Shining a Light on Shadow Apps: The Invisible Gateway to SaaS Data Breaches

Shadow apps, a segment of Shadow IT, are SaaS applications purchased without the knowledge of the security team. While these applications may be legitimate, they operate within the blind spots of the corporate security team and expose the company to attackers.

Shadow apps may include instances of software that the company is already using. For example, a dev team may onboard their own instance of GitHub to keep their work separate from other developers. They might justify the purchase by noting that GitHub is an approved application, as it is already in use by other teams. However, since the new instance is used outside of the security team's view, it lacks governance. It may store sensitive corporate data and not have essential protections like MFA enabled, SSO enforced, or it could suffer from weak access controls. These misconfigurations can easily lead to risks like stolen source code and other issues.

Types of Shadow Apps

Shadow apps can be categorized based on their interaction with the organization's systems. Two common types are Island Shadow Apps and Integrated Shadow Apps.

Standalone Shadow Apps

Standalone shadow apps are applications that are not integrated with the company's IT ecosystem. They operate as an island in isolation from other company systems and often serve a specific purpose, such as task management, file storage, or communication. Without visibility into their use, corporate data may be mishandled, leading to the potential loss of sensitive information as data is fragmented across various unapproved platforms.

Integrated Shadow Apps

Integrated shadow apps are far more dangerous, as they connect or interact with the organization's approved systems through APIs or other integration points. These apps may automatically sync data with other software, exchange information with sanctioned applications, or share access across platforms. As a result of these integrations, threat actors could compromise the entire SaaS ecosystem, with the shadow apps acting as a gateway to access the integrated systems.

How Shadow Apps Impact SaaS Security

Data Security Vulnerabilities

One of the primary risks of shadow apps is that they may not comply with the organization's security protocols. Employees using unsanctioned apps may store, share, or process sensitive data without proper encryption or other protective measures in place. This lack of visibility and control can lead to data leaks, breaches, or unauthorized access.

Compliance and Regulatory Risks

Many industries are governed by strict regulatory frameworks (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA). When employees use shadow apps that haven't been vetted or approved by the organization's IT or compliance teams, the organization may unknowingly violate these regulations. This could lead to hefty fines, legal actions, and reputational damage.

Increased Attack Surface

Shadow apps widen the organization's attack surface, providing more entry points for cybercriminals. These apps may not have hardened their access controls, enabling hackers to exploit them and gain access to company networks.

Lack of Visibility and Control

IT departments need to have visibility over the apps being used within the organization to effectively manage and secure the company's data. When shadow apps are in use, IT teams may be blind to potential threats, unable to detect unauthorized data transfers, or unaware of risks stemming from outdated or insecure applications.

Learn how an SSPM protects your SaaS stack and detects shadow apps

How Shadow Apps Are Discovered

SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) tools are essential to SaaS security. Not only do they monitor configurations, users, devices, and other elements of the SaaS stack, but they are essential in detecting all non-human identities, including shadow applications.

SSPMs detect all SaaS applications that connect to another app (SaaS-to-SaaS), enabling security teams to detect integrated shadow apps. They also monitor sign-ins through SSOs. When users sign into a new app using Google, SSPMs make a record of that sign in. Existing device agents that are connected to your SSPM are a third way to see which new applications have been onboarded.

In addition, SSPMs have new methods of shadow app detection. An innovative approach integrates SSPM with existing email security systems. When new SaaS applications are introduced, they typically generate a flood of welcome emails, including confirmations, webinar invitations, and onboarding tips. Some SSPM solutions directly access all emails and gather extensive permissions, which can be intrusive. However, the more advanced SSPMs integrate with existing email security systems to selectively retrieve only the necessary information, enabling precise detection of shadow apps without overreaching.

Email security tools routinely scan email traffic, looking for malicious links, phishing attempts, malware attachments, and other email-borne threats. SSPMs can leverage permissions already granted to an email security system, enabling the detection of shadow apps without requiring sensitive permissions being granted to yet another external security tool.

Another method for shadow app discovery involves integrating the SSPM with a browser extension security tool. These tools track user behavior in real time, and can flag user behavior.

Secure browsers and browser extensions log and send alerts when employees interact with unknown or suspicious SaaS apps. This data is shared with the SSPM platform, which compares it against the organization's authorized SaaS list. If a shadow SaaS app is detected, the SSPM triggers an alert. This enables the security team to either properly onboard and secure the shadow app or offboard it.

As organizations continue to embrace SaaS applications for improved efficiency and collaboration, the rise of shadow apps is a growing concern. To mitigate these risks, security teams must take proactive measures to discover and manage shadow apps, leveraging their SSPM with shadow app discovery capabilities.

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