Know what software is running
Connect an approved release to a live workload identity using reviewed source, controlled build inputs, and independently reproducible evidence.
For CISOs and security leaders
Replace operator assurances with verifiable evidence.
Caution helps security teams verify the software handling sensitive data, protect data all the way into a verified workload, and release secrets only to approved workload identities.
Security outcomes
What your security team can verify and enforce
Caution turns claims that normally depend on an operator into evidence and policy decisions your team can review independently.
Release secrets only to approved workloads
Make secret delivery depend on workload approval so an unexpected or changed runtime can be denied access to protected material.
Protect data all the way into the workload
Use an end-to-end encrypted application path so sensitive payloads remain protected until they reach the verified workload.
Give customers and auditors independent verification
Let authorized reviewers inspect the evidence with open tooling instead of relying only on Caution or the service operator.
Choose where the service runs
Apply the same verification model across fully managed, customer-cloud, and self-hosted deployment boundaries.
Framework alignment
Strengthen the security programs you already use
Our focused review identified 21 credible relationships between Caution-generated evidence and technical references across NIST CSF 2.0, ISO/IEC 27001, SOC 2, and NIS2.
21
Relevant technical evidence relationships across four security programs
- 2 direct
- 4 configuration-dependent
- 15 supporting
This is a targeted mapping of Caution-generated evidence—not a measure of framework coverage, certification, or controls satisfied.
| Security program | Where Caution helps | Evidence available | What your organization operationalizes |
|---|---|---|---|
| NIST CSF 2.0 | Software authenticity and integrity, data confidentiality in use, protected data paths, supplier assurance, and configuration integrity. | Six relevant outcomes: 2 direct, 1 configuration-dependent, and 3 supporting relationships. | Approve the expected workload identity, enable the required data path, and operate monitoring, response, and recovery. |
| ISO/IEC 27001:2022 + Amd 1:2024 | ICT supply-chain assurance, cloud-service evaluation, privileged access reduction, configuration integrity, cryptography, secure development, and change integrity. | Seven relevant Annex A controls: 1 configuration-dependent and 6 supporting relationships. | Maintain the ISMS, risk treatment, Statement of Applicability, control operation, and certification process. |
| SOC 2 — 2017 TSC, revised points of focus 2022 | Logical-access boundaries, protected system boundaries, encrypted information flows, and deployed configuration integrity. | Four relevant criteria: 1 configuration-dependent and 3 supporting relationships. | Define commitments, design and operate controls, retain period evidence, and let the auditor evaluate suitability. |
| NIS2 Article 21 | Supply-chain assurance, secure development and maintenance, control-effectiveness testing, and cryptographic safeguards. | Four relevant measures: 1 configuration-dependent and 3 supporting relationships. | Determine applicability, proportionality, governance, reporting, continuity, and management accountability. |
The Caution Security Brief documents each relevant reference, the evidence your team can use, and the configuration or organizational process required to operationalize it.
High-assurance workloads
Where verifiable software changes the risk model
Caution is designed for services where an operator, administrator, or compromised deployment pipeline could otherwise exercise sensitive authority or access valuable data.
Private AI and sensitive data processing
Give customers evidence about the software handling private prompts, models, records, or other classified inputs.
- AI providers
- Healthcare
- Financial services
Signing, authorization, and key systems
Verify which software can receive keys, approve transactions, issue credentials, or exercise cryptographic authority.
- Financial infrastructure
- Digital assets
- Identity
Policy engines, oracles, and trusted data feeds
Make the implementation behind a high-impact decision or published data feed independently inspectable.
- Fintech
- Critical infrastructure
- Automated markets
Verifiable SaaS and regulated processing
Support customer diligence when sensitive workflows run outside the customer's direct operational control.
- Enterprise SaaS
- Public sector
- Regulated data
Independent verification
Turn an approved release into a verifiable production identity
Your team defines what it trusts, independently checks the running service, and uses the result in the control processes that matter to the business.
-
01
Define what is approved
Establish the reviewed software, build inputs, configuration, and release identity your organization is prepared to trust.
-
02
Verify what is running
Use independent tooling to compare the live workload identity with the approved release and detect unexpected change.
-
03
Use the result
Feed the verification decision into release gates, monitoring, customer assurance, and secret-delivery policies.
Data and secrets
Protect data and control secret delivery with the verified workload identity
Verification becomes an enforceable control when sensitive data and protected material follow the identity your team has approved.
Protect data to the verified workload
Caution can provide an end-to-end encrypted application path between an approved client and the verified workload, keeping sensitive payloads encrypted past infrastructure that only needs to transport them.
- Define which requests and responses require protection from infrastructure-level plaintext exposure.
- Validate the complete production path, including client integration and failure behavior.
Release secrets only after workload approval
Caution can make protected material available only after the live workload identity matches an approved baseline and the configured authorization policy is satisfied.
- Bind secret delivery to the workload state your organization has reviewed.
- Test changed identities, unauthorized approvals, and insufficient authorization before production.
Security evidence
Evidence your security program can use
Use repeatable evidence in architecture review, supplier diligence, release approval, security operations, and customer assurance.
Software identity and provenance evidence
- What your team can verify
- The approved source and build inputs, reproduced workload identity, live verification decision, and evidence of a deliberate mismatch.
- How your team can use it
- Support architecture review, supplier diligence, release approval, change control, and investigation of unexpected software state.
Protected data-path evidence
- What your team can verify
- Where application encryption begins and ends, which infrastructure can observe plaintext, and how the production path behaves when verification fails.
- How your team can use it
- Validate confidentiality architecture, support privacy and data-protection review, and detect regressions after network or application changes.
Workload-bound secret-delivery evidence
- What your team can verify
- The approved workload identity, authorization policy, participants, and successful or denied outcome of each release decision.
- How your team can use it
- Demonstrate policy enforcement, separation of duties, failed-release testing, recovery readiness, and controlled access to protected material.
Deployment control
Choose your deployment boundary
Match infrastructure ownership, operational responsibility, and evidence collection to the service you are protecting.
Use Caution-operated infrastructure
Adopt the deployment and verification workflow while Caution manages the underlying infrastructure and workload lifecycle.
Review the fully managed modelRun in your cloud account
Customer-cloud deployments are currently available in AWS accounts, keeping workloads, data, billing, and network boundaries in your environment.
Review bring your own computeOperate the platform independently
Inspect and operate the open-source platform when your threat model or control environment requires direct platform ownership.
Review the self-hosted model
Common security questions
Answers for security review
- Which infrastructure and trust roots are supported today?
- Current Caution deployments use AWS Nitro Enclaves for isolation and attestation. Additional attestation backends are in active development, including Intel TDX, AMD SEV-SNP, and TPM 2.0.
- Does independent verification require public source code?
- No. Public source enables open third-party verification, while proprietary applications can be reviewed privately by authorized customers or auditors with access to the source and expected workload identity.
- What happens when the workload identity changes?
- The live identity no longer matches the approved baseline, so verification fails. Where policy-controlled secret delivery is configured, access can remain denied until the new state is reviewed and approved.
- Does Caution certify compliance?
- No. Caution provides technical controls and evidence that may support a security or assurance program. The customer and its assessor remain responsible for scope, control design, operation, legal interpretation, and certification decisions.
- What does Caution verify—and what remains to be assessed about application security?
- Caution can connect a live workload identity to approved source and build inputs. Your team still assesses whether that source is secure through threat modeling, code review, dependency management, vulnerability testing, remediation, and application-specific assurance.
- How do upgrades, patches, and emergency changes affect verification and secret delivery?
- Any change that affects the measured workload produces a new identity. Review and approve the new baseline before relying on verification or allowing identity-bound policies to release protected material; govern emergency changes through the same evidence and exception process.
- What evidence can customers retain for audit, incident response, and customer assurance?
- Customers can retain approved software identities, verification results, source and build provenance, protected data-path tests, and secret-delivery decisions. Collection frequency, storage, retention, alerting, and review ownership remain part of the customer's control design.
Explicit trust model
Designed for explicit trust, not hidden assumptions
The strongest assurance requires access to reviewed source or an approved workload identity, reproducible application builds, production configuration, a trusted verifier, acceptance of the current platform trust root, and end-to-end encryption where infrastructure must not observe application plaintext. Application security, governance, monitoring, incident response, resilience, and compliance remain customer-owned.
Review Caution's security assumptions
Enterprise evaluation
Review a high-assurance workload with us
Bring the workload, threat model, and evidence requirements. We will help your security and platform teams evaluate how Caution fits the service.