Cloud account (subscription): what it is and how it is attacked
One named compartment of a cloud platform, with its own bill and its own list of who may change what.
Also known as
- subscription
- project
- AWS account
- Azure subscription
- Google Cloud project
- cloud environment
Typing any of them into the editor finds this object.
Why it matters on a security diagram
It is the container most cloud diagrams leave out, and it is usually the real blast radius: anyone with control of the account reaches everything inside it without crossing a single boundary drawn on the page. How solid a wall it is differs by provider, so the diagram should say which one.
How it gets attacked, and what reduces it
How it gets attacked
- Administrative sign-in protected by a password alone
- Access granted to a supplier or a second account and never withdrawn
- Resources created in an account nobody was asked to watch
What reduces it
- A phishing-resistant second factor on every administrative sign-in
- Review cross-account grants on a schedule, since they are made once and forgotten
- Do not assume a compartment on one platform separates identities the way it does on another
Where it sits
- Group
- Cloud and subscribed services · Things that only exist because somebody else runs the platform underneath them.
- Whose side, by default
- Ours · Belongs to the organisation the diagram is about.
- Catalogue identifier
- cloud-account
Reviewed . CC BY 4.0.
Others in cloud and subscribed services
- Cloud platformAWS · Azure · GCP · Google Cloud · public cloud · hyperscaler · IaaSA supplier's computing platform, rented by the hour, where a setting made on a website creates or removes a whole system.
- AI model endpointLLM API · inference endpoint · model service · AI serviceWhere an application sends a question, along with documents, images or data, to an AI model and gets an answer back.
- Cloud account groupmanagement group · AWS Organizations · GCP folder · landing zone · account structureThe parent that owns all of an organisation's cloud accounts and can set rules over every one of them.
- Cloud control panelcontrol plane · management console · cloud portal · cloud API · management planeThe website and commands used to configure the cloud itself, as opposed to the systems running inside it.
- Supplier-run applicationSaaS · software as a service · cloud application · business applicationAn application a supplier runs entirely, which the organisation subscribes to and puts its data into.
- Connected appOAuth application · app registration · enterprise application · app consent · add-inAn outside program that somebody has allowed to reach company data on their behalf.
- Managed databaseRDS · Azure SQL · Cloud SQL · database as a service · DBaaSA database the cloud provider runs, where the data and the settings are yours but the machine is never touched.
- On-demand functionserverless · Lambda · Azure Functions · Cloud Run · FaaSA small piece of code that runs only when something asks for it, with no server to look after.
- Container platformKubernetes · K8s · cluster · EKS · AKS · GKE · OpenShiftThe system that decides where each packaged application runs, and starts it again when it stops.
- Container image storecontainer registry · image registry · ECR · ACR · artefact storeThe library of packaged applications that machines fetch from whenever they start something.
- Infrastructure blueprintinfrastructure as code · IaC · Terraform · state file · CloudFormation · BicepThe written description of what the cloud should contain, together with the record of what was actually built.
The cloud and subscribed services group lists all 12 of them side by side.
Cloud account on your own diagram
Open the editor, press N, and type subscription. The object is placed and connected to whatever was selected, and Tab adds the next one already joined to it. Nothing is uploaded: the page is served with a Content Security Policy that forbids the browser from making any outbound request at all.
Open the diagram maker