# What is Cloud Application Security?

> Cloud application security is the practice of protecting applications delivered through or hosted on cloud services, together with their application data, identities, interfaces, configurations, secrets, and integrations.

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- Language: en
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## Content

It applies to custom applications, managed software services, and applications moved to cloud infrastructure, across design, development, deployment, administration, use, monitoring, response, and retirement.

Responsibility varies by service model and contract, but customers retain duties for areas such as identities, tenant configuration, data, and permitted use. Effective practice joins application-security testing with cloud configuration, access control, data protection, integration governance, logging, and response according to the application’s actual architecture.

### Key points

- **Design and delivery:** Model threats, define trust boundaries, review architecture, secure code and dependencies, test controls, protect deployment pipelines, and establish safe release and rollback processes.
- **Identity and data:** Apply least privilege to people and services, manage secrets and keys, validate authorization, classify data, constrain sharing, and protect data in transit and at rest.
- **Operations and integrations:** Harden tenant and application settings, inventory interfaces and connected applications, monitor meaningful events, correct vulnerabilities and drift, and rehearse provider-aware response and recovery.
- **Important limitation:** Provider controls do not secure customer code, identities, configurations, or integrations automatically. A cloud access security broker (CASB) sees only supported paths, while encryption cannot prevent misuse at an authorized endpoint.

### Related terms

[Cloud security](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/cloud-security/>) · [Application security](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/application-security/>) · [Cloud access security broker (CASB)](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/cloud-access-security-broker/>) · [SaaS security](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/saas-security/>) · [Cloud-native security](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/cloud-native-security/>)

### Sources

[OWASP, Application Security Verification Standard (ASVS)](https://owasp.org/www-project-application-security-verification-standard/) · [NIST SP 800-210, General Access Control Guidance for Cloud Systems](https://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/sp/800/210/final) · [CISA, Secure Cloud Business Applications (SCuBA) Project](https://www.cisa.gov/resources-tools/services/secure-cloud-business-applications-scuba-project) · [NIST IR 8505, A Data Protection Approach for Cloud-Native Applications](https://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/ir/8505/final)

## Attribution and scope

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