Installing Prowler on Azure – My Hands-On Learning Experience

Recently, I integrated Prowler to better understand how cloud security scanning tools help secure cloud deployments in real environments. I explored both the GUI and CLI versions on Azure to understand how each approach works for security scanning, identifying compliance gap and reporting. This blog focuses on my initial hands-on experience with the Prowler setup on Azure Cloud Shell. # What is Prowler? Prowler is an open-source cloud security assessment tool used to scan cloud environments for: Security misconfigurations Risky settings Compliance gaps Exposed cloud resources It supports multiple cloud platforms: Amazon Web Services(AWS) Microsoft Azure Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Prowler can be used in two ways: CLI(Command Line Interface) GUI/Web Dashboard # Installing Prowler on Azure Below are the basic steps I followed during the setup process. Step 1 — Open Azure Cloud Shell Login to your Microsoft Azure account From the top menu → click Cloud Shell icon [>_] Select Bash Azure Cloud Shell already includes Azure CLI, which makes the setup process easier. Step 2 — Install Prowler (in Cloud Shell) Run the following commands: python3 -m pip install --user pipx python3 -m pipx ensurepath pipx install prowler Check the installation: prowler -v Step 3 — Run First Scan Check the active Azure subscription: az account show --output table Run the scan: prowler azure --az-cli-auth OR scan a specific subscription: prowler azure --az-cli-auth --subscription-ids This performs a security assessment of the Azure subscription and generates security findings and compliance results. Step 4 — View the reports After the scan completes, Prowler generates reports in multiple formats, such as: HTML JSON CSV The HTML report is especially useful for demonstrations and presentations because it provides a clean dashboard-style view of the scan results. Final Thoughts This was my first hands-on experience with Prowler, and it gave me a practical introduction to cloud security scanning and compliance validation. If you are starting with cloud security or DevSecOps, Prowler is a good tool to explore because it is open-source, beginner-friendly, and supports multiple cloud platforms.