Integrating Wiz Security Platform with AWS: A Deep Dive with AWS Outposts
This article explores how to integrate Wiz with AWS, how Wiz enhances AWS security, and how it operates in AWS Outposts deployments.
With the increasing complexity of cloud environments, organizations need robust cloud security posture management (CSPM) to ensure compliance, risk mitigation, and real-time threat detection. Wiz is a leading cloud security platform designed to provide deep visibility into cloud workloads, detecting vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and compliance risks.
Integrating Wiz with Amazon Web Services (AWS) enables organizations to leverage an advanced security model to protect workloads across AWS Regions, AWS Outposts, and hybrid cloud environments. AWS Outposts, an on-premises extension of AWS, allows enterprises to deploy AWS infrastructure in their data centers, further expanding the security scope that Wiz needs to cover.
This article explores how to integrate Wiz with AWS, how Wiz enhances AWS security, and how it operates in AWS Outposts deployments.
1. Understanding Wiz and AWS Integration
What is Wiz?
Wiz is a cloud security platform that offers deep visibility into cloud workloads, networks, and identities by leveraging an agentless architecture. Unlike traditional security tools, Wiz scans AWS, Azure, GCP, and Kubernetes environments without requiring agents, reducing complexity and improving scalability.
Key Features of Wiz in AWS
Agentless Security: No need to install agents on workloads; Wiz scans cloud configurations, workloads, and network flows.
Deep Context Analysis: Detects vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, exposed secrets, and lateral movement risks.
Real-time Threat Detection: Identifies potential security risks before attackers can exploit them.
Compliance & Governance: Automates compliance checks against standards like CIS, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, ISO 27001, and NIST.
Multi-Cloud Visibility: Provides a single pane of glass for security insights across AWS and other cloud providers.
2. Why Integrate Wiz with AWS?
Integrating Wiz with AWS enhances cloud security by providing full-stack visibility, contextual risk analysis, and automated remediation. Key benefits include:
Proactive Threat Detection – Detect misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, and exposed credentials before exploitation.
Compliance & Risk Management – Ensure compliance with AWS Security Best Practices and regulatory frameworks.
Agentless Scanning – Reduce operational overhead by eliminating agent deployments.
Continuous Security Monitoring – Gain insights into cloud network traffic, IAM permissions, and storage exposure risks.
Security for AWS Outposts – Extend security coverage to hybrid and on-premises AWS deployments.
3. Setting Up Wiz with AWS
Integrating Wiz with AWS requires configuring AWS IAM roles, enabling Wiz cloud connectors, and setting up security policies.
Step 1: Create an AWS IAM Role for Wiz
Wiz requires an AWS IAM role with read-only permissions to scan the environment securely.
Navigate to AWS IAM Console → Create a new IAM role.
Select "Another AWS account" and enter the Wiz AWS Account ID.
Attach the following policies:
ReadOnlyAccessSecurityAuditAWSOrganizationsReadOnlyAccess
Add a trust policy to allow Wiz to assume this role.
{ "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Effect": "Allow", "Principal": { "AWS": "arn:aws:iam::<Wiz-Account-ID>:root" }, "Action": "sts:AssumeRole" } ] }Copy the IAM Role ARN for use in Wiz.
Step 2: Connect AWS to Wiz
Once the IAM role is set up, the next step is to connect AWS to Wiz.
Log in to the Wiz Console.
Navigate to "Cloud Accounts" → Click "Add New Account".
Select AWS and enter:
AWS Account ID
IAM Role ARN
Click "Validate & Connect".
Wiz will now start scanning your AWS environment, identifying security risks.
4. Understanding AWS Outposts and Wiz Integration
What is AWS Outposts?
AWS Outposts is a fully managed service that extends AWS infrastructure and services to on-premises data centers. Organizations use AWS Outposts for:
Low-latency applications
Data residency requirements
Hybrid cloud solutions
Regulated industries (e.g., financial services, healthcare, government)
With AWS Outposts, businesses can run AWS services locally while maintaining seamless integration with the AWS cloud.
Securing AWS Outposts with Wiz
Since AWS Outposts extends AWS infrastructure into on-premises environments, it introduces new security challenges, such as:
Ensuring Outposts configurations align with AWS security best practices
Detecting vulnerabilities in hybrid deployments
Monitoring network traffic between on-premises and cloud workloads
Managing IAM roles and access controls effectively
Wiz helps secure AWS Outposts by:
Scanning AWS Outposts workloads just like AWS cloud workloads.
Identifying misconfigurations in AWS Outposts resources.
Monitoring network traffic for suspicious activity.
Ensuring compliance with industry standards.
Example: Scanning AWS Outposts with Wiz
To secure an AWS Outposts deployment:
Ensure AWS Outposts is registered within your AWS Organization.
Use the same Wiz IAM Role created for AWS integration.
Deploy security policies specific to on-prem workloads.
Enable Wiz alerts for Outposts-specific misconfigurations.
5. Advanced Security Use Cases
Use Case 1: Detecting Misconfigurations in AWS S3 Buckets
Wiz helps identify publicly exposed S3 buckets that could lead to data breaches.
Wiz scans AWS S3 buckets for misconfigurations.
It detects publicly accessible objects.
It provides remediation guidance, e.g., updating S3 ACL settings.
Use Case 2: Identifying IAM Over-privileges
Wiz identifies IAM roles with excessive permissions, which can increase the attack surface.
Wiz analyzes IAM policies.
It flags roles with wildcard (
*) permissions.Provides least privilege recommendations.
Use Case 3: Detecting Malware in AWS EC2 Instances
Wiz scans AWS EC2 instances for malware, vulnerabilities, and unauthorized software.
Scans OS images for known CVEs.
Detects risky open ports.
Identifies compromised instances.
6. Best Practices for AWS and Wiz Integration
Enable AWS CloudTrail & AWS Config for enhanced security monitoring.
Use AWS Security Hub alongside Wiz for a unified security view.
Regularly audit IAM roles and apply least privilege principles.
Automate remediation using AWS Lambda and Wiz integrations.
Monitor Outposts connectivity to prevent network exposure risks.
7. Conclusion
Integrating Wiz with AWS enhances security posture, providing deep visibility, compliance enforcement, and proactive risk detection. By extending Wiz security to AWS Outposts, organizations can secure hybrid and on-premises environments efficiently.
By leveraging agentless scanning, cloud-native integrations, and advanced threat detection, Wiz helps AWS customers protect their infrastructure from modern cyber threats.