Prowler
By Prowler
An open-source cloud security assessment tool that began in 2016 as an AWS auditing script and now runs hundreds of posture checks across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and Kubernetes, mapped to frameworks like CIS, PCI DSS, and SOC 2. The company of the same name, incorporated in 2023 by the project's creator, sells a hosted Prowler Cloud edition.
Verified Source: 1
- Product type
- Software
- Deployment
- CLI
- Organization size
- IndividualSMBMid-marketEnterprise
- Pricing tier
- Free
How Prowler measures up against the full Cloud-Native Application Protection / Posture Management taxonomy.
- Misconfiguration detection (CSPM) — supported
- Flags cloud configuration drift against benchmarks like CIS and provider best practices.
- Agentless workload scanning — not supported
- Scans workloads via cloud provider APIs or snapshots without deploying agents.
- Cloud entitlement management (CIEM) — not supported
- Identifies excessive or unused permissions across cloud identities.
- Attack path analysis — not supported
- Correlates findings across identity, network, and data exposure to surface exploitable attack paths.
- Infrastructure-as-code scanning — not supported
- Catches misconfigurations in Terraform and CloudFormation before they're deployed.
- Vulnerability prioritization — not supported
- Finds and ranks OS and package CVEs across cloud workloads by real-world exploitability.
- Compliance benchmark mapping — supported
- Continuously maps posture to frameworks like CIS, SOC 2, and PCI.
Alternatives
Other Cloud-Native Application Protection / Posture Management tools with overlapping capabilities, sized for similar teams.
Appears in stacks
Real-world stacks that include Prowler.
Solo founder
A one- or two-person, pre-seed to seed-stage startup founder who is also the company's entire IT and security function, running everything from a laptop and a handful of cloud accounts, with no budget for dedicated security headcount or enterprise contracts.
Student home lab
A student or career-changer studying for a certification like Security+ or OSCP, or just teaching themselves cybersecurity hands-on, running everything on a spare laptop, an old PC, a handful of VMs, or a Raspberry Pi — with essentially no budget and a strong preference for open-source tools whose source they can actually read.