SQL Server database instances.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to the Cloud SQL Instances page in the Google Cloud Console by visiting
https://console.cloud.google.com/sql/instances.
2. Select the instance to open its Instance Overview page
3. Ensure the database flag cross db ownership chaining that has been set is listed
under the Database flags section.

From Command Line:

1. List all Cloud SQL database Instances using the following command:

gcloud sql instances list

2. Ensure the below command returns off for every Cloud SQL SQL Server database
instance:

gcloud sql instances describe INSTANCE_NAME --format=json | jq

'.settings.databaseFlags[] | select(.name=="cross db ownership
chaining")|.value'

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Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to the Cloud SQL Instances page in the Google Cloud Console by visiting
https://console.cloud.google.com/sql/instances.
2. Select the SQL Server instance for which you want to enable to database flag.
3. Click Edit.
4. Scroll down to the Flags section.
5. To set a flag that has not been set on the instance before, click Add item, choose the
flag cross db ownership chaining from the drop-down menu, and set its value to
off.
6. Click Save.
7. Confirm the changes under Flags on the Overview page.

From Command Line:

1. List all Cloud SQL database instances using the following command:

gcloud sql instances list

``
2. Configure the `cross db ownership chaining` database flag for every Cloud
SQL SQL Server database instance using the below command:

gcloud sql instances patch INSTANCE_NAME --database-flags "cross db ownership

chaining=off"

Note:
This command will overwrite all database flags previously set. To keep those and add new
ones, include the values for all flags to be set on the instance; any flag not specifically
included is set to its default value. For flags that do not take a value, specify the flag name
followed by an equals sign ("=").

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/sqlserver/flags
2. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/database-engine/configure-windows/cross-
db-ownership-chaining-server-configuration-option?view=sql-server-ver15

Notes:

WARNING: This patch modifies database flag values, which may require

your instance to be restarted. Check the list of supported flags -

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https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/sqlserver/flags - to see if your

instance will be restarted when this patch is submitted.

Note: Some database flag settings can affect instance availability or

stability, and remove the instance from the Cloud SQL SLA. For information
about these flags, see Operational Guidelines.

Note: Configuring the above flag does not restart the Cloud SQL instance.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

14.6 Protect Information through Access Control Lists

Protect all information stored on systems with file system, network share, claims,
application, or database specific access control lists. These controls will enforce the
principle that only authorized individuals should have access to the information based on
their need to access the information as a part of their responsibilities.

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6.3.2 Ensure that the 'contained database authentication' database flag
for Cloud SQL on the SQL Server instance is set to 'off' (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

It is recommended to set contained database authentication database flag for Cloud

SQL on the SQL Server instance is set to off.

Rationale:

A contained database includes all database settings and metadata required to define the
database and has no configuration dependencies on the instance of the Database Engine
where the database is installed. Users can connect to the database without authenticating a
login at the Database Engine level. Isolating the database from the Database Engine makes
it possible to easily move the database to another instance of SQL Server. Contained
databases have some unique threats that should be understood and mitigated by SQL
Server Database Engine administrators. Most of the threats are related to the USER WITH
PASSWORD authentication process, which moves the authentication boundary from the
Database Engine level to the database level, hence this is recommended to disable this flag.
This recommendation is applicable to SQL Server database instances.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to the Cloud SQL Instances page in the Google Cloud Console by visiting
https://console.cloud.google.com/sql/instances.
2. Select the instance to open its Instance Overview page
3. Ensure the database flag contained database authentication that has been set is
listed under the Database flags section.

From Command Line:

1. List all Cloud SQL database instances using the following command:

gcloud sql instances list

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 2. Ensure the below command returns off for every Cloud SQL SQL Server database
instance.

gcloud sql instances describe INSTANCE_NAME --format=json | jq

'.settings.databaseFlags[] | select(.name=="contained database
authentication")|.value'

Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to the Cloud SQL Instances page in the Google Cloud Console by visiting
https://console.cloud.google.com/sql/instances.
2. Select the SQL Server instance for which you want to enable to database flag.
3. Click Edit.
4. Scroll down to the Flags section.
5. To set a flag that has not been set on the instance before, click Add item, choose the
flag contained database authentication from the drop-down menu, and set its
value to off.
6. Click Save.
7. Confirm the changes under Flags on the Overview page.

From Command Line:

1. List all Cloud SQL database Instances using the following command:

gcloud sql instances list

2. Configure the contained database authentication database flag for every Cloud
SQL SQL Server database instance using the below command:

gcloud sql instances patch INSTANCE_NAME --database-flags "contained database

authentication=off"

Note:

This command will overwrite all database flags previously set. To keep those
and add new ones, , include the values for all flags to be set on the
instance; any flag not specifically included is set to its default value. For
flags that do not take a value, specify the flag name followed by an equals
sign ("=").

Impact:

When contained database authentication is off (0) for the instance, contained
databases cannot be created, or attached to the Database Engine.

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References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/sqlserver/flags
2. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/database-engine/configure-
windows/contained-database-authentication-server-configuration-
option?view=sql-server-ver15
3. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/databases/security-
best-practices-with-contained-databases?view=sql-server-ver15

Notes:

WARNING: This patch modifies database flag values, which may require

your instance to be restarted. Check the list of supported flags -

https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/sqlserver/flags - to see if your

instance will be restarted when this patch is submitted.

Note: Some database flag settings can affect instance availability or

stability, and remove the instance from the Cloud SQL SLA. For information
about these flags, see Operational Guidelines.

Note: Configuring the above flag does not restart the Cloud SQL instance.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

14.6 Protect Information through Access Control Lists

Protect all information stored on systems with file system, network share, claims,
application, or database specific access control lists. These controls will enforce the
principle that only authorized individuals should have access to the information based on
their need to access the information as a part of their responsibilities.

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6.4 Ensure that the Cloud SQL database instance requires all incoming
connections to use SSL (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

It is recommended to enforce all incoming connections to SQL database instance to use SSL.

Rationale:

SQL database connections if successfully trapped (MITM); can reveal sensitive data like
credentials, database queries, query outputs etc. For security, it is recommended to always
use SSL encryption when connecting to your instance. This recommendation is applicable
for Postgresql, MySql generation 1 and MySql generation 2 instances.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to https://console.cloud.google.com/sql/instances.
2. Click on an instance name to see its configuration overview.
3. In the left-side panel, select Connections.
4. In the SSL connections section, ensure that Only secured connections are
allowed to connect to this instance..

From Command Line:

1. List all SQL database instances using the following command:

gcloud sql instances list

2. Get the detailed configuration for every SQL database instance using the following
command:

gcloud sql instances describe INSTANCE_NAME

Ensure that section settings: ipConfiguration has the parameter requireSsl set to
true.

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Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to https://console.cloud.google.com/sql/instances.
2. Click on an instance name to see its configuration overview.
3. In the left-side panel, select Connections.
4. In the SSL connections section, click Allow only SSL connections.
5. Under Configure SSL server certificates click Create new certificate.
6. Under Configure SSL client certificates click Create a client certificate.
7. Follow the instructions shown to learn how to connect to your instance.

From Command Line:

To enforce SSL encryption for an instance run the command:

gcloud sql instances patch INSTANCE_NAME --require-ssl

Note:
RESTART is required for type MySQL Generation 1 Instances (backendType: FIRST_GEN) to
get this configuration in effect.

Impact:

After enforcing SSL connection, existing client will not be able to communicate with SQL
server unless configured with appropriate client-certificates to communicate to SQL
database instance.

Default Value:

By default parameter settings: ipConfiguration: requireSsl is not set which is

equivalent to requireSsl:false.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/postgres/configure-ssl-instance

Notes:

By default Settings: ipConfiguration has no authorizedNetworks set/configured. In

that case even if by default requireSsl is not set, which is equivalent to requireSsl:false
there is no risk as instance cannot be accessed outside of the network unless
authorizedNetworks are configured. However, If default for requireSsl is not updated to
true any authorizedNetworks created later on will not enforce SSL only connection.

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CIS Controls:

Version 7

13 Data Protection
Data Protection

14.4 Encrypt All Sensitive Information in Transit

Encrypt all sensitive information in transit.

16.5 Encrypt Transmittal of Username and Authentication Credentials

Ensure that all account usernames and authentication credentials are transmitted across
networks using encrypted channels.

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6.5 Ensure that Cloud SQL database instances are not open to the world
(Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

Database Server should accept connections only from trusted Network(s)/IP(s) and
restrict access from the world.

Rationale:

To minimize attack surface on a Database server instance, only trusted/known and

required IP(s) should be white-listed to connect to it.

An authorized network should not have IPs/networks configured to 0.0.0.0/0 which will
allow access to the instance from anywhere in the world. Note that authorized networks
apply only to instances with public IPs.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to the Cloud SQL Instances page in the Google Cloud Console by visiting
https://console.cloud.google.com/sql/instances.
2. Click the instance name to open its Instance details page.
3. Under the Configuration section click Edit configurations
4. Under Configuration options expand the Connectivity section.
5. Ensure that no authorized network is configured to allow 0.0.0.0/0.

From Command Line:

1. List all Cloud SQL database Instances using the following command:

gcloud sql instances list

2. Get detailed configuration for every Cloud SQL database instance.

gcloud sql instances describe INSTANCE_NAME

Ensure that the section settings: ipConfiguration : authorizedNetworks does not

have any parameter value containing 0.0.0.0/0.

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Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to the Cloud SQL Instances page in the Google Cloud Console by visiting
https://console.cloud.google.com/sql/instances.
2. Click the instance name to open its Instance details page.
3. Under the Configuration section click Edit configurations
4. Under Configuration options expand the Connectivity section.
5. Click the delete icon for the authorized network 0.0.0.0/0.
6. Click Save to update the instance.

From Command Line:

Update the authorized network list by dropping off any addresses.

gcloud sql instances patch INSTANCE_NAME --authorized-

networks=IP_ADDR1,IP_ADDR2...

Prevention:
To prevent new SQL instances from being configured to accept incoming connections from
any IP addresses, set up a Restrict Authorized Networks on Cloud SQL instances
Organization Policy at: https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/orgpolicies/sql-
restrictAuthorizedNetworks.

Impact:

The Cloud SQL database instance would not be available to the world.

Default Value:

By default, authorized networks are not configured. Remote connection to Cloud SQL
database instance is not possible unless authorized networks are configured.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/mysql/configure-ip
2. https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/orgpolicies/sql-
restrictAuthorizedNetworks
3. https://cloud.google.com/resource-manager/docs/organization-policy/org-policy-
constraints
4. https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/mysql/connection-org-policy

Notes:

There is no IPv6 configuration found for Google cloud SQL server services.

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CIS Controls:

Version 7

13 Data Protection
Data Protection

14.6 Protect Information through Access Control Lists

Protect all information stored on systems with file system, network share, claims,
application, or database specific access control lists. These controls will enforce the
principle that only authorized individuals should have access to the information based on
their need to access the information as a part of their responsibilities.

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6.6 Ensure that Cloud SQL database instances do not have public IPs
(Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 2

Description:

It is recommended to configure Second Generation Sql instance to use private IPs instead of
public IPs.

Rationale:

To lower the organization's attack surface, Cloud SQL databases should not have public IPs.
Private IPs provide improved network security and lower latency for your application.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to the Cloud SQL Instances page in the Google Cloud Console:

https://console.cloud.google.com/sql/instances
2. Ensure that every instance has a private IP address and no public IP address
configured.

From Command Line:

1. List all Cloud SQL database instances using the following command:

gcloud sql instances list

2. For every instance of type instanceType: CLOUD_SQL_INSTANCE with backendType:

SECOND_GEN, get detailed configuration. Ignore instances of type
READ_REPLICA_INSTANCE because these instances inherit their settings from the
primary instance. Also, note that first generation instances cannot be configured to
have a private IP address.

gcloud sql instances describe INSTANCE_NAME

3. Ensure that the setting ipAddresses has an IP address configured of type: PRIVATE
and has no IP address of type: PRIMARY. PRIMARY email addresses are public
addresses. An instance can have both a private and public address at the same time.
Note also that you cannot use private IP with First Generation instances.

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Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to the Cloud SQL Instances page in the Google Cloud Console:

https://console.cloud.google.com/sql/instances
2. Click the instance name to open its Instance details page.
3. Select the Connections tab.
4. Deselect the Public IP checkbox.
5. Click Save to update the instance.

From Command Line:

1. For every instance remove its public IP and assign a private IP instead:

gcloud beta sql instances patch INSTANCE_NAME --network=VPC_NETWOR_NAME --no-

assign-ip

2. Confirm the changes using the following command::

gcloud sql instances describe INSTANCE_NAME

Prevention:
To prevent new SQL instances from getting configured with public IP addresses, set up a
Restrict Public IP access on Cloud SQL instances Organization policy at:
https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/orgpolicies/sql-restrictPublicIp.

Impact:

Removing the public IP address on SQL instances may break some applications that relied
on it for database connectivity.

Default Value:

By default, Cloud Sql instances have a public IP.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/mysql/configure-private-ip
2. https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/mysql/private-ip
3. https://cloud.google.com/resource-manager/docs/organization-policy/org-policy-
constraints
4. https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/orgpolicies/sql-restrictPublicIp

Notes:

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Replicas inherit their private IP status from their primary instance. You cannot configure a
private IP directly on a replica.

CIS Controls:

Version 7

13 Data Protection
Data Protection

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6.7 Ensure that Cloud SQL database instances are configured with
automated backups (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

It is recommended to have all SQL database instances set to enable automated backups.

Rationale:

Backups provide a way to restore a Cloud SQL instance to recover lost data or recover from
a problem with that instance. Automated backups need to be set for any instance that
contains data that should be protected from loss or damage. This recommendation is
applicable for SQL Server, PostgreSql, MySql generation 1 and MySql generation 2
instances.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to the Cloud SQL Instances page in the Google Cloud Console by visiting
https://console.cloud.google.com/sql/instances.
2. Click the instance name to open its instance details page.
3. Go to the Backups menu.
4. Ensure that Automated backups is set to Enabled and Backup time is mentioned.

From Command Line:

1. List all Cloud SQL database instances using the following command:

gcloud sql instances list

2. Ensure that the below command returns True for every Cloud SQL database
instance.

gcloud sql instances describe INSTANCE_NAME --

format="value('Enabled':settings.backupConfiguration.enabled)"

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Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to the Cloud SQL Instances page in the Google Cloud Console by visiting
https://console.cloud.google.com/sql/instances.
2. Select the instance where the backups need to be configured.
3. Click Edit.
4. In the Backups section, check `Enable automated backups', and choose a backup
window.
5. Click Save.

From Command Line:

1. List all Cloud SQL database instances using the following command:

gcloud sql instances list

2. Enable Automated backups for every Cloud SQL database instance using the below
command:

gcloud sql instances patch INSTANCE_NAME --backup-start-time [HH:MM]

The backup-start-time parameter is specified in 24-hour time, in the UTC±00 time zone,
and specifies the start of a 4-hour backup window. Backups can start any time during the
backup window.

Default Value:

By default, automated backups are not configured for Cloud SQL instances. Data backup is
not possible on any Cloud SQL instance unless Automated Backup is configured.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/mysql/backup-recovery/backups
2. https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/postgres/backup-recovery/backing-up

CIS Controls:

Version 7

10.1 Ensure Regular Automated Back Ups

Ensure that all system data is automatically backed up on regular basis.

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7 BigQuery
This section addresses Google CloudPlatform BigQuery. BigQuery is a serverless, highly-
scalable, and cost-effective cloud data warehouse with an in-memory BI Engine and
machine learning built in.

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7.1 Ensure that BigQuery datasets are not anonymously or publicly
accessible (Scored)
Profile Applicability:

 Level 1

Description:

It is recommended that the IAM policy on BigQuery datasets does not allow anonymous
and/or public access.

Rationale:

Granting permissions to allUsers or allAuthenticatedUsers allows anyone to access the

dataset. Such access might not be desirable if sensitive data is being stored in the dataset.
Therefore, ensure that anonymous and/or public access to a dataset is not allowed.

Audit:

From Console:

1. Go to BigQuery by visiting: https://console.cloud.google.com/bigquery.

2. Select a dataset from Resources.
3. Click SHARE DATASET near the right side of the window.
4. Validate that none of the attached roles contain allUsers or
allAuthenticatedUsers.

From Command Line:

1. Retrieve the data set information using the following command:

bq show PROJECT_ID:DATASET_NAME

2. Ensure that allUsers and allAuthenticatedUsers have not been granted access to
the dataset.

Remediation:

From Console:

1. Go to BigQuery by visiting: https://console.cloud.google.com/bigquery.

2. Select the dataset from 'Resources'.
3. Click SHARE DATASET near the right side of the window.

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 4. Review each attached role.
5. Click the delete icon for each member allUsers or allAuthenticatedUsers. On the
popup click Remove.

From Command Line:

1. Retrieve the data set information:

bq show --format=prettyjson PROJECT_ID:DATASET_NAME > PATH_TO_FILE

2. In the access section of the JSON file, update the dataset information to remove all
roles containing allUsers or allAuthenticatedUsers.
3. Update the dataset:

bq update --source PATH_TO_FILE PROJECT_ID:DATASET_NAME

Prevention:
You can prevent Bigquery dataset from becoming publicly accessible by setting up the
Domain restricted sharing organization policy at:
https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/orgpolicies/iam-
allowedPolicyMemberDomains .

Impact:

The dataset is not publicly accessible. Explicit modification of IAM privileges would be
necessary to make them publicly accessible.

Default Value:

By default, BigQuery datasets are not publicly accessible.

References:

1. https://cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/dataset-access-controls

CIS Controls:

Version 7

14.6 Protect Information through Access Control Lists

Protect all information stored on systems with file system, network share, claims,
application, or database specific access control lists. These controls will enforce the
principle that only authorized individuals should have access to the information based on
their need to access the information as a part of their responsibilities.

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Appendix: Summary Table
Control Set
Correctly
Yes No
1 Identity and Access Management
1.1 Ensure that corporate login credentials are used (Scored)  
1.2 Ensure that multi-factor authentication is enabled for all non-
 
service accounts (Not Scored)
1.3 Ensure that Security Key Enforcement is enabled for all admin
 
accounts (Not Scored)
1.4 Ensure that there are only GCP-managed service account keys
 
for each service account (Scored)
1.5 Ensure that Service Account has no Admin privileges (Scored)  
1.6 Ensure that IAM users are not assigned the Service Account
User or Service Account Token Creator roles at project level  
(Scored)
1.7 Ensure user-managed/external keys for service accounts are
 
rotated every 90 days or less (Scored)
1.8 Ensure that Separation of duties is enforced while assigning
 
service account related roles to users (Not Scored)
1.9 Ensure that Cloud KMS cryptokeys are not anonymously or
 
publicly accessible (Scored)
1.10 Ensure KMS encryption keys are rotated within a period of 90
 
days (Scored)
1.11 Ensure that Separation of duties is enforced while assigning
 
KMS related roles to users (Scored)
1.12 Ensure API keys are not created for a project (Not Scored)  
1.13 Ensure API keys are restricted to use by only specified Hosts
 
and Apps (Not Scored)
1.14 Ensure API keys are restricted to only APIs that application
 
needs access (Not Scored)
1.15 Ensure API keys are rotated every 90 days (Not Scored)  
2 Logging and Monitoring
2.1 Ensure that Cloud Audit Logging is configured properly
 
across all services and all users from a project (Scored)
2.2 Ensure that sinks are configured for all log entries (Scored)  
2.3 Ensure that retention policies on log buckets are configured
 
using Bucket Lock (Scored)
2.4 Ensure log metric filter and alerts exist for project ownership
 
assignments/changes (Scored)
2.5 Ensure that the log metric filter and alerts exist for Audit
 
Configuration changes (Scored)

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2.6 Ensure that the log metric filter and alerts exist for Custom
 
Role changes (Scored)
2.7 Ensure that the log metric filter and alerts exist for VPC
 
Network Firewall rule changes (Scored)
2.8 Ensure that the log metric filter and alerts exist for VPC
 
network route changes (Scored)
2.9 Ensure that the log metric filter and alerts exist for VPC
 
network changes (Scored)
2.10 Ensure that the log metric filter and alerts exist for Cloud
 
Storage IAM permission changes (Scored)
2.11 Ensure that the log metric filter and alerts exist for SQL
 
instance configuration changes (Scored)
3 Networking
3.1 Ensure that the default network does not exist in a project
 
(Scored)
3.2 Ensure legacy networks do not exist for a project (Scored)  
3.3 Ensure that DNSSEC is enabled for Cloud DNS (Scored)  
3.4 Ensure that RSASHA1 is not used for the key-signing key in
 
Cloud DNS DNSSEC (Not Scored)
3.5 Ensure that RSASHA1 is not used for the zone-signing key in
 
Cloud DNS DNSSEC (Not Scored)
3.6 Ensure that SSH access is restricted from the internet
 
(Scored)
3.7 Ensure that RDP access is restricted from the Internet
 
(Scored)
3.8 Ensure that VPC Flow Logs is enabled for every subnet in a
 
VPC Network (Scored)
3.9 Ensure no HTTPS or SSL proxy load balancers permit SSL
 
policies with weak cipher suites (Not Scored)
4 Virtual Machines
4.1 Ensure that instances are not configured to use the default
 
service account (Scored)
4.2 Ensure that instances are not configured to use the default
 
service account with full access to all Cloud APIs (Scored)
4.3 Ensure "Block Project-wide SSH keys" is enabled for VM
 
instances (Scored)
4.4 Ensure oslogin is enabled for a Project (Scored)  
4.5 Ensure 'Enable connecting to serial ports' is not enabled for
 
VM Instance (Scored)
4.6 Ensure that IP forwarding is not enabled on Instances
 
(Scored)
4.7 Ensure VM disks for critical VMs are encrypted with
 
Customer-Supplied Encryption Keys (CSEK) (Scored)
4.8 Ensure Compute instances are launched with Shielded VM  

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 enabled (Scored)
4.9 Ensure that Compute instances do not have public IP
 
addresses (Scored)
4.10 Ensure that App Engine applications enforce HTTPS
 
connections (Not Scored)
5 Storage
5.1 Ensure that Cloud Storage bucket is not anonymously or
 
publicly accessible (Scored)
5.2 Ensure that Cloud Storage buckets have uniform bucket-level
 
access enabled (Scored)
6 Cloud SQL Database Services
6.1 MySQL Database
6.1.1 Ensure that a MySQL database instance does not allow
 
anyone to connect with administrative privileges (Scored)
6.1.2 Ensure that the 'local_infile' database flag for a Cloud SQL
 
Mysql instance is set to 'off' (Scored)
6.2 PostgreSQL Database
6.2.1 Ensure that the 'log_checkpoints' database flag for Cloud SQL
 
PostgreSQL instance is set to 'on' (Scored)
6.2.2 Ensure that the 'log_connections' database flag for Cloud SQL
 
PostgreSQL instance is set to 'on' (Scored)
6.2.3 Ensure that the 'log_disconnections' database flag for Cloud
 
SQL PostgreSQL instance is set to 'on' (Scored)
6.2.4 Ensure that the 'log_lock_waits' database flag for Cloud SQL
 
PostgreSQL instance is set to 'on' (Scored)
6.2.5 Ensure that the 'log_min_messages' database flag for Cloud
 
SQL PostgreSQL instance is set appropriately (Not Scored)
6.2.6 Ensure that the 'log_temp_files' database flag for Cloud SQL
 
PostgreSQL instance is set to '0' (on) (Scored)
6.2.7 Ensure that the 'log_min_duration_statement' database flag
for Cloud SQL PostgreSQL instance is set to '-1' (disabled)  
(Scored)
6.3 SQL Server
6.3.1 Ensure that the 'cross db ownership chaining' database flag
 
for Cloud SQL SQL Server instance is set to 'off' (Scored)
6.3.2 Ensure that the 'contained database authentication' database
flag for Cloud SQL on the SQL Server instance is set to 'off'  
(Scored)
6.4 Ensure that the Cloud SQL database instance requires all
 
incoming connections to use SSL (Scored)
6.5 Ensure that Cloud SQL database instances are not open to the
 
world (Scored)
6.6 Ensure that Cloud SQL database instances do not have public
 
IPs (Scored)

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6.7 Ensure that Cloud SQL database instances are configured with
 
automated backups (Scored)
7 BigQuery
7.1 Ensure that BigQuery datasets are not anonymously or
 
publicly accessible (Scored)

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Appendix: Change History
Date Version Changes for this version

Mar 3, 2020 1.1.0 ADD - Ensure 'log_checkpoints' database flag for Cloud SQL
PostgreSQL instance is set to 'on'

Feb 26, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE - Ensure "Block Project-wide SSH keys" enabled for
VM instances - Small command typo: instacnces -> instances
(Ticket 6956)

Feb 26, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE - Ensure that Service Account has no Admin
privileges - The suggested Audit Procedure steps for 1.4
exclude "*admin" roles. (Ticket 6955)

Feb 26, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE - Ensure that there are only GCP-managed service
account keys for each service account - Remediation
Procedure Typo (Ticket 6974)

Feb 26, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE- Ensure that Separation of duties is enforced while
assigning KMS related roles to users - Rationale Statement
Typo (Ticket 7001)

Feb 26, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE - Ensure that there are only GCP-managed service
account keys for each service account - Add Audit steps
(Ticket 9833)

Feb 26, 2020 1.1.0 ADD - Ensure Cloud SQL Instances do not have public IP
addresses (Ticket 9233)

Feb 26, 2020 1.1.0 ADD - Ensure that Cloud SQL database instances are
configured with automated backups (Ticket 10018)

Feb 26, 2020 1.1.0 Update - Ensure that IP forwarding is not enabled on
Instances - limit the scope of virtual machines this
recommendation is applicable on (Ticket 10089)

Feb 26, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE - Ensure that the default network does not exist in a
project - add an explain of the default network to the rationale

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 statement (Ticket 10082)

Feb 26, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE - Ensure API keys are rotated every 90 days - Change
to Unscored (Ticket 9972)

Feb 26, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE - Ensure that SSH access is restricted from the
internet - Adding Protocol TCP (Ticket 9807)

Feb 26, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE - Ensure "Block Project-wide SSH keys" enabled for
VM instances - limit the scope of virtual machines this
recommendation is applicable on (Ticket 10084)

Feb 26, 2020 1.1.0 Update - Ensure that instances are not configured to use the
default service account with full access to all Cloud APIs - limit
the scope of virtual machines this recommendation is
applicable on (Ticket 10085)

Feb 26, 2020 1.1.0 ADD - Ensure 'log_min_messages' database flag for Cloud SQL
PostgreSQL instance is set appropriately (Ticket 10121)

Feb 26, 2020 1.1.0 ADD - Ensure that instances are not configured to use the
default service account (Ticket 10108)

Feb 26, 2020 1.1.0 ADD - Ensure 'log_temp_files' database flag for Cloud SQL
PostgreSQL instance is set to '0' (on) (Ticket 10123)

Feb 26, 2020 1.1.0 ADD - Ensure 'log_min_duration_statement' database flag for
Cloud SQL PostgreSQL instance is set to '-1' (disabled) (Ticket
10124)

Feb 26, 2020 1.1.0 ADD - Ensure 'local_infile' database flag for Cloud SQL Mysql
instance is set to 'off' (Ticket 10216)

Feb 26, 2020 1.1.0 ADD - Ensure 'cross db ownership chaining' database flag for
Cloud SQL SQL Server instance is set to 'off' (Ticket 10218)

Feb 26, 2020 1.1.0 ADD - Ensure 'contained database authentication' database
flag for Cloud SQL SQL Server instance is set to 'off' (Ticket
10224)

Feb 20, 2020 1.1.0 ADD - Ensure Appengine Applications are exposed via TLS
(Ticket 9447)

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Feb 19, 2020 1.1.0 ADD - Ensure 'log_connections' database flag for Cloud SQL
PostgreSQL instance is set to 'on' (Ticket 10111)

Feb 19, 2020 1.1.0 ADD - Ensure 'log_disconnections' database flag for Cloud SQL
PostgreSQL instance is set to 'on' (Ticket 10112)

Feb 19, 2020 1.1.0 ADD - Ensure 'log_lock_waits' database flag for Cloud SQL
PostgreSQL instance is set to 'on' (Ticket 10114)

Feb 16, 2020 1.1.0 ADD - Ensure that BigQuery datasets are not anonymously or
publicly accessible (Ticket 9449)

Feb 16, 2020 1.1.0 ADD - Ensure that Cloud KMS cryptokeys are not
anonymously or publicly accessible (Ticket 10081)

Feb 16, 2020 1.1.0 ADD - Ensure Compute instances are launched with Shielded
VM enabled (Ticket 9446)

Feb 16, 2020 1.1.0 ADD - Ensure that Compute instances do not have public IP
addresses (Ticket 9823)

Feb 16, 2020 1.1.0 ADD - Ensure HTTPS and SSL proxy load balancers do not
permit SSL policies with weak cipher suites (Ticket 9450)

Feb 10, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE - Ensure the default network does not exist in a
project - provide specific remediation instructions (Ticket
8358)

Feb 7, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE - Ensure that corporate login credentials are used -
Fix references (Ticket 9971)

Feb 6, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE - Ensure legacy networks does not exists for a
project - Change reference URLs (Ticket 10091)

Feb 6, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE - Ensure that multi-factor authentication is enabled

for all non-service accounts - add reference URL (Ticket 9973)

Feb 3, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE - Ensure log metric filter and alerts exists for Project
Ownership assignments/changes (Ticket 9514)

Feb 3, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE- Ensure log metric filter and alerts exists for Audit
Configuration Changes (Ticket 9515)

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Feb 3, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE - Ensure log metric filter and alerts exists for Custom
Role changes (Ticket 9516)

Feb 3, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE - Ensure log metric filter and alerts exists for VPC
Network Firewall rule changes (Ticket 9517)

Feb 3, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE - Ensure log metric filter and alerts exists for VPC
network route changes (Ticket 9518)

Feb 3, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE - Ensure log metric filter and alerts exists for VPC
network changes (Ticket 9519)

Feb 3, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE - Ensure log metric filter and alerts exists for Project
Ownership assignments/changes - UI changes needed (Ticket
6960)

Feb 3, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE - Multiple in section 2: 2.4-2.11 - Changes in

Monitoring API and UI. Need update. (Ticket 8726)

Feb 2, 2020 1.1.0 DELETE - Ensure that MySQL Database Instance does not
allows root login from any Host - suggest we remove this
recommendation (Ticket 9410)

Feb 2, 2020 1.1.0 ADD - Ensure that Security Key enforcement is enabled for all
admin accounts (Ticket 9444)

Feb 2, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE - Ensure that corporate login credentials are used
instead of Gmail accounts - change to include org-level IAM
(Ticket 9442)

Feb 2, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE - Ensure that ServiceAccount has no Admin

privileges -- Ignore Apps Script service account (Ticket 9495)

Feb 2, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE - Ensure the default network does not exist in a
project -- Move to Level 2 profile (Ticket 9461)

Feb 2, 2020 1.1.0 ADD - Ensure that retention policies on log buckets are
configured using Bucket Lock -- should replace object
versioning (Ticket 9822)

Feb 2, 2020 1.1.0 ADD - Ensure that IAM users are not assigned Service Account
Token Creator role at project level (Ticket 9445)

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Feb 2, 2020 1.1.0 ADD - Ensure that Cloud Storage buckets have Bucket Policy
Only enabled (Ticket 9448)

Feb 2, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE - Ensure that sinks are configured for all Log entries -
configure at organization or folder level (Ticket 9456)

Feb 2, 2020 1.1.0 DELETE - Ensure that object versioning is enabled on log-
buckets (Ticket 9513)

Feb 2, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE - Ensure that Cloud Audit Logging is configured
properly across all services and all... - configure at folder or
organization level (Ticket 9455)

Jan 28, 2020 1.1.0 DELETE - Ensure Private Google Access is enabled for all
subnetwork in VPC Network - Following the recommendation
doesn't make you more secure (Ticket 9462)

Jan 28, 2020 1.1.0 DELETE - Ensure that logging is enabled for Cloud storage
buckets - redundant given CIS Benchmark 2.1 (Ticket 9486)

Jan 15, 2020 1.1.0 REMOVE - Ensure Stackdriver Logging is set to Enabled on
Kubernetes Engine Clusters (Ticket 9465)

Jan 15, 2020 1.1.0 DELETE - Kubernetes Engine Section (Ticket 9824)

Jan 15, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE - Ensure that sinks are configured for all Log entries -
Grammatical Findings (Ticket 6984)

Jan 15, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE - Ensure Encryption keys are rotated within a period
of 365 days - Audit and Remediation Procedure Update
(Ticket 7036)

Jan 15, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE - Ensure that object versioning is enabled on log-
buckets - update Description, Impact statement and
Remediation (Ticket 7040)

Jan 15, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE - Ensure that RSASHA1 is not used for key-signing
key in Cloud DNS DNSSEC - Remediation CLI broken (Ticket
7073)

Jan 15, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE - Ensure that RSASHA1 is not used for zone-signing
key in Cloud DNS DNSSEC - Audit CLI update (Ticket 7075)

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Jan 15, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE - Ensure that RSASHA1 is not used for zone-signing
key in Cloud DNS DNSSEC - Remediation CLI broken (Ticket
7074)

Jan 8, 2020 1.1.0 UPDATE - Ensure log metric filter and alerts exists for Audit
Configuration Changes - Typo (AWS API calls) (Ticket 9668)

Feb 4, 2019 1.1.0 UPDATE - Ensure that RSASHA1 is not used for key-signing
key - update audit CLI (Ticket 7072)

Sep 5, 2018 1.0.0 Document created

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