Organizations must act fast to secure cloud infrastructure by resetting credentials, enforcing access controls, strengthening network security, and implementing continuous threat monitoring.

In light of recent events where a major cloud service provider could have had its OpenSSO Agent compromised due to a CVSS 9.8 vulnerability (CVE-2021-35587), hordes of potentially affected organizations are probably rushing to perform checks, change credentials, and implement robust security measures.

Here is a comprehensive list of urgent actions for organizations to safeguard their Oracle Cloud infrastructure, or any similar systems implicated in a cloud service provider data breach:

Immediate Actions

• Reset all credentials immediately, especially for privileged accounts
• Rotate API keys, JKS files, and encryption certificates
• Patch systems, particularly addressing CVE-2021-35587 in Oracle Access Manager
• Conduct hardware-level firmware validation using Oracle’s root-of-trust features
• Initiate threat hunting for persistent footholds
• Assess dependencies in third-party integrations and revoke unnecessary access to limit lateral movement
• Review and rotate service account credentials embedded in automation scripts or CI/CD pipelines

Access control and identity management

• Enforce the principle of least privilege for all accounts
• Utilize Oracle’s Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies to control service access
• Implement IP allow-listing for critical Oracle Cloud services
• Use Oracle Cloud Guard and Security Zones for automated security violation detection
• Ensure cross-cloud identity federation enforces strict authentication controls to prevent implicit trust vulnerabilities
• Apply session time limits and re-authentication policies for privileged Oracle Cloud Console users

Network security

• Leverage security lists, Network Security Groups (NSGs), and Virtual Cloud Networks (VCNs) to control traffic flow
• Implement Oracle’s Web Application Firewall (WAF) to protect against common web exploits
• Use isolated network virtualization to create secure, isolated environments
• Enforce TLS 1.2+ with strong cipher suites across all Oracle Cloud services to prevent traffic interception and downgrade attacks.
• Restrict API endpoints to specific IPs or VCNs to prevent unauthorized API calls
• Leverage user behavior analytics (UBA) to detect insider threats or compromised credentials
• Set up automated alerting for privilege escalation attempts in Oracle IAM

Data protection

• Encrypt data at rest and in transit using Oracle’s encryption services
• Regularly back up critical data and test restoration processes
• Implement Oracle’s Data Safe service for enhanced database security controls

Monitoring and threat detection

• Deploy AI-driven security platforms for real-time anomaly detection
• Enable detailed logging and continuous monitoring of user activities in OCI
• Monitor privileged user activity with anomaly detection to detect insider threats
• Utilize Oracle’s threat intelligence service for emerging threat awareness

Compliance and risk management

• Conduct regular security assessments and penetration testing
• Automate compliance efforts across key functions, including documentation and reporting
• Continuously update security baselines using Oracle Cloud Security Advisor to detect misconfigurations early
• Implement a Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform for unified cloud security
• Integrate compliance-as-code solutions to continuously enforce security configurations

Incident response and recovery

• Develop and test an Oracle Cloud-specific incident response plan
• Establish clear communication channels with Oracle support and security teams
• Prepare stakeholder communication templates for potential breach notifications
• Simulate cloud breach scenarios with tabletop exercises to refine incident response strategies
• Ensure long-term log retention for forensic analysis of past security events

Advanced security measures

• Implement a Zero Trust architecture to limit lateral movement within your environment
• Utilize Oracle’s hardware root of trust features for platform integrity
• Consider integrating third-party security solutions compatible with Oracle Cloud

For managing highly specific and complex hybrid configurations, standard security measures may not fully mitigate risks. Following are some additional, advanced recommendations to ensure comprehensive protection:

• Deep-dive configuration audits: Conduct a forensic-level audit of all custom configurations, especially for niche integrations and third-party services. Verify that custom authentication mechanisms, service accounts, and microservices are not bypassing security policies.
• Custom rule-based security policies: Create granular identity access management policies tailored to non-standard workflows and privileged operations. Implement fine-grained API security policies to prevent unauthorized API access in complex automation scripts.
• Custom logging and anomaly detection: Enable custom log correlation across multiple cloud and on-premises systems using SIEM tools. Define custom anomaly detection rules for unusual API calls, privilege escalations, or unexpected cross-region activities.
• Advanced network isolation strategies: Implement strict micro-segmentation for sensitive workloads using Oracle NSGs and private VLANs. Restrict inter-service communication using service mesh architectures, ensuring encrypted, policy-driven communication.
• Secure complex multi-cloud and hybrid architectures: Review hybrid connectivity for potential misconfigurations. Ensure identity federation across cloud providers follows Zero Trust principles, avoiding implicit trust relationships.
• Custom hardening of Oracle-specific services: Apply advanced hardening to Oracle Autonomous Database and Exadata by restricting administrative SQL access and enabling SQL Firewall. For custom Oracle Kubernetes Engine (OKE) deployments, enforce container.
• Threat modeling and Red Team exercises: Conduct custom threat modeling for proprietary applications to identify potential attack vectors. Perform red team exercises with adversary simulation to test real-world exploitability of complex configurations.
• Hardware-level and firmware security: Leverage Oracle Cloud’s hardware root of trust to prevent firmware-based attacks. If running Oracle workloads on-premises, ensure BIOS and firmware integrity validation to prevent persistent threats.
• Potential critical overlooks: Even with rigorous security measures, some critical vulnerabilities are often overlooked in highly customized Oracle Cloud environments:

• Potential critical overlooks: Even with rigorous security measures, some critical vulnerabilities are often overlooked in highly customized Oracle Cloud environments:
• Missing Oracle CASB integration for SaaS layer protection: Many organizations focus heavily on securing Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) but neglect SaaS security. Oracle’s Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) should be integrated to monitor SaaS activity, detect risky user behavior, and enforce adaptive security policies.
• No requirement for Oracle MAXLABEL_SECURITY in multitenant DBs: In Oracle Multitenant environments, failing to enforce MAXLABEL_SECURITY can result in unauthorized data access between Pluggable Databases (PDBs) within a single Container Database (CDB). This setting should be explicitly enabled to maintain strict access controls.

Standard security practices provide a strong baseline, but IT teams with highly customized environments should go beyond checklists — continuously adapting security strategies, leveraging advanced analytics, and testing against emerging attack vectors to maintain resilience.

Do bear in mind that cloud security is a shared responsibility between CSPs and their customers, requiring ongoing vigilance, adaptation to emerging threats, and continual preemptive defenses.