Cloud Configuration Review Guide

This is an original planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, an official standard, or legal advice. Example addresses use documentation ranges. Review every command before you paste it.

One file, one finding, no badge

A review here is a reading of one file or one export you are allowed to hold. The plan-risk analyser, the manifest auditor, the chart linter, and the three cost-export analysers draft observations from text you paste. They do not log into an account. They do not certify anything.

Pick one tool and one file. A Terraform plan, a manifest, a chart, or a cost export from the lab account. An export from an account you do not administer is not your sample. A customer bill is not your sample.

One finding is the outcome. Write it, the evidence, and the owner. If the tool lists twenty notes, you still choose the one you will fix first. The posture guide is the place a control decision lives. This page is the pass over a file.

The CIS companion on the security desk is background. Matching a line in a benchmark is not a claim that you passed the benchmark. An auditor sees the file and the ticket, not this paragraph.

Paste one file, keep one sentence

Choose the file and confirm you may read it. Remove secrets before you paste. A plan or a manifest can contain a token if someone was careless. If you see one, stop, rotate it, and review a redacted copy.

Run one analyser. Read the notes. Select one finding you can explain without the tool: a destroy in a plan, a missing request, a world-open rule, a chart default that is too wide, or a cost line with no owner. Write that sentence.

The fix is a later window. You do not edit production during the review hour, and you do not turn logging off because a line was noisy. The previous file stays. The cost analysers do not resize anything. A suggestion is not an apply.

Say in the ticket that this is not a certification and not an audit opinion. A second person should be able to open the same file and see the same sentence.

# Review note. One file. One finding.
# Not a certification. Not an audit opinion.
# Remove secrets before you paste.
# The account is one you administer.
# A cost note does not resize a machine.
# Do not disable logging to clear a finding.

A change you can finish

The fix window is later and changes only the finding you wrote.

Rollback is the previous file. The review itself changes nothing, so a bad sentence is corrected by rewriting the sentence.

Pick one file you may read.
Redact secrets. Rotate one if you found it.
Run one analyser.
Choose one finding and write the evidence.
Name the owner of the fix.
Leave the fix for a later window.
Write that the note is not a certification.

Mistakes that outlive the command

a cloud configuration review fails in the same few ways. Each one looks finished on the day you type it. The list is here so the ticket can forbid them before the window, not so you can recognise them in an incident review.

Calling the tool a certification.
Pasting a secret into the analyser and leaving it there.
A file from an account you do not run.
Twenty findings and no owner.
Editing production during the review.
A cost suggestion applied as a resize.
Logging turned off to pass a check.
A customer bill used as the sample.
Six analysers in one hour.
An abuse method written next to the finding.
The previous file discarded.
A benchmark pass claimed from one green line.

Decisions to write down before the window

One decision for a cloud configuration review: One file is named. You may read that file. Secrets were removed. One analyser was used. One finding is written. The evidence is identified. The fix owner is named. Nothing was changed in the account. Logging stays on. The note refuses certification. No abuse steps are included. And a second person can see the same finding.

The hour you stop

Write the account, the project or subscription, the region, and the clock time before you change anything for a cloud configuration review. If this account is serving people and you do not have a way back, this hour is a plan. A plan you can read tomorrow is a success. A change you cannot undo is not.

Use a lab account, a lab project, or a lab subscription you administer. You do not point a CLI, a pipeline, or a browser tool at an account you do not run. The tools on this site run in the browser. They draft text. They do not log in, and they do not scan.

prompt-for-this is a reminder that a secret is missing. It is not an access key, a token, a password, or a kubeconfig you save. The real secret stays in the password store or the platform's secret store. If a file, a log, a ticket, or a pipeline still contains a live secret, stop and rotate it. Then delete the copy.

One change. A network, a virtual machine, a policy, and a pipeline do not share a window. If two things move and the outcome is wrong, you will not know which one did it. The rollback is the previous file, the previous plan, or the resource you can delete because it was only a lab.

A second person reads the scope aloud: which account, which region, which name. If they cannot find it in the ticket, the ticket is not ready. Silence is not agreement.

Documentation addresses stay in the note. 192.0.2.0/24, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are not prefixes you type into a production network. example.com is not your zone. A generated file that opens 0.0.0.0/0 is a file you edit before it is applied. A source you can name is the rule you keep.

Do not apply a draft you have not read. A cost estimate, a policy, a manifest, and a Terraform plan are reading material. Apply, a resize of a live machine, and a delete of a bucket are later decisions with their own proof. Read the names. Then decide.

Keep the previous file. A generator draft is not the previous file. The previous file is what you put back if the new one is wrong. You practised the path back, including the serial console or a second admin, before you changed a network or a lockout setting.

If a step fails twice, stop. The failure is the result. Adding a command from a forum beside a half-applied stack produces an account nobody can explain. Rebuild the lab from the copy you kept.

When the checks pass, the next account waits until someone else can repeat the proof from the notes. a cloud configuration review is done for this window when the proof is written, not when a CLI printed a success line.

This page is a planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, not an official standard, not legal advice, and not an audit opinion. If an auditor must see the decision, they see the ticket and the evidence, not this paragraph.

Hand the finished note to the neighbouring guide that owns the next step, and leave this account alone until that guide has its own window.

Review checks before the note is filed

Confirm this before you call the change done: The file name is in the ticket. The account is yours, if an account is involved. No secret remains in the pasted text. One finding is a sentence. The owner is named. No resize or apply happened. Logging was not disabled. The note says this is not a certification. The previous file still exists. A second person agrees the sentence. Other analyser notes wait. The fix has its own window. The hostname in the prompt matches the hostname in the ticket for a cloud configuration review. The result line includes the time and the person, not only the command. You can point at the rollback value without searching a chat history. And done is a sentence a second person can repeat: the proof for a cloud configuration review happened, and the next host is not started early. If one of those fails, stop.

Tools for this guide

These tools run in the browser on this site. They do not log into your machines.

Guides in this cluster

These supporting pages belong to this pillar.

Companion: Security: CIS Benchmarks Overview.