Executive Summary

GCP IAM is important for managing identities and access in Google Cloud, enabling fine-grained controls for secure operations. This guide covers policy management, user and service account administration, authentication, monitoring, and privileged access.

It’s recommended to use Workload Identity Federation to avoid static credentials, implement IAM Conditions and Tags for more granular access control, and apply Org Policies to enforce security guardrails. Additionally, external tools like SailPoint, Saviynt, and CyberArk can enhance GCP’s native features for better governance, compliance, and monitoring.

By integrating GCP’s features with external solutions, organizations can enable scalable identity governance, dynamic authentication, and proactive threat detection, ensuring secure and efficient cloud operations.

GCP IAM Concepts

Account Attributes

1.GCP IAM Concepts

• An organization is the highest level in GCP's hierarchy, representing the company or entity that manages resources. For example, a bank would manage all its business operations under a single organization in GCP.
   
• A folder is a logical grouping of projects that helps organize resources and policies. For example, a bank might create folders for Insurance, Retail Banking, and Investment Banking to manage its various divisions.
   
• A project is the smallest resource container in GCP, holding services and resources. For instance, a KYC Analytics project under the Insurance folder is used to analyze customer data.
   
• A tenant in GCP is often represented by a project, acting as an isolated unit for resources, billing, and permissions. For example, the KYC Analytics project can be considered a tenant within the Insurance folder.
   
• An account is an identity used for authentication and authorization to access resources. For example, a bank employee's account (e.g., john.doe@bank.com) provides access to the KYC Analytics project.
   
• In GCP, a tenant is typically represented by a project, acting as an isolated unit for resources, billing, and permissions. For example, the KYC Analytics project can be considered a tenant within the Insurance folder. GCP allows tenants to be defined at the project, folder, or organization level, depending on the customer's preference. Unlike AWS, where an account is a tenant and users belong to a single AWS account, GCP does not have a physical concept like an AWS account. Instead, users belong to organizations and can be assigned permissions at the organization, folder, project, or resource level.

2. IAM User Attributes

Unlike many corporate identity stores, GCP IAM does not natively store first names, last names, or personal emails for each user. Instead, each IAM user is identified by their Email Address, which serves as a unique identifier (e.g., jdoe@gmail.com or jdoe@yourdomain.com) and is used as the primary reference in GCP. 

Google Account ID: A unique, automatically generated numerical ID tied to the user’s Google account.

• Service Account ID (for NHIs): A unique identifier for service accounts, formatted as service-account-name@project-id.iam.gserviceaccount.com.
• Creation Time: The timestamp indicating when the user or service account was created.
• Tags (Optional): Key-value pairs defined to store additional metadata (e.g., FirstName=John, LastName=Doe, Team=Finance). Tags provide contextual details for accounts.
• Authentication Factors: These are attributes used if authentication is not externalized to an identity provider (IdP) like Okta or Azure AD:
• Password: If set, password policies (e.g., complexity, expiration) and the last-used timestamp are tracked.
• OAuth Tokens: Temporary tokens used for programmatic access to resources.
• MFA Configuration: Configured through tools like Google Authenticator, hardware tokens (e.g., YubiKey), or other supported MFA options.
• Last Activity Time: Tracks the most recent activity (e.g., API calls or console logins), helping to identify dormant accounts.
• Organization Membership: Reflects the user’s placement within the GCP hierarchy, such as the organization or folder. Users are not directly "assigned" to an organization or folder in GCP IAM but are granted access via role assignments. For example, a user, john.doe@yourdomain.com, is part of the organization mycompany.com because their account is managed by the linked Google Workspace domain.
• Credential Type (Service Accounts): Includes private keys or Workload Identity Federation credentials for programmatic authentication. These credentials should be securely stored in a secret manager or equivalent service. 

3. Entitlement Types & Their Attributes

Recommendations 

Policy Recommendations

Policies Included: Identity-Based Policies, Resource-Based Policies, IAM Conditions, Tags and Labels, Organization Policies, Role Definitions. 

Options for Configuration:

Aggregation Entities Administration Recommendations

Scope: Organization, Project, Folder, Tenancy Definitions, Org-Level Guardrails (Org Policies).

Policy Recommendations

Options for Configuration:

User Administration  

Scope: User Account Creation, User Group Assignments, and Identity Policy Assignments to Users. 

Options for Configuration: 

Scope: User Group Assignments and Identity Policy Assignments to Users (if direct assignment is supported). 

PAM (Privileged Account Monitoring)

Scope: Monitor and manage Break The Glass Activities, Emergency Assignments, Privileged Session Recording, Shared Accounts Administration, and Break The Glass Account Administration. 

Options for Configuration:

Note

Determining which GCP accounts should be scoped for PAM involves the following considerations:

• Policies and Permissions: Privileged accounts with high-risk permissions (e.g., resource provisioning or administrative tasks) require PAM, while low-risk, read-only accounts may not.
• Assessing the compliance needs, risk severity, and business criticality of the applications accessed helps guide the necessity of PAM.
• Nature of the Account: Evaluate different types of accounts, such as named, shared, break-glass, and service accounts, based on their usage and associated risks.
• Frequency and Scope: Rare, high-impact activities (such as emergency administrative access) warrant PAM, while frequent, low-risk actions (like regular data viewing) may not.

This approach ensures that PAM is applied effectively, where it provides the most value in terms of security and compliance, while avoiding unnecessary complexity.

NHI Administration

Scope: Service Account Permissions. 

Options for Configuration:

A Note on Role vs NHI

Navigating workload security and NHI (Service Accounts) in GCP offers a great opportunity for threat modeling and developing best practices. There are several ways to secure machine interactions within GCP IAM:

1. Service Account-Based Approach (Static Credentials): Create a Service Account (NHI) and provide its private key to the consuming program. The program then uses the Service Account credentials to directly perform operations in GCP.
2. Workload Identity Federation-Based Approach: Create a Service Account without using its credentials. Instead, configure Workload Identity Federation to enable an external identity (e.g., AWS IAM role or Azure AD identity) to authenticate and impersonate the Service Account. This approach eliminates the need for static credentials.
3. Hybrid Defense-In-Depth Approach

1. Implement multiple layers of defense based on Zero Trust Architecture principles. Here’s how it works:

• Create the Service Account: Assign the Service Account the necessary permissions and securely store its credentials in a credential store like Secret Manager.
• Use Workload Identity Federation: Configure federation for a separate Service Account with limited permissions, allowing the consuming program to access the credential store.
• Retrieve Credentials Securely: Use the federated Service Account to securely retrieve the high-privilege Service Account credentials from the credential store.
• Credential Rotation: Leverage GCP’s automation tools to periodically rotate credentials, reducing the risk of misuse or compromise.

Authentication

Scope: Enable secure access through Federation, Single Sign-On (SSO), and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for robust and scalable identity authentication, incorporating passwordless authentication options.

Options for Configuration:

Monitoring, Detection, and Response Recommendations

Scope: Log storage, event and incident detection, and incident response for cloud security and governance.

Options for Configuration:

Decision Making

How to Make the Right Decision

Building a secure and efficient strategy for Non-Human Identity (NHI) Governance, Activity Monitoring, and Detect and Respond requires a holistic approach that balances risk, compliance, security, tools, and processes. These decisions are complex by nature, and TechDemocracy leverages its proven Cloud Security Decision Framework, trusted by many Fortune 100 companies, to help guide you in making tailored and well-informed choices.

Factors to Consider:

1.Risk, Compliance, and Security Context

• Risk Tolerance and Appetite: 
  • Understand your organization's risk tolerance to ensure the security strategy aligns with operational goals and acceptable risk levels.
• Audit and Compliance Needs: 
  • Assess regulatory requirements for vulnerability management, change management, and monitoring to ensure compliance with industry standards.
  • Identify gaps in your current compliance efforts and create a plan for improvement.
• Risk Classification of Cloud-Deployed Applications
  • Classify workloads based on their sensitivity (e.g., critical, high-risk, or low-risk) to effectively prioritize security investments and monitoring efforts.

2.Landscape and Roadmap for Tools

• Current Landscape for Cloud Security and Detect & Respond: 
  • Evaluate currently deployed tools, including CWAPP, CNAPP, CSPM, and other security platforms, in terms of:
    1. Maturity: How effectively the tools are integrated and utilized within the organization.
    2. Skillsets: The expertise available to manage and optimize these tools efficiently.
    3. Ownership and Responsibilities: Clear accountability for the governance, maintenance, and operation of the tools.
    4. Roadmap and Priorities: Plans for upgrading, expanding, or replacing tools to address evolving security needs.
• Current Detect and Response Tools: 
  • Assess your existing DR solutions (e.g., EDR, XDR, CDR) and SIEM tools for their effectiveness and integration capabilities.
  • Identify opportunities to enhance detection by incorporating ITDR and NHITDR solutions for improved threat monitoring and response.
• CIDM Landscape:
  • Analyze deployments of IGA, PAM, NHI, and SSO/MFA tools to ensure seamless integration and effective governance across your identity and access management ecosystem.
• Complexity and Effort in Data Synchronization and Integrations:
  • Evaluate the effort required to integrate GCP IAM with external tools (e.g., IGA, CNAPP, CSPM, ITDR), while identifying automation opportunities to minimize manual overhead and streamline workflows.

3.Processes, Budget, and Ownership:

• DevOps Maturity:
  • Assess the level of automation, scalability, and integration in your DevOps processes to determine their readiness for implementing identity and security management solutions.
• Organizational Structure and Responsibilities:
  • Understand ownership, budgets, and accountability for:
    1. Cloud Infrastructure: Who is responsible for managing infrastructure setup and operations?
    2. Cloud Security: Who governs the tools and processes related to cloud security?
    3. Security in DevOps: Who ensures security in the CI/CD pipeline and secure workload deployment?
    4. Cloud Security Tools Deployment: Who oversees the selection, deployment, and maintenance of security tools such as CNAPP, CSPM, CWPP, and ITDR?

Conclusion:

The successful implementation of GCP IAM requires a strategic approach to managing policies, users, and non-human identities, while integrating with external tools to strengthen security and compliance. Key decisions must take into account factors such as organizational risk tolerance, DevOps maturity, and the current landscape of tools.

Why TechDemocracy?

At TechDemocracy, we specialize in designing and implementing secure, scalable cloud architectures customized for your unique environment. By leveraging our proven Cloud Security Decision Framework, we help you:

• Align risk, compliance, and security goals with your organization’s operational needs.
• Evaluate your tool landscape and create a roadmap for optimization.
• Streamline integrations, improve governance, and enhance organizational processes to ensure seamless security management.

Contact TechDemocracy today to refresh your cloud security architecture, develop a comprehensive strategy, and implement cutting-edge solutions for identity governance, cloud security, and threat detection. Let us help you build a secure foundation for your cloud journey, so you can confidently scale and protect your organization’s digital assets!