What is Serverless Security?
Serverless Security is the practice and tooling of protecting function-as-a-service (FaaS) workloads, such as AWS Lambda and Azure Functions, from vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and runtime attacks. It covers the full lifecycle of a serverless function: code scanning, configuration auditing, and live runtime protection.
What it does
Serverless Security tools protect FaaS workloads across three phases of the function lifecycle.
Before deployment, they scan function code and dependencies for known vulnerabilities, secrets, and insecure libraries. They also audit IAM permissions attached to functions, flagging over-privileged roles.
At configuration time, they check function settings against security baselines: timeout values, environment variable exposure, VPC placement, and resource policies. Some tools map which other cloud services a function can reach, making blast radius visible.
At runtime, they inject a security layer into the function execution environment. This layer can block outbound network calls to unexpected destinations, prevent unauthorized file system writes, and detect code injection attempts mid-execution.
Why teams buy it
Serverless functions are short-lived and event-driven. Traditional agent-based tools built for virtual machines cannot attach to a function that runs for 300 milliseconds and then disappears. Serverless Security tools are purpose-built for this model.
Teams also buy these tools because serverless functions accumulate permissions quickly. Developers often grant broad IAM roles to avoid friction. Auditing tools surface those excess permissions before an attacker can exploit them.
Finally, serverless functions pull in many third-party packages. A single npm or PyPI dependency can introduce a critical CVE. Scanning at the package level catches this before the function reaches production.
What to look for
- Runtime protection that works inside the function execution context, not just at the network perimeter