Get started with CSPM for GCP

Start monitoring the security posture of your GCP cloud assets.

Overview

This page explains how to get started monitoring the security posture of your cloud assets using the Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) feature.

Requirements

To view posture data, you need the appropriate user role to read the following Elasticsearch indices:
- logs-cloud_security_posture.findings_latest-*
- logs-cloud_security_posture.scores-*
- Logs-cloud_security_posture.findings
The user who gives the CSPM integration GCP permissions must be a GCP project admin.

Initial setup

You can set up CSPM for GCP either by enroling a single project, or by enroling an organization containing multiple projects. Either way, you need to first add the CSPM integration, then enable cloud account access.

Add your CSPM integration

From the Elastic Security Get started page, click Add integrations.
Search for CSPM, then click on the result.
Click Add Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM).
Under Configure integration, select GCP, then either GCP Organization (recommended) or Single Account.
Give your integration a name that matches the purpose or team of the GCP account you want to monitor, for example, dev-gcp-project.

Set up cloud account access

To set up CSPM for a GCP project, you need admin privileges for the project.

For most users, the simplest option is to use a Google Cloud Shell script to automatically provision the necessary resources and permissions in your GCP account. This method, as well as two manual options, are described below.

Cloud Shell script setup (recommended)

Under Setup Access, select Google Cloud Shell. Enter your GCP Project ID, and for GCP Organization deployments, your GCP Organization ID.
Under Where to add this integration:
1. Select New Hosts.
2. Name the Elastic Agent policy. Use a name that matches the purpose or team of the cloud account or accounts you want to monitor. For example, dev-gcp-account.
3. Click Save and continue, then Add Elastic Agent to your hosts. The Add agent wizard appears and provides Elastic Agent binaries, which you can download and deploy to a VM in your GCP account.
Click Save and continue.
Copy the command that appears, then click Launch Google Cloud Shell. It opens in a new window.
Check the box to trust Elastic's cloudbeat repo, then click Confirm
In Google Cloud Shell, execute the command you copied. Once it finishes, return to Kibana and wait for the confirmation of data received from your new integration. Then you can click View Assets to see your data.

Note

During Cloud Shell setup, the CSPM integration adds roles to Google's default service account, which enables custom role creation and attachment of the service account to a compute instance. After setup, these roles are removed from the service account. If you attempt to delete the deployment but find the deployment manager lacks necessary permissions, consider adding the missing roles to the service account: Project IAM Admin, Role Administrator.

Manual authentication (GCP organization)

To authenticate manually to monitor a GCP organization, you'll need to create a new GCP service account, assign it the necessary roles, generate credentials, then provide those credentials to the CSPM integration.

Use the following commands, after replacing <SA_NAME> with the name of your new service account, <ORG_ID> with your GCP organization's ID, and <PROJECT_ID> with the GCP project ID of the project where you want to provision the compute instance that will run CSPM.

Create a new service account:

gcloud iam service-accounts create <SA_NAME> \
    --description="Elastic agent service account for CSPM" \
    --display-name="Elastic agent service account for CSPM" \
    --project=<PROJECT_ID>

Assign the necessary roles to the service account:

gcloud organizations add-iam-policy-binding <ORG_ID> \
    --member=serviceAccount:<SA_NAME>@<PROJECT_ID>.iam.gserviceaccount.com \
    --role=roles/cloudasset.viewer

gcloud organizations add-iam-policy-binding <ORG_ID> \
    --member=serviceAccount:<SA_NAME>@<PROJECT_ID>.iam.gserviceaccount.com \
    --role=roles/browser

The Cloud Asset Viewer role grants read access to cloud asset metadata. The Browser role grants read access to the project hierarchy.

Download the credentials JSON (first, replace <KEY_FILE> with the location where you want to save it):

gcloud iam service-accounts keys create <KEY_FILE> \
    --iam-account=<SA_NAME>@<PROJECT_ID>.iam.gserviceaccount.com

Keep the credentials JSON in a secure location; you will need it later.

Provide credentials to the CSPM integration:

On the CSPM setup screen under Setup Access, select Manual.
Enter your GCP Organization ID. Enter the GCP Project ID of the project where you want to provision the compute instance that will run CSPM.
Select Credentials JSON, and enter the value you generated earlier.
Under Where to add this integration, select New Hosts.
Name the Elastic Agent policy. Use a name that matches the purpose or team of the cloud account or accounts you want to monitor. For example, dev-gcp-account.
Click Save and continue, then follow the instructions to install Elastic Agent in your chosen GCP project.

Wait for the confirmation that Kibana received data from your new integration. Then you can click View Assets to see your data.

Manual authentication (GCP project)

To authenticate manually to monitor an individual GCP project, you'll need to create a new GCP service account, assign it the necessary roles, generate credentials, then provide those credentials to the CSPM integration.

Use the following commands, after replacing <SA_NAME> with the name of your new service account, and <PROJECT_ID> with your GCP project ID.