Open source, cloud-native security and policy project

cnspec assesses your entire infrastructure's security and compliance. It finds vulnerabilities and misconfigurations across public and private cloud environments, Kubernetes clusters, containers, container registries, servers, and endpoints, SaaS products, infrastructure as code, APIs, and more.

A powerful policy as code engine, cnspec is built upon cnquery. It comes configured with default security policies that run right out of the box. It's both fast and simple to use!

Install cnspec with our installation script:

Linux and macOS

bash -c "$(curl -sSL https://install.mondoo.com/sh)"

Windows

Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Scope Process -Force;
[System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072;
iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://install.mondoo.com/ps1'));
Install-Mondoo;

If you prefer manual installation, you find the cnspec packages on GitHub releases.

Use the cnspec scan subcommand to check local and remote targets for misconfigurations and vulnerabilities.

This command evaluates the security of your local machine:

cnspec scan local

You can also specify remote targets to scan. For example:

# to scan a docker image:
cnspec scan docker image ubuntu:22.04

# scan public ECR registry
aws ecr-public get-login-password --region us-east-1 | docker login --username AWS --password-stdin public.ecr.aws/r6z5b8t4
cnspec scan docker image public.ecr.aws/r6z5b8t4

# to scan an AWS account using the local AWS config
cnspec scan aws

# scan an EC2 instance with EC2 Instance Connect
cnspec scan aws ec2 instance-connect root@i-1234567890abcdef0

# to scan a Kubernetes cluster via your local kubectl config or a local manifest file
cnspec scan k8s
cnspec scan k8s manifest.yaml

# to scan a GitHub repository
export GITHUB_TOKEN=<personal_access_token>
cnspec scan github repo <org/repo>

📚 To learn more, read the cnquery docs.

cnspec policies are built on the concept of policy as code. cnspec comes with default security policies configured for all supported targets. The default policies are available via the cnspec-policies GitHub repo.

cnspec supports vulnerability scanning for a wide-range of platforms. The vulnerability scanning is not restricted to container images, it works for build and runtime.

NOTE: The current version requires you to be logged in to Mondoo Platform. Future versions will be able to scan the platforms without the requirement to be logged in.

# scan container image
cnspec vuln docker debian:10

# scan aws instance via EC@ instance connect
cnspec vuln aws ec2 instance-connect root@i-1234567890abcdef0

# scan instance via SSH
cnspec vuln ssh user@host

# scan windows via SSH or Winrm
cnspec vuln ssh user@host --ask-pass
cnspec vuln winrm user@host --ask-pass

# scan VMware vSphere ESXi hosts
cnspec vuln vsphere user@host --ask-pass

# scan Linux, Windows
cnspec vuln local

cnspec also provides an interactive shell to explore assertions. It helps you understand the assertions that policies use, and write your own as well. It's also a great way to interact with both local and remote targets on the fly.

cnspec shell local

The shell provides a help command to get help on the resources that power cnspec. Running help without any arguments lists all of the available resources and their fields. You can also run help <resource> to get more information on a specific resource. For example:

cnquery> help ports
ports:              TCP/IP ports on the system
  list []port:      TCP/IP ports on the system
  listening []port: TCP/IP ports on the system

The shell uses auto-complete, which makes it easy to explore. Once inside the shell, you can enter MQL assertions like this:

> ports.listening.none( port == 23 )

To clear the terminal, type clear.

To exit, either hit CTRL + D or type exit.

The easiest way to scale cnspec across your fleet is to sign up for a free Mondoo Platform account. With the Mondoo Platform, you can:

• Aggregate and share reports
• Perform vulnerability scans
• Store and distribute policies from a central location
• Set custom policy exceptions
• Explore the relationships between the different assets in your infrastructure

Mondoo's web-based console allows you to navigate, search, and arrange all of your reports. The platform is designed for multi-tenancy and provides a secure, private environment that keeps data about your assets in your own account. With the platform, all assets can report on policies and you can define custom exceptions for your fleet.

Go to console.mondoo.com to sign up.

To learn about Mondoo Platform, read the Mondoo Platform docs or visit mondoo.com.

To use cnspec with the Mondoo Platform, generate a token with the Mondoo platform, then run:

cnspec login --token TOKEN

Once authenticated, you can scan any target:

cnspec scan <target>

cnspec returns the results from the scan to STDOUT and to the platform.

With an account on Mondoo Platform, you can upload policies:

cnspec bundle upload mypolicy.mql.yaml

A cnspec policy is simply a YAML file that lets you express any security rule or best practice for your fleet.

A few examples can be found in the examples folder in this repo. You can run any of these policies via:

cnspec scan local -f examples/example.mql.yaml

If you're interested in writing your own policies or contributing policies back to the cnspec community, see our policy as code guide.

There are so many things cnspec can do, from testing your entire fleet for vulnerabilities to gathering information and creating reports for auditors. With its custom policies, cnspec can scan any component you care about!

Explore our:

• cnspec docs
• Policy bundles
• Policy as code
• MQL introduction
• MQL resource packs
• cnquery, our open source, cloud-native asset inventory tool
• HashiCorp Packer plugin to integrate cnspec with HashiCorp Packer!

Our goal is to secure all layers of your infrastructure. If you need support, or want to get involved with the development of cnspec, join our community today and let's grow it together!

See our development docs for information on building and contributing to cnspec.

• Copyright: 2018-2023, Mondoo, Inc.
• License: MPLv2
• Authors: Christoph Hartmann, Dominik Richter