Shining a Light on Shadow Apps: The Invisible Gateway to SaaS Data Breaches

Shadow apps, a component of Shadow IT, are SaaS applications acquired without the knowledge of the security team. While these apps may be genuine, they operate inside the blind spots of the corporate security team and expose the organization to attacks.

Shadow applications may incorporate instances of software that the firm is currently utilizing. For example, a dev team may onboard its own instance of GitHub to keep their work distinct from other devs. They may defend the purchase by emphasizing that GitHub is an authorized application, since it is already in use by other teams. However, because the new instance is utilized outside of the security team's perspective, it lacks oversight. It may hold important company data and not have necessary security like MFA enabled, SSO enforced, or it might suffer from inadequate access controls. These misconfigurations may quickly lead to problems like stolen source code and other difficulties.

Types of Shadow Apps #

Shadow applications may be characterized depending on their interaction with the organization's systems. Two typical forms are Island Shadow Apps and Integrated Shadow Apps.

Standalone Shadow Apps#

Standalone shadow apps are programs that are not integrated with the company's IT infrastructure. They function as an island in isolation from other enterprise systems and frequently serve a specialized purpose, such as task management, information storage, or communication. Without oversight into their usage, company data may be mistreated, resulting to the possible loss of critical information when data is split among numerous unauthorized platforms.

Integrated Shadow Apps#

Integrated shadow applications are considerably more harmful, since they link or interact with the organization's sanctioned systems via APIs or other interaction points. These programs may automatically sync data with other software, communicate information with sanctioned applications, or share access across platforms. As a consequence of these linkages, threat actors might compromise the whole SaaS ecosystem, with the shadow applications functioning as a doorway to access the connected services.

How Shadow Apps Impact SaaS Security#

Data Security Vulnerabilities#

One of the key concerns of shadow applications is that they may not comply with the organization's security policies. Employees using unsanctioned applications may store, exchange, or analyze sensitive data without sufficient encryption or other security safeguards in place. This lack of visibility and control may lead to data leaks, breaches, or illegal access.

Compliance and Regulatory Risks#

Many sectors are controlled by tight regulatory frameworks (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA). When workers utilize shadow applications that haven't been reviewed or authorized by the firm's IT or compliance staff, the organization may unwittingly break these requirements. This might lead to expensive penalties, legal lawsuits, and reputational harm.

Increased Attack Surface#

Shadow applications extend the organization's attack surface, giving additional access opportunities for attackers. These applications may not have toughened their access protections, allowing hackers to exploit them and get access to enterprise networks.

Lack of Visibility and Control#

IT teams need to have insight over the applications being used inside the firm to efficiently manage and safeguard the company's data. When shadow apps are in use, IT professionals may be oblivious to possible dangers, unable to identify illegal data transfers, or ignorant of concerns coming from obsolete or insecure applications.

Learn how an SSPM safeguards your SaaS stack and identifies shadow applications

How Shadow Apps Are Discovered#

SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) technologies are critical to SaaS security. Not only do they monitor settings, users, devices, and other parts of the SaaS stack, but they are vital in identifying any non-human identities, including shadow apps.

SSPMs identify all SaaS applications that link to another app (SaaS-to-SaaS), allowing security teams to discover integrated shadow apps. They also monitor sign-ins using SSOs. When users login into a new app using Google, SSPMs generate a record of that sign in. Existing device agents that are linked to your SSPM are a third method to discover which new apps have been onboarded.

In addition, SSPMs feature novel ways of shadow app detection. An novel solution combines SSPM with current email security mechanisms. When new SaaS applications are installed, they generally create a deluge of welcome letters, containing confirmations, webinar invites, and onboarding suggestions. Some SSPM systems immediately read all emails and obtain broad permissions, which might be invasive. However, the most modern SSPMs connect with current email security systems to carefully extract just the essential information, allowing accurate detection of shadow applications without overreaching.

Email security solutions frequently monitor email traffic, searching for harmful links, phishing attempts, malware attachments, and other email-borne dangers. SSPMs may utilize rights already provided to an email security system, allowing the identification of shadow applications without necessitating sensitive permissions being granted to yet another external security instrument.

Another way for shadow app detection includes connecting the SSPM with a browser extension security tool. These programs watch user activity in real time, and may flag user behavior.

Secure browsers and browser extensions track and give alarms when workers engage with unfamiliar or questionable SaaS applications. This data is exchanged with the SSPM platform, which checks it against the organization's permitted SaaS list. If a shadow SaaS app is found, the SSPM generates an alarm. This allows the security team to either properly onboard and secure the shadow app or offboard it.

As companies continue to adopt SaaS applications for increased efficiency and collaboration, the growth of shadow apps is a significant worry. To address these threats, security teams must take proactive actions to find and manage shadow applications, employing their SSPM with shadow app discovery capabilities.

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