Performing Serverless Function Security Review

When to Use

• When auditing serverless applications before production deployment
• When investigating potential data exposure through function environment variables or logs
• When assessing the blast radius of a compromised serverless function execution role
• When compliance reviews require documentation of serverless security controls
• When building secure-by-default templates for serverless deployments

Do not use for container or VM security assessments (use container scanning tools), for API security testing (use DAST tools on the API Gateway layer), or for real-time serverless threat detection (use AWS Lambda Extensions with security agents).

Prerequisites

• AWS CLI, Azure CLI, and gcloud CLI configured with appropriate permissions
• Access to read function configurations, policies, and execution roles
• Prowler or Checkov for automated serverless security scanning
• SAM CLI or Serverless Framework for local function analysis
• CloudTrail, Azure Monitor, or Cloud Audit Logs enabled for function invocation monitoring

Workflow

Step 1: Enumerate All Serverless Functions and Configurations

List all functions across cloud providers with their runtime, memory, timeout, and network settings.

# AWS Lambda: List all functions with key security attributes
aws lambda list-functions \
  --query 'Functions[*].[FunctionName,Runtime,MemorySize,Timeout,Role,VpcConfig.VpcId,Layers[*].Arn]' \
  --output table

# Check for functions using deprecated runtimes
aws lambda list-functions \
  --query 'Functions[?Runtime==`python3.7` || Runtime==`nodejs14.x` || Runtime==`dotnetcore3.1`].[FunctionName,Runtime]' \
  --output table

# Azure Functions: List all function apps
az functionapp list \
  --query "[].{Name:name, Runtime:siteConfig.linuxFxVersion, ResourceGroup:resourceGroup, HttpsOnly:httpsOnly}" \
  -o table

# GCP Cloud Functions: List all functions
gcloud functions list \
  --format="table(name, runtime, status, httpsTrigger.url, serviceAccountEmail, vpcConnector)"

Step 2: Audit Execution Role Permissions

Review IAM roles attached to functions for overly permissive policies.

# AWS: Check each Lambda function's execution role
for func in $(aws lambda list-functions --query 'Functions[*].FunctionName' --output text); do
  role_arn=$(aws lambda get-function-configuration --function-name "$func" --query 'Role' --output text)
  role_name=$(echo "$role_arn" | awk -F'/' '{print $NF}')
  echo "=== $func -> $role_name ==="

  # List attached policies
  aws iam list-attached-role-policies --role-name "$role_name" \
    --query 'AttachedPolicies[*].[PolicyName,PolicyArn]' --output table

  # Check for wildcard actions
  for policy_arn in $(aws iam list-attached-role-policies --role-name "$role_name" --query 'AttachedPolicies[*].PolicyArn' --output text); do
    version=$(aws iam get-policy --policy-arn "$policy_arn" --query 'Policy.DefaultVersionId' --output text)
    aws iam get-policy-version --policy-arn "$policy_arn" --version-id "$version" \
      --query 'PolicyVersion.Document' --output json | python3 -c "
import json, sys
doc = json.load(sys.stdin)
for stmt in doc.get('Statement', []):
    actions = stmt.get('Action', [])
    if isinstance(actions, str): actions = [actions]
    resources = stmt.get('Resource', [])
    if isinstance(resources, str): resources = [resources]
    if '*' in actions or any(a.endswith(':*') for a in actions):
        print(f'  WARNING: {stmt[\"Effect\"]} {actions} on {resources}')
" 2>/dev/null
  done
done

Step 3: Check Environment Variables for Secrets

Scan function environment variables for hardcoded credentials, API keys, and database connection strings.

# AWS Lambda: Extract environment variables
for func in $(aws lambda list-functions --query 'Functions[*].FunctionName' --output text); do
  envvars=$(aws lambda get-function-configuration --function-name "$func" \
    --query 'Environment.Variables' --output json 2>/dev/null)
  if [ "$envvars" != "null" ] && [ -n "$envvars" ]; then
    echo "=== $func ==="
    echo "$envvars" | python3 -c "
import json, sys, re
vars = json.load(sys.stdin)
sensitive_patterns = [
    r'(?i)(password|secret|key|token|credential|api.?key)',
    r'(?i)(aws.?access|aws.?secret)',
    r'(?i)(database.?url|connection.?string|db.?pass)',
    r'AKIA[0-9A-Z]{16}'
]
for key, value in vars.items():
    for pattern in sensitive_patterns:

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