Identity-Aware Proxy Security Review: Key Areas to Test

Smoke rose from the server racks as the intrusion alert lit up the dashboard. The attacker wasn’t brute forcing passwords. They were walking through an open door.

An Identity-Aware Proxy (IAP) is built to slam that door shut. It stands between your users and every protected app, verifying identity before any request reaches the service. It enforces policy at the edge. No token, no access. No match, no handshake.

IAP security review means testing the entire chain: authentication strength, authorization rules, session handling, and audit logging. Weak links aren’t just technical—they’re exploitable entry points. A review looks at how the proxy integrates with your identity provider, whether MFA is enforced, and if role-based access is applied correctly to each route.

Key points to evaluate in an Identity-Aware Proxy security review:

• Authentication – Confirm integration with trusted IdPs using secure protocols like OAuth 2.0 or OpenID Connect. Verify MFA flows resist replay and phishing attacks.
• Authorization – Validate that RBAC or ABAC rules prevent privilege escalation. Check that policies are updated and synced across environments.
• Transport Security – Ensure TLS is correctly configured with modern ciphers. Eliminate support for weak encryption.
• Session Management – Confirm short-lived tokens and secure cookie flags. Evaluate how the proxy revokes or rotates credentials.
• Logging and Monitoring – Ensure detailed audit trails for both successes and failures. Build alerts for policy violations.

An IAP is not static. Security reviews must repeat after every major infrastructure change. Automation can detect drift in access rules. Continuous validation keeps attackers guessing, and losing.

The right Identity-Aware Proxy secures your perimeter without slowing legitimate users. When configured and tested thoroughly, it reduces the attack surface to almost nothing visible from the outside.

See how fast this can work with hoop.dev. Spin up a secure Identity-Aware Proxy in minutes and watch a live environment lock down your apps instantly.