About KICS
KICS finds security vulnerabilities, compliance issues, and infrastructure misconfigurations in Infrastructure as Code solutions. Over 2400 queries are available. The project is powered by Checkmarx.
Products
- KICS auto scanning VSCode Plugin: Scans Infrastructure as Code while the user edits it.
Used for
- Scanning Infrastructure as Code while editing
From KICS's own website, read 2026-10-23. How we build listings.
How to evaluate Cloud Security & CSPM
This is how the CIOPages Research Team evaluates this category. It is not an assessment of KICS. It comes from our Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) buyer guide.
25%
Risk Prioritization & Attack-Path Analysis
Context graph that correlates misconfiguration, internet reachability, identity/permissions, vulnerabilities, secrets, and data sensitivity into ranked attack paths to crown-jewel assets; toxic-combination detection; quality of the “fix these 10” output versus raw finding volume; false-positive rate in your own accounts
20%
Coverage Model: Agentless Breadth vs. Runtime Depth
Agentless snapshot/API scanning for fast 100%-estate visibility versus agent/eBPF runtime for in-production threat detection (CDR); container, serverless, and Kubernetes (KSPM) coverage; how the two models combine without double-counting; performance impact and deployment friction
20%
Multi-Cloud & Platform Consolidation (CNAPP)
Depth and parity across AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI, and Kubernetes from one console; how many of CSPM, CIEM, CWPP, DSPM, KSPM, and code/IaC security are genuinely unified on one data model versus bolted-on acquisitions; single policy and one risk score across domains
15%
Identity & Entitlements (CIEM)
Effective-permission analysis across human and machine identities, cross-account and federated role mapping, detection of unused and over-privileged entitlements, least-privilege right-sizing recommendations, and privilege escalation / lateral-movement path discovery
10%
Remediation, Automation & Developer Workflow
Guided and auto-remediation, IaC and pull-request fixes (shift-left to code), guardrails that prevent drift, ticketing/SOAR integration, ownership routing to the right team, and API/Terraform coverage for security-as-code
10%
Compliance, Reporting & SOC Integration
Out-of-the-box frameworks (CIS, PCI DSS, HIPAA, SOC 2, FedRAMP, NIST) with custom policy authoring, audit-ready evidence and drift history, RBAC/SSO on the console, and clean export of correlated cloud risk into the SIEM/SOC rather than a siloed dashboard
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Quick Facts
kics.ioCategoryCybersecurity
SubcategoryCloud Security & CSPM
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