Cloud Security Posture Management: CSPM, CNAPP, CWPP, and WAAP Explained
It’s an alphabet soup in the cloud security market: Cloud security posture management (CSPM), CNAPP, CWPP, and WAAP. These cybersecurity product categories address different security requirements, from cloud configuration monitoring and compliance to workload and application protection. Discover how they differ, where they overlap, and how Atomicorp addresses important cloud security requirements.
What Is Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)?
Cloud security posture management (CSPM) is a category of cybersecurity solutions that, according to Gartner, identifies and addresses security risks across cloud infrastructure, including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS).
As organizations expand their cloud operations, they must manage growing numbers of security settings, access permissions, resources, and compliance obligations. A cloud misconfiguration, such as unrestricted administrative access, disabled logging, or missing multifactor authentication (MFA), can expose sensitive data and infrastructure to attackers.
CSPM tools continuously assess cloud environments to detect misconfigurations, evaluate risks, and support remediation. Core CSPM capabilities commonly include:
- Cloud configuration monitoring: Identify insecure settings, exposed resources, and configuration drift.
- Cloud compliance monitoring: Evaluate configurations against CIS Benchmarks and applicable regulatory or industry standards.
- Cloud asset discovery: Identify cloud resources and provide visibility into their security posture.
- Security risk assessment: Identify and prioritize misconfigurations, excessive permissions, and other risks.
- Cloud security automation: Continuously assess configurations, generate alerts, and support remediation workflows.
CSPM solutions can also integrate with DevOps tools to streamline security operations and monitor compliance with regulatory requirements and security frameworks. CSPM addresses an important aspect of the cloud shared responsibility model. While cloud service providers secure their underlying infrastructure, customers remain responsible for many configuration, identity, data protection, and workload security controls, depending on the services they use.
Learn more about our endpoint and cloud workload protection platform, Atomic OSSEC.
CSPM, CWPP, CNAPP, and WAAP: What’s the Difference?
CSPM is one of several cybersecurity product categories addressing cloud security. Each concentrates on different aspects of an organization’s cloud environment.
Cloud Workload Protection Platform (CWPP)
Where CSPM evaluates cloud configurations, CWPP protects the workloads operating within those environments, including servers, virtual machines, containers, and applications.
CWPP capabilities can include vulnerability detection, malware protection, intrusion detection, file integrity monitoring (FIM), application control, and automated threat response.
Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP)
CNAPP combines multiple cloud security capabilities within a broader platform. Typically incorporating CSPM and CWPP, CNAPP can also include cloud infrastructure entitlement management (CIEM), Kubernetes security posture management (KSPM), and other security functions.
The objective is to provide more unified visibility into cloud infrastructure, workloads, identities, vulnerabilities, and risks.
Web Application and API Protection (WAAP)
WAAP concentrates on protecting web applications and APIs against malicious traffic, exploitation attempts, and abuse.
WAAP solutions commonly combine web application firewall (WAF) capabilities, API security, bot mitigation, and application-layer denial-of-service protection.
Although these categories overlap, they are not interchangeable. An organization might deploy CSPM to identify an insecure cloud configuration, CWPP to detect malicious activity on a cloud server, and WAAP to block an attack against an application running on that server.
Together, these technologies contribute to defense in depth.
Get an Atomicorp demo.
Where Does Atomicorp Fit in Cloud Security?
Atomicorp has an established position in cloud workload protection. Gartner previously identified Atomicorp as a CWPP provider, reflecting the company’s capabilities in protecting workloads across cloud and traditional infrastructure.
Atomic OSSEC endpoint detection and response (EDR) protects workloads across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments, including legacy and end-of-life systems.
Atomicorp is also expanding its cloud security capabilities with a prototype agentless cloud security scanner built on the open-source Prowler framework.
The scanner connects to cloud infrastructure through APIs to assess security configurations, vulnerabilities, and compliance gaps. It evaluates environments against CIS Benchmarks, identifies issues such as missing MFA, and presents findings with severity ratings and pass/fail results.
Initially targeting AWS and Microsoft Azure, with potential support for Google Cloud and other providers, the scanner addresses several core CSPM functions:
- Cloud configuration assessment: Detects insecure settings and potential misconfigurations.
- Compliance assessment: Evaluates cloud configurations against established security benchmarks.
- Security risk identification: Reports findings and their severity to support prioritization.
These emerging capabilities extend Atomicorp’s security portfolio into CSPM-related functionality, complementing its established CWPP and WAAP offerings.
Learn more about Atomic OSSEC.
Extending Cloud Protection Beyond CSPM
Cloud security does not end with identifying configuration risks. Organizations must also detect attacks, protect vulnerable workloads, and defend applications and APIs.
Atomicorp addresses these additional requirements through complementary technologies.
CWPP and EDR: Atomic OSSEC provides vulnerability detection, intrusion detection, malware protection, file integrity monitoring, application controls, and automated response across supported cloud and traditional workloads. Agent-based and agentless approaches extend monitoring to systems where installing endpoint software is impractical.
WAAP and web application security: Atomic WAF and Atomic ModSecurity Rules protect web applications and APIs against SQL injection, cross-site scripting, malicious bots, and other application-layer attacks. Daily updated commercial rules, virtual patching, and Layer 7 attack defenses provide additional protection against exploitation.
Together with Atomicorp’s developing CSPM capabilities, these solutions address security across cloud configurations, workloads, applications, and APIs.
Cloud security requires more than a single category of protection. By combining continuous monitoring, vulnerability detection, configuration assessment, and application security, organizations can strengthen their security posture while addressing operational and compliance requirements.