# What is a Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP)?

> A cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP) is an industry category for an integrated set of capabilities that helps secure cloud-native applications and infrastructure from development through production.

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## Content

A CNAPP commonly brings together cloud security posture management (CSPM), cloud workload protection platform (CWPP), cloud infrastructure entitlement management (CIEM), and scanning of artifacts such as infrastructure-as-code files, container images, dependencies, and secrets. Actual scope varies substantially.

The intended benefit is connected context. Instead of presenting every finding as an isolated alert, a CNAPP may relate vulnerable software, exposed infrastructure, excessive permissions, reachable data, and runtime activity to the same application or attack path. That can improve prioritization and route remediation to the team that owns the affected code or resource.

### Key points

- **Lifecycle coverage:** Assess code and deployment artifacts before release, guard infrastructure and identities during deployment, and monitor selected production risks.
- **Common inputs:** Cloud-provider APIs, repositories, CI/CD systems, registries, orchestrators, snapshots, and workload sensors can supply different parts of the picture.
- **Useful outcomes:** Unified asset context, policy checks, risk correlation, ownership mapping, remediation guidance, and evidence for governance workflows.
- **Operating requirement:** Security, platform, and development teams still need agreed policies, accountable owners, integration with delivery processes, and safe remediation paths.
- **Important limitation:** Buying a product labeled CNAPP does not guarantee complete code-to-runtime coverage or meaningful integration. Agentless inspection, build-time scanning, and runtime sensing see different evidence, and unsupported services can remain blind spots.

### Related terms

[Cloud security posture management (CSPM)](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/cloud-security-posture-management/>) · [Cloud workload protection platform (CWPP)](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/cloud-workload-protection-platform/>) · [Cloud infrastructure entitlement management (CIEM)](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/cloud-infrastructure-entitlement-management/>) · [DevSecOps](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/devsecops/>) · [Supply-chain security](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/supply-chain-security/>) · [Container security](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/container-security/>)

### Sources

[Gartner: Market Overview for Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms](https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/7776753) · [NIST SP 800-204C: Implementation of DevSecOps for a Microservices-based Application with Service Mesh](https://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/sp/800/204/c/final) · [NIST SP 800-204D: Strategies for the Integration of Software Supply Chain Security in DevSecOps CI/CD Pipelines](https://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/sp/800/204/d/final)

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