The Future of Zero Trust and SASE is Now! Watch on-demand

close
close
  • Why Netskope chevron

    Changing the way networking and security work together.

  • Our Customers chevron

    Netskope serves more than 3,000 customers worldwide including more than 25 of the Fortune 100

  • Our Partners chevron

    We partner with security leaders to help you secure your journey to the cloud.

Highest in Execution. Furthest in Vision.

Netskope recognized as a Leader in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Security Service Edge.

Get the report
Netskope recognized as a Leader in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Security Service Edge.
We help our customers to be Ready for Anything

See our customers
Woman smiling with glasses looking out window
Netskope’s partner-centric go-to-market strategy enables our partners to maximize their growth and profitability while transforming enterprise security.

Learn about Netskope Partners
Group of diverse young professionals smiling
Your Network of Tomorrow

Plan your path toward a faster, more secure, and more resilient network designed for the applications and users that you support.

Get the white paper
Your Network of Tomorrow
Introducing the Netskope One Platform

Netskope One is a cloud-native platform that offers converged security and networking services to enable your SASE and zero trust transformation.

Learn about Netskope One
Abstract with blue lighting
Embrace a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) architecture

Netskope NewEdge is the world’s largest, highest-performing security private cloud and provides customers with unparalleled service coverage, performance and resilience.

Learn about NewEdge
NewEdge
Netskope Cloud Exchange

The Netskope Cloud Exchange (CE) provides customers with powerful integration tools to leverage investments across their security posture.

Learn about Cloud Exchange
Netskope video
The platform of the future is Netskope

Intelligent Security Service Edge (SSE), Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB), Cloud Firewall, Next Generation Secure Web Gateway (SWG), and Private Access for ZTNA built natively into a single solution to help every business on its journey to Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) architecture.

Go to Products Overview
Netskope video
Next Gen SASE Branch is hybrid — connected, secured, and automated

Netskope Next Gen SASE Branch converges Context-Aware SASE Fabric, Zero-Trust Hybrid Security, and SkopeAI-powered Cloud Orchestrator into a unified cloud offering, ushering in a fully modernized branch experience for the borderless enterprise.

Learn about Next Gen SASE Branch
People at the open space office
Designing a SASE Architecture For Dummies

Get your complimentary copy of the only guide to SASE design you’ll ever need.

Get the eBook
Make the move to market-leading cloud security services with minimal latency and high reliability.

Learn about NewEdge
Lighted highway through mountainside switchbacks
Safely enable the use of generative AI applications with application access control, real-time user coaching, and best-in-class data protection.

Learn how we secure generative AI use
Safely Enable ChatGPT and Generative AI
Zero trust solutions for SSE and SASE deployments

Learn about Zero Trust
Boat driving through open sea
Netskope achieves FedRAMP High Authorization

Choose Netskope GovCloud to accelerate your agency’s transformation.

Learn about Netskope GovCloud
Netskope GovCloud
  • Resources chevron

    Learn more about how Netskope can help you secure your journey to the cloud.

  • Blog chevron

    Learn how Netskope enables security and networking transformation through security service edge (SSE)

  • Events and Workshops chevron

    Stay ahead of the latest security trends and connect with your peers.

  • Security Defined chevron

    Everything you need to know in our cybersecurity encyclopedia.

Security Visionaries Podcast

Elections, Disinformation, and Security
This episode takes a look at aspects of election security around voter registration and physical controls at polling places.

Play the podcast
Blog: Elections, Disinformation, and Security
Latest Blogs

Read how Netskope can enable the Zero Trust and SASE journey through security service edge (SSE) capabilities.

Read the blog
Sunrise and cloudy sky
SASE Week 2023: Your SASE journey starts now!

Replay sessions from the fourth annual SASE Week.

Explore sessions
SASE Week 2023
What is Security Service Edge?

Explore the security side of SASE, the future of network and protection in the cloud.

Learn about Security Service Edge
Four-way roundabout
  • Company chevron

    We help you stay ahead of cloud, data, and network security challenges.

  • Leadership chevron

    Our leadership team is fiercely committed to doing everything it takes to make our customers successful.

  • Customer Solutions chevron

    We are here for you and with you every step of the way, ensuring your success with Netskope.

  • Training and Certification chevron

    Netskope training will help you become a cloud security expert.

Supporting sustainability through data security

Netskope is proud to participate in Vision 2045: an initiative aimed to raise awareness on private industry’s role in sustainability.

Find out more
Supporting Sustainability Through Data Security
Thinkers, builders, dreamers, innovators. Together, we deliver cutting-edge cloud security solutions to help our customers protect their data and people.

Meet our team
Group of hikers scaling a snowy mountain
Netskope’s talented and experienced Professional Services team provides a prescriptive approach to your successful implementation.

Learn about Professional Services
Netskope Professional Services
Secure your digital transformation journey and make the most of your cloud, web, and private applications with Netskope training.

Learn about Training and Certifications
Group of young professionals working

Leaky Groups: Accidental Exposure in Google Groups

Mar 06 2020

Netskope Threat Labs recently posted the first entry in our leaky cloud app series about Google Calendar. In this edition, we will cover Google Groups. Misconfigurations in Google Groups can lead to unintended internal, external, and public exposure. Our research uncovered the exposure of confidential, internal, and sensitive data across hundreds of organizations through Google Groups. We also found a public group used as an email list for password resets, allowing anyone to view the user passwords.

This post details the common misconfigurations in Google Groups that lead to unintended data  exposure and provides recommendations to lock down groups to prevent data leaks.

Google Groups

Google Groups provides discussion groups via a message board where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. A group can be configured to function as an email list, web forum, Q&A forum, or collaborative inbox.

Google Groups – Misconfiguration

When a user creates a group, the first step is to configure access control. The basic group permissions for a personal Google account are shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1:  Personal Google group settings

The default group settings for a personal account are

  • Group visibility → open to anyone on the web
  • View topics →  Select groups of users
  • Post → Select groups of users
  • Join the Group → Anyone can ask

The default “Group visibility” and “Join the group” permissions allow anyone on the web to see that the group exists and ask to join. The default “View topics” and “Post” permissions prevent anyone outside the group from viewing content or posting messages. The default settings do not expose any sensitive data. Instead, the exposures we discovered were the result of user misconfiguration, not overly permissive defaults. Figure 2 shows the worst kind of exposure we discovered: Anyone on the web can join, view, or post.  

Figure 2: Group permissions set to Anyone on the web

Netskope Threat Labs discovered hundreds of groups with “Anyone on the web” settings that exposed confidential, internal, and sensitive data to the public Internet. In one example, we found a group of a popular online portal that was used as an email list for password generation/reset, where anyone on the web was allowed to view the topics as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Group setting that allowed any on the web to view the post

The above setting allowed anyone to view the passwords, though they could not join the group. In another similar example, we found a facility management consultancy that allowed anyone to view the topics, exposing confidential information, including salary information and offer letters.

Data doesn’t necessarily have to be exposed to the public Internet to be considered “exposure.” Corporate groups with misconfigured permissions can also lead to internal or external exposure of confidential data. We identified one such misconfiguration of a group used for finance-related discussions with the settings described by Figure 4. This allowed everyone in the organization to view data that should have been kept confidential within the members of the group.

Figure 4: Group setting in an organisation’s group 

To summarise, we identified several patterns in the settings that led to data exposure:

  • Groups that allowed anyone on the web to join (without approval)
  • Groups that allowed anyone on the web to view the topics
  • Groups that allowed anyone on the web to post
  • Groups that allowed anyone within the organization to view the topics

We discovered many different types of sensitive data exposures, including: 

  • Employee resumes
  • Offer letters
  • Salary details
  • Employee background verification documents
  • Travel itineraries
  • Travel documents
  • Bank statements
  • Financial transactions
  • Support tickets
  • Passwords
  • Company revenue details
  • Source code
  • License keys
  • Meeting links
  • Drivers licenses
  • Passports

The groups that exposed the data were:

  • Private, public, and government organizations
  • HR, finance, and marketing departments
  • Travel agencies
  • Online portals
  • Educational institutions
  • Third-party consultancies

We reached out to the affected organizations to mitigate the exposures we discovered. In the course of these discussions we uncovered the following themes:

  • Organizations were not actively auditing group settings
  • Organizations did not have controls in place to prevent individuals from exposing groups
  • Users weren’t being properly removed from groups when they left the organizations, namely because their personal emails had been added

Google Groups – Recommended Settings

For personal Google accounts, we recommend groups use the permissions shown in Figure 5.  These are slightly more restrictive than the default permissions to prevent others from discovering the group or asking to join.

Figure 5: Recommended Google personal email group settings

For enterprise accounts, we recommend the permissions as shown in Figure 6. Enterprise accounts also enable administrators to enable group service restrictions. We recommend the following restrictions be put in place to prevent accidental exposure.

Figure 6: Recommended Google enterprise email group settings

Conclusion

This second edition of our leaky cloud apps series provided a detailed synopsis of how confidential information gets leaked through misconfigured Google Groups. In many of the cases we highlighted, adversaries could leverage the leaked information to gain access to additional data and infrastructure. They could also use the group to potentially spread malicious content if given join or post permissions. We recommend auditing group settings and restricting groups to our recommended settings to avoid accidental exposure. For more information about Google Groups, we recommend reading an article by Krebs on Security about public data exposure and Google post describing how to audit your own settings. 

Stay tuned for our next edition, which will cover Google link sharing.

author image
Ashwin Vamshi
Ashwin Vamshi is a Security Researcher with innate interest in targeted attacks and malwares using cloud services. He is primarily focusing in identifying new attack vectors and malwares, campaigns and threat actors using ‘cloud as an attack vector.’

Stay informed!

Subscribe for the latest from the Netskope Blog