Cloud account group (management group): what it is and how it is attacked
The parent that owns all of an organisation's cloud accounts and can set rules over every one of them.
Also known as
- management group
- AWS Organizations
- GCP folder
- landing zone
- account structure
Typing any of them into the editor finds this object.
Why it matters on a security diagram
It sits above every account on the diagram, so it is the one place where a single change reaches the whole estate. It is also the only complete list of accounts, which makes it the answer to the question most organisations cannot answer.
How it gets attacked, and what reduces it
How it gets attacked
- Control of the top account, which carries authority over every account beneath it
- Accounts opened outside the agreed structure, and therefore outside its rules
- Rules applied to some branches of the structure and quietly not to others
What reduces it
- Treat the top account as the most privileged thing you own, and use it almost never
- Reconcile the billing list against the structure, because an account outside it is outside every rule
- Check rule coverage per branch rather than assuming it inherits
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-group
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 accountsubscription · project · AWS account · Azure subscription · Google Cloud project · cloud environmentOne named compartment of a cloud platform, with its own bill and its own list of who may change what.
- 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 group on your own diagram
Open the editor, press N, and type management group. 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