Accelerate Secure Development with the Definitive Prevention-First ASPM

Palo Alto Networks is expanding the Cortex Cloud platform with a new application security posture management (ASPM) capability and an open AppSec partner ecosystem. Built for modern application development, Cortex Cloud ASPM gives security and engineering teams the control to prevent exploitable risk early and respond with full context across the software lifecycle. The partner ecosystem extends that control across the tools teams already use, integrating findings from industry-leading scanners into one platform for improved prioritization, visibility and automation.

Application Risk Moves Faster Than Security Can Respond

Modern development pipelines, accelerated by the rise of AI, are pushing insecure code into production at an unprecedented rate and increasing pressure on security teams to keep up. According to internal research, code security issues take 10 times longer on average to resolve in production than in development. These missed opportunities upstream consume engineering time and expand backlogs. Only about 10% of production vulnerabilities get fixed each month, leaving most issues to accumulate and compound over time.

Shift-Left Has Stalled at Detection

Shift-left security was meant to reduce late-stage risk by catching issues earlier in the pipeline. But most implementations stall at detection. The fundamental problem is the fear of slowing development. Without comprehensive context from code, cloud and runtime, tools can’t implement intelligent, targeted guardrails. Forced to choose between blanket policies that trigger false positives and block critical builds, security teams forgo the guardrails. Vulnerabilities continue to enter production and trigger the same downstream costs shift-left was supposed to eliminate.

Unifying AppSec with Cortex Cloud ASPM

Cortex Cloud replaces fragmented, reactive workflows with a prevention-first design built on unified data from code to cloud to SOC — centralizing and correlating not only native findings but also the findings of leading third party AppSec scanners within the DevOps ecosystem.

From across code, cloud and runtime, unified data provides full context — fueling precision guardrails, intelligent automation and AI-driven decisions. Teams prioritize based on actual exposure and apply guardrails where risk is real. Development moves forward. Vulnerabilities don’t.

As part of the broader unified Cortex platform, customers benefit from AI-ready data spanning code, cloud and SOC to transform end-to-end security operations.

An Open AppSec Partner Ecosystem

Teams can now boost the value of their existing toolset by consolidating findings from preferred scanners into a single data lake and enriching those results with cloud infrastructure and runtime context to strengthen posture, prioritization and prevention.

Cortex Cloud natively integrates findings from a growing ecosystem of AppSec partners, which includes Black Duck, Checkmarx, GitLab, HashiCorp, Semgrep, Snyk and Veracode. The platform also ingests telemetry from open-source tools like SonarQube, as well as any scanner that exports in SARIF format.

Three Core Capabilities That Define Cortex Cloud ASPM

Prevent Risks, Don’t Chase Them

Cortex Cloud enables security teams to shift from reacting to security issues in production to proactively preventing them. Instead of applying rigid policies that treat all risks the same and often disrupt critical builds, Cortex Cloud leverages application, runtime and business context to determine which issues are exploitable and need to be stopped. Taking a targeted approach reduces noise and preserves developer velocity.

Catching critical issues early spares teams from the far more time-consuming process of fixing them in production. Given that security teams are already burdened with AppSec backlogs, Cortex Cloud distinguishes between legacy issues and newly introduced risks, which allows teams to focus on blocking high-impact threats.

Prioritize Real Issues, Not False Alarms

Without complete application and runtime context, vulnerability prioritization becomes a drain on resources and needlessly increases risk. Security teams often find themselves chasing ghosts, expending valuable time on nonexploitable or noncritical issues.

Cortex Cloud changes the game by delivering unparalleled context spanning your entire environment—from code and application infrastructure to cloud runtime. Intelligent correlation filters out the noise, automatically excluding things like nonexploitable issues and pinpointing risks with business impact.

Armed with a rich understanding of factors that include exposure paths and existing compensating controls, Cortex Cloud empowers your teams to focus their efforts strategically, where their attention is required. Developers receive a concise, actionable list of high-impact issues, all of which are directly tied to asset ownership. The result? Faster response times, significantly reduced alert fatigue and a demonstrable reduction in your application security risk.

Automate Fixes, Skip the Backlog

Burn down security backlogs and reduce developer burden by eliminating manual remediation through automation at every stage of the application lifecycle. Cortex Cloud ASPM seamlessly integrates into your developers' existing workflows and their most-used tools — IDEs like VS Code and JetBrains, and version control systems such as GitHub and GitLab. Cortex Cloud brings security findings right to the code, providing inline remediation guidance and even one-click fixes.

Automated workflows trigger intelligent responses, drastically reducing mean time to remediation and eliminating the need for manual triage or context switching. Teams no longer waste time debating ownership or chasing down tickets. Instead, tickets are automatically routed to the source, accelerating resolution and fostering smoother collaboration between security and development teams.

Key ASPM Use Cases

• Comprehensive AppSec visibility: Centralize and normalize findings across code, cloud infrastructure and runtime to get a unified view of application risk. Identify gaps and overlaps across tools to ensure complete security coverage.
• Risk prevention: Enforce targeted security guardrails that differentiate between new and existing issues. Use rich context to prevent real risks from reaching production — without slowing down development.
• Reduce mean time to remediation (MTTR): Automatically map vulnerabilities to the right developer or owner and leverage automations at every stage in the application lifecycle.
• Developer-first security: Integrate findings from the AppSec scanners of your choice without disrupting development workflows. Deliver actionable insights and suggested fixes directly within native tools like IDEs and version control systems.
• Consistent protection from code to cloud to SOC: Correlate findings across code, cloud and runtime — and extend visibility all the way to the SOC. Detect, prioritize and respond to active threats across the entire application lifecycle.

Learn More

In practice, most ASPM solutions rely on thin integrations between static scanners and a central console. They collect issues but don’t prioritize with live, robust application context. They may correlate data across pipelines, but they don’t link risk to runtime exposure.

Cortex Cloud ASPM closes the gap by operating on normalized, correlated data. Findings are enriched with runtime behavior, cloud configuration and business impact, which allows the platform to automatically block what’s critical without interrupting the rest of the pipeline. At last, application security posture management aligns with how modern software is built.

Are you ready to secure your cloud? Discover how Cortex Cloud ASPM can help you build a prevention-first AppSec strategy. Register for our virtual event featuring new Unit 42 research and expert insights. And see Cortex Cloud ASPM in action with a customized demo.