GCP Asset Inventory

Google Cloud Platform’s Cloud Asset Inventory provides an extensive snapshot of resources within your cloud environment, offering a detailed view of your Google Cloud assets. This service plays a crucial role in effective cloud resource management, security, and compliance.

GCP Cloud Asset Inventory#

To start using Cloud Asset Inventory, you need to have the appropriate permissions set in your GCP account. Check out the official documentation for setup and configuration guidelines.

Usage#

Cloud Asset Inventory allows you to list, export, and monitor resources across your GCP environment. For instance, to retrieve information about Compute Engine instances, you would use the Cloud Asset API or gcloud command-line tool:

gcloud asset search-all-resources \
  --asset-types="compute.googleapis.com/Instance" \
  --query="name:my-instance" \
  --project=my-project-id

This command lists Compute Engine instances in the specified project that match the given query.

Findings#

The output from this command provides detailed information about each instance, such as its name, location, and other relevant metadata.

 NAME          | LOCATION   | RESOURCE_TYPE                 | PROJECT
---------------|------------|-------------------------------|------------
 my-instance   | us-east1-b | compute.googleapis.com/Instance | my-project-id
 ...

Compliance and Analysis#

Cloud Asset Inventory is vital for ensuring compliance and performing thorough cloud asset analysis. It helps identify misconfigured resources and ensures alignment with organizational policies.

Usage#

For compliance checks, you might query for firewall rules that allow unrestricted ingress, indicating a potential security risk:

gcloud asset search-all-resources \
  --asset-types="compute.googleapis.com/Firewall" \
  --query="direction:INGRESS AND allowed:[]" \
  --project=my-project-id

This command searches for firewall rules that allow ingress without any restrictions.

Findings#

The results will show a list of such firewall rules, helping you identify and remediate potential vulnerabilities:

 NAME             | NETWORK   | DIRECTION | ALLOWED
------------------|-----------|-----------|---------
 open-firewall    | default   | INGRESS   | []
 restricted-fw    | custom-net| INGRESS   | ["tcp:22"]
 ...