Cloud-native systems are inherently complex, and the sophisticated tools used to attack them can bypass traditional antivirus solutions and firewalls — including web application firewalls (WAFs) — which rely on known threats and patterns for detection. Cloud environments need a commensurate improvement in detection and response mechanisms to protect organizations from novel, sophisticated attacks. Such attacks can include exploiting complex permission hierarchies or invoking undocumented (“shadow”) APIs.

Organizations must defend against cloud-native attacks, which have become increasingly sophisticated, with tools that account for all necessary context. Two new approaches that address cloud runtime security are cloud detection and response (CDR) and application detection and response (ADR). This article aims to clarify the purpose of these two approaches, their differences, how they complement each other, and how they fit into a modern security

What is CDR?

CDR is a security approach that focuses on detecting and responding to threats within cloud environments. This involves protecting infrastructure, workloads, and cloud services — for example, managed object storage (such as Amazon S3 or Azure Blob Storage) or managed AI services (such as Amazon SageMaker or Azure AI Studio).

Core capabilities 

The core capabilities of a CDR solution include detecting threats at runtime across cloud-native assets. A CDR solution integrates with other solutions, including cloud-native application protection platforms (CNAPPs), cloud security posture management (CSPM) tools, and cloud workload protection platforms (CWPPs). Additionally, a CDR solution enables threat hunting in unprotected networks and real-time response to incidents.

CDR focus areas

The key focus areas of CDR include:

• Infrastructure: Isolating serverless functions and protecting Kubernetes cluster networking.

• Workloads: Securing batch jobs, data pipelines, and continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) workflows from privilege attacks.

• Containers: Image scanning and implementing best practices for running containers, such as running them as non-root with read-only file systems.

• Cloud Services: Enforcing security best practices for storage buckets and clarifying the shared responsibility model.

Who uses CDR?

SOC teams and cloud security teams use CDR tools to address and respond to threats or possible vulnerabilities within a system. CDR is most effective when it is part of a larger, unified cybersecurity platform that integrates capabilities for prevention, detection, and rapid response. Couple this with adversary-based threat intelligence and 24/7 services from a team of cybersecurity experts, and the result is a CDR approach that ensures the protection of your cloud environments.

What is ADR?

In contrast, ADR focuses on custom code and APIs. By analyzing application layer behavior and threat intelligence, an ADR solution detects and responds to real-time threats in applications.

Core capabilities

ADR’s core capabilities include application security posture management (ASPM), a process that helps evaluate an organization's custom applications by continuously assessing risks and prioritizing mitigations. Runtime detection of application-level threats is another core capability. An ADR solution provides contextual insights into application-specific information, such as custom code, APIs, and the runtime behavior of these APIs and workloads. The detection component includes detecting behaviors that would slip through an antivirus scan or WAF, such as advanced bot attacks, API abuse, and code-level exploits.

ADR focus areas

Typically, an ADR solution has three primary areas of focus:

• APIs: Looking for the abuse of shadow APIs or detecting irregular/novel use of APIs.

• Microservices: Establishing baseline inter-service usage and detecting irregularities.

• Code-level exploits: Scanning repositories automatically, using pull request gates to avoid merging vulnerabilities, and creating vulnerability tickets.

Who uses ADR?

There is some overlap between teams using CDR and those using ADR — for example, SOC teams might use both technologies. Generally, ADR is more suited for teams whose concerns narrowly focus on application code. DevSecOps, for example, draws a line between the development phase and the operations phase, emphasizing the need to address security concerns throughout this pipeline. Application security (AppSec) teams also rely on ADR, as these teams seek to verify that the application level of the system (including APIs and services) is secure.

Where CDR and ADR overlap

Both CDR and ADR share common goals, such as detecting threats in real time, analyzing telemetry from across the organization, and promptly responding to incidents. They both have a cloud-native focus, moving beyond the simplicity of antivirus and firewall solutions. They provide visibility into the runtime behavior of systems, enabling both SOC and cloud security teams to be responsive and perform their jobs effectively.

Both contribute to defense in depth across the stack, with CDRs targeting cloud services and the base layers of an organization's infrastructure and ADRs targeting higher-level abstractions, such as APIs and microservices.

Where CDR and ADR differ

CDR and ADR differ in their scope and visibility, but they can also complement each other. 

CDR covers all of the cloud environments and related infrastructure that workloads run in (such as private networking, virtual machines and container runtimes, databases, and storage buckets).

ADR focuses specifically on how the applications are running. This means focusing on the APIs, custom microservices, and application-specific workloads running within an organization.

Detection sources

Both tools ingest telemetry, but the sources of this telemetry vary. 

CDR solutions ingest lower-level metrics, such as those generated by infrastructure (network traffic, utilization rates) and workloads (CPU and memory utilization) as well as other system-level information. 

ADR’s focus is on application layer telemetry, which includes code-level signals (traces, logs) and API traffic (to specific endpoints) rather than host-level flows.

Primary threats addressed

As these tools target different layers of the stack, the threats they address also differ.

CDR solutions focus on identifying misconfigured services (such as the use of default passwords or older cryptographic protocols), finding malware running within systems (often presented as unexplained resource utilization), and discovering lateral movement across different infrastructure components.

ADR focuses on SQL injection (SQLi), remote code execution (RCE), credential stuffing (reusing stolen credentials across domains), API abuse (including denial-of-service attacks and accessing artifacts with broken access control), and other similar threats.

When to implement CDR, ADR, or both

CDR and ADR address different use cases. Depending on your needs, either CDR or ADR could be more appropriate, though implementing both approaches is often beneficial. Here are some examples of their typical use cases:

CDR

CDR is useful when you need broad cloud infrastructure visibility. For example, suppose you operate across multiple clouds (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) or utilize a range of cloud-native services within a single cloud provider. If you need to detect lateral movement within your infrastructure or misconfigured workloads that could expose sensitive data, CDR is a strong option.

ADR

ADR is applicable when you create applications that expose APIs to the internet or run as microservices within your cloud infrastructure. ADR is also a good option if you need to defend against runtime exploits or supply chain attacks (attacks targeting third-party libraries used by your company). 

Both CDR and ADR

When operating modern, cloud-native apps in dynamic environments, CDR and ADR offer a powerful combination of protection. Implementing both provides visibility, from the infrastructure level of your application to the business logic. Together, CDR and ADR can provide end-to-end protection across your cloud and application layers.

Protect your entire cloud with CrowdStrike

CDR solutions have emerged as an indispensable tool in the cybersecurity arsenal — especially as cloud adoption accelerates. They address the cloud threat landscape and empower organizations to respond swiftly and effectively.

CrowdStrike offers the only CDR solution that unifies world-class threat intelligence and elite 24/7 services with a complete cloud security platform. Coupled with proactive threat hunting and AI-native adversary intelligence, Falcon Cloud Security ensures your cloud security stays ahead of malicious attackers. CrowdStrike Falcon® Next-Gen SIEM and CrowdStrike Falcon® Fusion SOAR help organizations seamlessly integrate log aggregation, monitoring, and security automation into their broader security and strategy.

Finally, enterprises also lean on CrowdStrike Falcon Adversary OverWatch and incident response services to help accelerate cloud incident investigations with a team of cybersecurity experts. CrowdStrike ensures that your cloud is protected in every way — from proactive vulnerability management to rapid threat response — providing a seamless security experience across your entire digital landscape.

To learn more about CrowdStrike, contact our team today. Have you experienced a breach? If so, reach out to the CrowdStrike Services team immediately.