Serverless Security: What Does It Mean?

Serverless functions are code snippets executed in an event-based manner in fully managed infrastructures. With serverless architectures, it is possible to set up complex application systems without worrying about managing the infrastructure: cloud providers take on aspects such as scaling, availability, or provisioning. Many new processes, strategic considerations, and tools are required to secure serverless applications. If users continue to build on well-known processes or procedures, security can no longer be guaranteed in the long term.

In the serverless world, an application usually consists of hundreds of functions. Each of them is relatively simple, but when used together, the application results in an overall system that is mainly more complex. As you can already see in this introduction to serverless security, this principle results in many advantages and disadvantages in terms of IT security.

Serverless Security: The Benefits

Let’s first come to the plus points of serverless security: Since cloud providers take care of the security of the cloud server, the operating system, the runtime, and patching, users have significantly more resources at their disposal – this is probably the most visible advantage. Another is the possible exemplary configuration: Serverless architectures significantly increase the number of possible functions. As a result, identity and Access Management (IAM) can also define several roles. This may not seem particularly advantageous to many organizations at first. However, by choosing the right tools and processes, it is possible to build so-called “shrink-wrapped permissions” around each function. This results in further development of the Zero Trust approach: Each part can only access those resources or services that it is permitted to access. This “least privilege principle” prevents numerous cyberattacks on applications when properly configured.

In practice, the large number of rights can confuse and is often circumvented with an allow policy. However, overarching law is not the point because this would open the door to attacks. It is better to find suitable – namely minimal – permissions; the effort is worth it! If the logic of functions changes in time, the rights can be adjusted at any time. This Least Privilege Principle should also be used for access to third-party systems from the cloud: roles with minimal permissions are created and assigned to the appropriately accessing serverless functions.

Existing concepts are often characterized by large containers stuffed with powers and access rights. With the serverless architecture, a rethink helps: a large number of functions ensure that the effect of each one is quite limited – each position is only allowed a small action. Thus, the small parts exist very briefly before they are subsequently reloaded. This has the advantage that attacking functions can only be abused for a short time before they disappear again. Therefore, it is essential to configure the lifespan of positions as straightforwardly as possible so that many attacks are made almost impossible.

The downside of this coin is that attackers also learn that cybercriminals keep attacking again and again if the duration is short. This is known as Groundhog Day Attack or Groundhog Day Attack. Attacks of this type are very noticeable, so detecting them and stopping them is relatively easy.

The logs of the individual microservices increase transparency. Furthermore, control programs have significantly more opportunities to detect anomalies, and security teams are thus enabled to discover and counteract abnormalities more quickly.

Serverless Security: The Cons

But serverless security also has to contend with disadvantages: More protocols because the resulting transparency can be assessed as advantages and disadvantages. The resulting openness is undoubtedly an advantage, but getting there involves many protocols: hundreds of functions mean hundreds of protocols.

Many functions can also increase the attack surface because they result in numerous entry points for attackers. Of these, some are more accessible to hackers than others. However, the fine-grained authorization concepts bring maximum control for the functions so that an efficient IAM can reduce the attack surface again.

A disadvantage can also be that fixed company perimeters and data centers as boundaries of the company IT are no longer available. Until now, the inside and outside of a company network were firmly defined – serverless security is changing this perception. Are there limits to each function? In every resource? It is important to explain here, not least, to clarify legal issues.

Serverless Security: Common Mistakes

To understand the advantages, it is essential to avoid a few typical mistakes. For example, it is often assumed that the Web Application Firewall (WAF) takes care of the security of all applications. The WAF is traditionally located at the Internet gateway out of the company infrastructure, and it protects web and application services but does not secure all applications. The WAF inspects HTTPS traffic and covers functions triggered by the API gateway. Events on the cloud network started elsewhere are not protected by the WAF. The WAF should not be understood as the only protection program; Security gaps in the network can be closed with specialized security solutions.

A second common mistake is unedited feature permissions—the permissions discussed in the benefits. Functions should not have more leeway than they need – or vice versa: keep access permissions for positions as low as possible. Please take a look at each function and check what it does and what permissions are required for it. This allows you to configure the roles and access approvals precisely, making subsequent adjustments less time-consuming.

Organizations need to understand further that application code does not necessarily have to be homegrown to adopt serverless security. Cloud applications usually consist of numerous modules and libraries. A module often includes countless other modules, making it clear that a single serverless function combines tens of thousands of code lines from different sources. Many application source codes consist of open-source content. Attackers are increasingly attempting to incorporate malicious code into community projects, and Open-source sites like GitHub can do that. If the new version finds its way into cloud applications, the malicious code comes with it.

Another common mistake is trusting the wrong signs of an attack. As described in the advantages and disadvantages of serverless security, the principal increases visibility and transparency. Since the amount of information is growing massively, some companies have hardly any opportunities to read the data and interpret it meaningfully and comprehensively. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) help: They can automatically increase security in the cloud and efficiently support employees in evaluating logs.

Recommendations For Serverless Security

Follow the Zero Trust approach to increase security: The company network is segmented, and access rights are strictly restricted. In this way, damage following successful attacks can be limited.

You can use code analysis tools (SCA, see above) to monitor your code and that of others. In this way, you maintain a basic level of security and prevent malicious code from being smuggled in. If you also rely on XDR, you can have your entire IT infrastructure monitored automatically, partly based on AI.

Serverless Security: A New Way With New Concepts

As you can see, serverless security is an exciting approach, but it requires a rethink: Away from rigid company boundaries toward many serverless functions requiring protection. Do not just rely on cloud providers’ full-bodied advertising promises, but examine various options. You should also adapt your IT security strategy to the new architecture – and work as precisely as possible right from the start because only then is security also on board with serverless functions.

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How Does a VPS Work?

The VPS servers like BlueVPS.com work through the VPS technology. A technology whose main function is the generation of a certain number of autonomous partitions on a single physical server. They are completely independent partitions from each other, so that each one of them has its own file system, as well as software and resources.

In this way, all the physical server resources are distributed equally among the different partitions, VPS servers. From the operational point of view, they are dedicated servers. However, each client does not have a physical server exclusively for him but rather a reserved hosting within this unit.

Thus, the VPS server is halfway between shared hosting and a dedicated server. There are many situations in which a user or a specific company must bet on a server of this type. On the one hand, when shared hosting becomes too small and is no longer capable of responding to the needs or traffic of the website in question, on the other hand, somewhat related to the previous point, when the site requires more incredible speed and isolation.

And finally, when you need to get multiple domains up and running.

One of the characteristics that define the VPS Server is that each customer can choose the operating system that suits him best. Thus, we can find Windows VPS Server, VPS Linux Hosting, and VPS Ubuntu. Which of these is the best option depends on the use that will be given to it. If you are going to use Microsoft applications, the best option is Windows; if, on the other hand, if you prefer to implement accessible technologies, the best available option is Linux.

Differences Between VPS Vs Shared Hosting Vs Dedicated Hosting

To understand what a Virtual Private Server is, it is worth first pointing out the different types of servers, and we can classify them into three large groups.

On the one hand, a shared hosting (perfect for small projects) consists of a physical server that hosts several websites and domains. It is characterized in that all clients share the resources, and there is no separate partition for each of them; Thus, if a client’s website consumes a large number of resources because it has a traffic spike, the rest of the clients on the server will be affected and on the other hand, dedicated.

Server hosting. In it, a single client has the entire physical server in question so that you can manage your resources as best suits you.

And finally, halfway between the previous two, the VPS. In the same way as shared hosting, several websites and domains are hosted on the same physical server. However, each client has a separate container. Therefore, the environment is quite similar to that provided by a dedicated server, but with shared hosting.

Let’s take as an example a client who needs 1,000 resources for their website. You may not be interested in paying for a dedicated server, which offers you 3,000 resources to yourself, but they also do not want a shared hosting where another client can consume part of their resources. Therefore, in this case, the VPS is precisely tailored to what you need; a separate partition with 1,000 available resources that you can administer and manage as you see fit.

Advantages And Disadvantages Of A VPS

We enter the final part of this article, talking in a very summarized way about the advantages and disadvantages of this type of virtual server, referring to some of the characteristics that we have mentioned previously.

We start with the advantages of a VPS server compared to any other web hosting service :

• VPS servers are just as customizable as a dedicated server but at a lower price. The only thing that changes is the power and resources available, although depending on the virtualization technology, there may be some penalties for some things (such as disk I/O).
• VPS servers are much more potent than most shared hosting and much more customizable and configurable.
• We can choose which control panel and services we install to serve our web page and the operating system (in the case of KVM, we can even install Windows if we want).
• VPS servers are usually more scalable than shared hosting or elastic hosting.

And now we go with some disadvantages of this type of product:

• A “VPS hosting” will always require more technical knowledge than shared hosting or elastic hosting. If you want to forget everything, you have to hire a sysadmin to manage your VPS server.
• Unless the VPS server is managed, the server’s security and its websites are your responsibility. You will be solely responsible for securing the server and preventing infection on a website from reaching the entire server.

• Also Read: Importance Of Training In Digital Skills

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Exchange Server Maintenance Checklist for Administrators

While you cannot prevent disasters or data loss, you can follow our Microsoft Exchange Server maintenance checklist for administrators to minimize the risk and disruption when disaster strikes.

1. Create Verified Backups

Backups are critical. Regular backups help prevent permanent data loss and restore services after a server failure or database corruption due to hardware and software failures or malicious attacks.
A Volume Shadow Copy Service or Volume Snapshot Service-based (VSS-based) backup is recommended for Exchange servers using an application-aware backup utility, such as Windows Server Backup. It helps recover from catastrophic server failure, database corruption, and restore deleted mail items and mailboxes. Besides, it automatically purges the transaction logs after the backup, which helps conserve the storage space and prevent issues, such as database dismount or dirty shutdown, due to low storage space.

However, backups may get damaged or may not work and fail to restore data when needed. Thus, it is also critical to verify the backup after it is completed. If you find issues, create new backups.
You may also manually back up the Exchange mailbox database files and keep an Exchange recovery software handy. An Exchange recovery software, such as Stellar Repair for Exchange, helps recover mailboxes from inconsistent, corrupt, or damaged Exchange database when backups are damaged, obsolete, or unavailable. It helps you restore mailboxes from a crashed or damaged Exchange server directly to a new Live Exchange Server or Office 365.

2. Install Windows and Exchange Server Updates

Microsoft regularly releases various cumulative and security updates to introduce new features, resolve security risks, patch critical vulnerabilities, fix bugs, and improve server performance.

However, threat actors are often seen taking advantage of updates released by Microsoft to attack vulnerable and unpatched servers. Thus, it’s important to install the updates as they arrive.

Failure to do so may allow the threat actors to compromise your Exchange Server, install malware, web shells, and backdoors to encrypt the data, which can bring your organization down to its knees.

To learn more on recent attacks on Exchange Server, vulnerabilities, flaws, and their fixes, refer to this guide. If you can’t update your Exchange Server for a while, harden the security or lock down the server until it’s updated and patched.

3. Check Server Resources

Keeping an eye on server resources, such as disk, memory, and processor, and their utilization can help prevent most issues with the Exchange Server.

For instance, low storage space on a server can prevent the Exchange Server from creating new logs and updating the database that can lead to severe consequences, such as messaging failure (prevent users from sending or receiving emails), database corruption, and downtimes.

You may conserve storage space, as mentioned earlier, by creating regular VSS-based backups that automatically purge transaction logs, creating more free space for new logs.

NOTE: Never delete the transaction logs manually to free up storage space as it can lead to database corruption. If required, enable Circular Logging (although not recommended) to purge transaction logs.

Similarly, high CPU or memory utilization can also adversely affect the server performance and lead to problems, such as failed connectivity, email flow issues, slow login, etc.

Thus, check the resource utilization periodically and upgrade the hardware or software, if required, to prevent disasters.

4. Analyze Logs

In Exchange, all traffic goes through Internet Information Services or IIS. Exchange Server generates IIS logs that store information related to AutoDiscover, HTTP/RPC, HTTP/MAPI, EWS, EAC (ECP), and OAB connection.
An Exchange administrator can analyze these IIS logs to check the server performance and monitor the web services. It also helps find various connections and performance issues that can help you prevent downtimes and major disasters before they strike.

Use the Log Parser Studio utility to search and analyze IIS logs and create reports.

5. Run Integrity Checks

In the Exchange Server environment, it is important to run regular integrity checks on the database to fix errors and integrity issues that can lead to database dismount or corruption.
If a database has failed or dismounted, an integrity check can help you find the issue, which you can repair using the EseUtil.

You can use the IsInteg in Exchange Server 2010 and earlier versions to run integrity checks on the Exchange mailbox database. Use the New-MailboxRepairRequest cmdlet (successor of IsInteg in Exchange 2010 SP1 and later versions) to run integrity check and repair a single mailbox or the entire database without dismounting the database.

NOTE: Back up the database before running integrity checks and ensure the server has enough free storage space. A backup will help you recover mailboxes in a rare case scenario where the Exchange mailbox database may get damaged during maintenance tasks.

You may also use Exchange recovery software to recover mailboxes from the inconsistent, corrupt, or damaged database and restore them directly to a new database on a live Exchange Server or Office365. 

To Wrap Up

By following the Exchange Server maintenance checklist discussed in this post, you can ensure server health and prevent common issues that can lead to downtime and halt business activities. This maintenance checklist will also help safeguard servers from catastrophic events, such as database corruption or server failure. For more updates and help, leave a comment.

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