ScriptsApr 16, 2026·3 min read

Prowler — Cloud Security Assessment for AWS, Azure and GCP

Prowler is an open-source security tool that audits your cloud infrastructure against hundreds of compliance checks for AWS, Azure, GCP, and Kubernetes, generating actionable reports.

Script Depot
Script Depot · Community
TL;DR
Prowler audits cloud infrastructure against hundreds of compliance checks automatically.
§01

What it is

Prowler is an open-source security tool that audits your cloud infrastructure against hundreds of compliance checks for AWS, Azure, GCP, and Kubernetes. It generates actionable reports covering CIS benchmarks, SOC2, HIPAA, GDPR, PCI-DSS, and other compliance frameworks. You run it against your cloud account and get a detailed list of security findings with severity ratings and remediation guidance.

Prowler targets security engineers, cloud architects, and compliance teams who need to validate their cloud posture regularly. It automates the manual work of checking security configurations across hundreds of services.

§02

Why it saves time or tokens

Manually checking cloud security configurations across hundreds of services takes days. Prowler scans everything in minutes and produces a structured report. Running it on a schedule catches misconfigurations as they are introduced. For AI-assisted cloud infrastructure, Prowler validates that generated Terraform or CloudFormation configurations meet security baselines before deployment.

§03

How to use

  1. Install Prowler: pip install prowler
  2. Configure cloud credentials (AWS CLI, Azure CLI, or GCP service account)
  3. Run: prowler aws or prowler azure or prowler gcp
§04

Example

# Scan AWS account with CIS benchmark
prowler aws --compliance cis_2.0_aws

# Scan specific services
prowler aws --services s3 iam ec2

# Generate HTML report
prowler aws --output-formats html

# Scan with severity filter
prowler aws --severity critical high
FrameworkCloud Provider
CIS BenchmarksAWS, Azure, GCP
SOC2AWS, Azure
HIPAAAWS
PCI-DSSAWS, Azure
GDPRAWS, Azure, GCP
KubernetesAny K8s cluster
§05

Related on TokRepo

§06

Common pitfalls

  • Prowler requires read-only access to cloud APIs; the IAM role needs broad permissions that may require security team approval
  • Some checks produce false positives in non-standard architectures; review findings before acting on them
  • Running Prowler against a large AWS organization with many accounts takes significant time; scope scans to specific services or accounts

Frequently Asked Questions

What compliance frameworks does Prowler support?+

Prowler supports CIS benchmarks for AWS, Azure, and GCP, plus SOC2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, GDPR, NIST 800-53, ISO 27001, and more. You select the framework when running Prowler, and it executes only the relevant checks. Custom frameworks can be defined using Prowler's check metadata.

Can Prowler run in CI/CD pipelines?+

Yes. Prowler runs as a CLI tool that exits with a non-zero code when critical findings are detected. Add it as a pipeline step to block deployments that fail security checks. The JSON output format integrates with security dashboards and ticketing systems.

How does Prowler compare to AWS Security Hub?+

AWS Security Hub is a managed service that aggregates findings from AWS-native tools. Prowler is an independent, open-source tool that runs its own checks and works across multiple cloud providers. Prowler often finds issues that Security Hub misses and vice versa. They are complementary.

Does Prowler support multi-cloud scanning?+

Yes. Prowler supports AWS, Azure, GCP, and Kubernetes in a single tool. You run separate scans for each provider, but the output format and check categorization are consistent. This gives you a unified view of security posture across clouds.

How often should I run Prowler?+

Run Prowler at least weekly on production accounts. For environments with frequent changes, daily scans catch misconfigurations faster. Many teams integrate Prowler into CI/CD to scan infrastructure changes before deployment, in addition to scheduled full-account scans.

Citations (3)
  • Prowler GitHub— Prowler is an open-source cloud security tool
  • Prowler Docs— Prowler supports CIS benchmarks and compliance frameworks
  • CIS— CIS benchmarks for cloud security
Related on TokRepo
Security toolsDevOps toolsFeatured workflows

Discussion

Sign in to join the discussion.
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts.

Related Assets

NAPI-RS — Build Node.js Native Addons in Rust

Write high-performance Node.js native modules in Rust with automatic TypeScript type generation and cross-platform prebuilt binaries.

Script Depot

Mamba — Fast Cross-Platform Package Manager

A drop-in conda replacement written in C++ that resolves environments in seconds instead of minutes.

Script Depot

Plasmo — The Browser Extension Framework

Build, test, and publish browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge using React or Vue with hot-reload and automatic manifest generation.

Script Depot
◈Home🔍Search👤Me