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Dropbox data sharing & exposure security checks

External sharing, public links, guest access, retention and data-protection settings that quietly push company data outside the tenant.

On Dropbox, Black Cat runs 5 checks in this area on every scan. Each one below lists its severity, how to fix it, and the compliance controls it satisfies where a control applies. See what access the Dropbox connector needs.

Checks (5)

Change the default shared link policy to restrict links to team members only

  1. Sign in to the Dropbox Admin Console as an administrator
  2. Navigate to Admin Console > Settings > Sharing
  3. Under Shared links, find the default link visibility setting
  4. Change the default to team only or no-one (require explicit sharing)
  5. Save the changes
  6. Communicate the updated policy to team members

Vendor docs ↗

Satisfies: ISO 27001:2022 A.8.24 SOC 2 Type II CC6.1 CIS Controls v8 CIS-03.10 NIST CSF 2.0 PR.DS-01 GDPR (SaaS Security) GDPR-25.1 HIPAA (SaaS Security) HIPAA-312.e NIS2 Directive NIS2-21.a.3 DORA (SaaS Security) DORA-9.11

severity: high Shared Folders Open to Anyone fix difficulty: easy #

Restrict shared folder membership to Dropbox team members only

  1. Sign in to the Dropbox Admin Console as an administrator
  2. Navigate to Admin Console > Settings > Sharing
  3. Under Shared folders, find the membership policy setting
  4. Change the setting to allow only team members to be added to shared folders
  5. Save the changes and inform users of the updated policy

Vendor docs ↗

Satisfies: ISO 27001:2022 A.8.24 SOC 2 Type II CC6.1 CIS Controls v8 CIS-03.10 NIST CSF 2.0 PR.DS-01 GDPR (SaaS Security) GDPR-25.1 HIPAA (SaaS Security) HIPAA-312.e NIS2 Directive NIS2-21.a.3 DORA (SaaS Security) DORA-9.11

severity: medium External Folder Join Unrestricted fix difficulty: easy #

Restrict team members from joining shared folders outside the team

  1. Sign in to the Dropbox Admin Console as an administrator
  2. Navigate to Admin Console > Settings > Sharing
  3. Under Shared folders, find the join policy for external folders
  4. Change the setting to restrict members from joining folders owned by non-team accounts
  5. Save the changes

Vendor docs ↗

Satisfies: ISO 27001:2022 A.8.24 SOC 2 Type II CC6.1 CIS Controls v8 CIS-03.10 NIST CSF 2.0 PR.DS-01 GDPR (SaaS Security) GDPR-25.1 HIPAA (SaaS Security) HIPAA-312.e NIS2 Directive NIS2-21.a.3 DORA (SaaS Security) DORA-9.11

Configure the shared folder link restriction policy to prevent unrestricted external access

  1. Sign in to the Dropbox Admin Console as an administrator
  2. Navigate to Admin Console > Settings > Sharing
  3. Under Shared folder links, find the link restriction policy
  4. Change the setting to restrict folder links to team members or require a password
  5. Save the changes

Vendor docs ↗

Satisfies: ISO 27001:2022 A.8.24 SOC 2 Type II CC6.1 CIS Controls v8 CIS-03.10 NIST CSF 2.0 PR.DS-01 GDPR (SaaS Security) GDPR-25.1 HIPAA (SaaS Security) HIPAA-312.e NIS2 Directive NIS2-21.a.3 DORA (SaaS Security) DORA-9.11

severity: medium Suggest Members Enabled fix difficulty: easy #

Disable the Dropbox suggest members feature to prevent unauthorized team invitation suggestions

  1. Sign in to the Dropbox Admin Console as an administrator
  2. Navigate to Admin Console > Settings > Team profile
  3. Locate the Suggest members setting
  4. Disable the suggest members feature
  5. Save the changes

Vendor docs ↗

Satisfies: NIS2 Directive NIS2-21.a.3 DORA (SaaS Security) DORA-9.12

More Dropbox checks

The information on this page is provided for general informational purposes and is believed to be accurate as of its most recent update. Product names, logos, and trademarks are the property of their respective owners and are used for identification purposes only; their use does not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by those owners. Descriptions of third-party applications and of compliance frameworks are based on publicly available documentation and may change over time.

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