Are Hosting Control Planes More Dangerous Than Data Planes? A Security Breakdown

Hosting control plane (HCP) and data plane (DP) are often used to differentiate how people manage their data when using web hosting. The hosting control plane controls how you access and interact with your files and databases (the data itself). In contrast, the data plane manages how the files you upload to your web server are processed.

Data Plane: Where Your Data Is​

DPs are where website traffic, file storage, and application functionality reside. When hackers gain access to the data plane, they are usually able to do so by:

• Stealing/destroying some of your site's data
• Taking down individual services on your website.
• Inflicting significantly more damage than what they did

While attacks on DCs can still cause a lot of damage, however, the majority of the time the attacks on a DC aren't nearly as effective as attacks on the CP level (however they can still lead to significant damages).

Control Plane: All Control Access​

The control plane is usually referred to as the "control panel" because it controls everything about the user, including setting permissions, and automating tasks. It determines what a user can do (and what they can't). You might ask yourself: Why do hackers often target these types of panels?

If hackers gain access to a control plane, they could potentially:

• Create/delete any server(s)
• Silently alter security settings
• Access all data systems at once!

This creates a huge amount of chaos!

What Makes the Control Plane More Risky?​

With a control plane, an attacker can change a setting in one place and potentially affect an entire system. As opposed to having to attack each individual server, an attacker only needs to attack the control plane.

Automation Could Be Your Downfall​

While automation has greatly improved our ability to manage hosting environments, it has also introduced new possibilities for attackers to exploit the same tools that provide benefits to end users. For example, an attacker could execute a single command that deletes backup files, stops services, or launches an attack. This can completely wipes out your account in a matter of seconds. The pain of that is simply beyond description.

When considering whether to use a control plane or a data plane, the control plane must be protected better than the data plane.

You can protect the control plane with the following:

• Strong User Permissions
• Multi-Factor Logins
• Monitoring Logs/Alerts Closely

If an attacker gains access to your control plane, they could potentially access your data plane without ever accessing any of the data.

Thus, every single person should consider this before making any decisions.