CIS Benchmarking
Security is no longer optional — it’s foundational. At Ananta Cloud, we help customers meet stringent security standards through automated CIS Benchmarking across their cloud stack, including:
- Cloud Infrastructure (AWS, Azure, GCP)
- Docker Containers
- Kubernetes Clusters
Our CIS Benchmarking service aligns with the Center for Internet Security (CIS) standards — an industry-recognized set of security best practices. Ananta Cloud automates the scanning, remediation, and reporting of CIS compliance, so you can focus on building secure applications without the operational burden.
Key Benefits
- Automated Scanning: Run CIS checks on cloud, container, and Kubernetes configurations regularly or on demand.
- Real-Time Reporting: Visual dashboards and exportable compliance reports.
- Built-In Remediation: Auto-remediate common misconfigurations or generate pull requests for manual review.
- Audit-Ready Evidence: Maintain detailed logs and evidence for compliance audits.
What is CIS Benchmarking?
The Center for Internet Security (CIS) publishes secure configuration guidelines for popular technologies. These are known as CIS Benchmarks — prescriptive, prioritized checklists that help you:
- Harden systems
- Reduce attack surface
- Comply with frameworks like SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS
Ananta Cloud operationalizes these benchmarks across your environments with automated compliance as code.
Supported CIS Benchmarks
| Category | Standards Applied |
|---|---|
| Cloud Providers | CIS Benchmarks for AWS, Azure, GCP |
| Docker | CIS Docker Community Edition Benchmark v1.6+ |
| Kubernetes | CIS Kubernetes Benchmark v1.6+ (all major distros) |
| Linux OS (Optional) | CIS for Ubuntu, CentOS, Amazon Linux |
How it Works?
Ananta Cloud’s CIS Benchmarking is fully integrated into your cloud environments:
Step 1: Discovery
- Agentless or lightweight agent-based scanning
- Inventory of cloud resources, containers, and Kubernetes nodes
Step 2: Benchmark Mapping
- Automatically maps each asset type to relevant CIS benchmarks
- Supports full-stack scanning: IAM, networking, compute, storage, orchestration
Step 3: Scanning & Assessment
- Scheduled or on-demand scans
- Detects misconfigurations, deviations, and high-risk settings
Step 4: Reporting & Alerting
- Compliance scores per environment
- Prioritized issue list with remediation steps
- Exportable reports (PDF, CSV, JSON)
Step 5: Remediation (Optional)
- Auto-remediation for common findings
- Pull request generation for IaC-based fixes (Terraform, Helm, etc.)
- Slack/email/JIRA notifications
- Custom Policy Extensions: Extend base CIS profiles to meet internal security requirements.
Cloud Security Benchmarking
Supported providers: AWS, Azure, Google Cloud
| Coverage Area | Examples |
|---|---|
| Identity & Access Management | Root account usage, MFA enforcement |
| Network Security | Open ports, unencrypted traffic |
| Storage Configuration | Public buckets, encryption at rest |
| Monitoring & Logging | CloudTrail, Audit Logs, Flow Logs |
| Compute & Container Services | VM hardening, container runtime configuration |
Bonus: Integrates with Ananta’s Environment Management to apply CIS policies per environment type (e.g., prod stricter than dev).
🐳 Docker Benchmarking
Secure your container workloads from the inside out with CIS Benchmarking for Docker:
| Scanning Focus | Sample Checks |
|---|---|
| Docker Daemon Configuration | TLS, user namespace remapping, logging |
| Container Runtime | Privileged containers, capabilities |
| Image Security | Verified sources, signed images |
| Host Hardening | Kernel parameters, Docker socket security |
| User Permissions | Rootless mode, UID/GID usage |
✅ Supports local, cloud-hosted, and CI-integrated Docker environments ✅ Works with Ananta Container Registry or third-party registries
☸️ Kubernetes Benchmarking
Protect your orchestration layer with continuous CIS Benchmarking for Kubernetes:
| Scanning Area | Sample Checks |
|---|---|
| API Server | Authentication, admission control |
| Controller Manager | Service account usage |
| Scheduler | Kubeconfig permissions |
| Etcd | Encryption, access control |
| Worker Nodes | Kubelet config, root user enforcement |
| RBAC Policies | Role separation, least privilege |
| Network Policies | Namespace isolation, ingress/egress control |