The Ultimate Guide for Cloud Penetration Testing. Cloud penetration testing is an artificial attack that is launched by a known ethical hacker in the disguise of a potential hacker just to check the number of vulnerabilities, threats, and loopholes in a particular cloud provider that can sincerely pass on any backdoor access to the real-time hackers and weaken the security posture of the organization.

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November 1, 2022
The Ultimate Guide for Cloud Penetration Testing
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vijay
November 1, 2022
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Ultimate Guide for Cloud Penetration Testing
Establishing a business duly updated on cloud servers or shifting information assets to
the corresponding cloud servers builds a lot of sense in terms of working efficacy as well
as being pocket-friendly. Most third-party apps or plugins that might be in use by you
would also be operating off of the cloud. In this regard, several cloud providers are
strictly bound by some security parameters and abide by some norms in place to secure
data privacy; however, it is not sufficient for any elongation of the imagination.
Hence, we are thinking of putting some light on Cloud Penetration Testing in this
blog. Let’s get started!
What is Cloud Penetration Testing?
Cloud Penetration Testing can be defined as the procedure of tracking down and
exploiting the security flaws like vulnerabilities, threats, and loopholes, which can give
some backdoor access to a black hat hacker in a cloud infrastructure by attempting a
cyber attack in a properly controlled environment. In addition, cloud penetration testing
is executed under rigorous conditions by the cloud service providers like AWS, GCP,
Microsoft Azure, etc.

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How Does Cloud Penetration Testing Differ from Penetration Testing?
In a common man’s statement, penetration testing is a procedure in which a professional
pentester tries to obtain every minor to major security flaws like vulnerabilities, threats,
and loopholes that can sincerely be exploited by a malicious threat actor. At a certain
level, this pentesting is performed on a system, service, or network, to obtain weaknesses
comprised in them that should reach the hands of a black hat hacker.
When it comes to cloud penetration testing, it needs to perform an artificial attack in
the disguise of a potential hacker to take out every security flaw to test its security
quotient.
What is the Purpose of Cloud Penetration Testing?
The main objective or purpose of implementing genuine cloud penetration testing
services in a cloud atmosphere of an organization is to check whether the corresponding
cloud server has any security concerns or not. It could be the foremost work of an
organization to check the security flaws before any real-time hacker does.
In addition, distinguished types of manual methods and cloud penetration testing tools
could be utilized depending on the particular type of your cloud server and its provider.
However, whether you do not possess the cloud infrastructure, platform, or software as an
important feature but as a service, there could be many law-based as well as technical
disputes could be encountered for performing cloud penetration testing.
What are the Cloud Penetration Testing Benefits?
We should understand that there could be many benefits that can be encountered after
taking the esteemed cloud penetration testing services from a world-class cloud
penetration testing service provider like Craw Security, offering the best penetration
testing services in Singapore.
Moreover, we have enlisted some of the primetime cloud penetration testing benefits in
the following:
Determining any potential vulnerabilities and threats in the cloud system.
Assisting in optimizing the cloud security parameters.
Enhancing the incident response methods & mechanisms.
Secure the reputation of your enterprise.
Offering the best Cloud Penetration Testing practices maintains visibility in the eyes
of current and potential customers.
Cloud Penetration Testing and the Shared Responsibility Model
Any working cloud penetration testing organization should be concerned with the
corresponding cloud providers’ service terms and conditions. The following image
represents the services policies offered by Amazon Web Services on what we can and can’t

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test:
In this regard, the following list jotted down below considers the names of the services
that always come under the category of cloud penetration testing services by AWS:
Amazon EC2 instances, NAT Gateways, and Elastic Load Balancers
Amazon RDS
Amazon CloudFront
Amazon Aurora
Amazon API Gateways
AWS Lambda and Lambda Edge functions
Amazon Lightsail resources
Amazon Elastic Beanstalk environments
Subsequently, users can sincerely run many tests as they want on the above-mentioned
listed services. However, there are certain services that are forbidden to run tests by
AWS, which are mentioned in the following image:
Moreover, going ahead to the listed services that are duly forbidden by AWS to run cloud
penetration testing are mentioned below:
DNS zone walking via Amazon Route 53 Hosted Zones
Kinds of Denial of Service (DoS) attacks
Port flooding
Protocol flooding
Request flooding (e.g., login request flooding, API request flooding)
As a general rule, we can understand that some services are allowed while some are
strictly prohibited by AWS; however, one can even check the prohibited services after
notifying AWS before running penetration tests onto them.
For instance, if clients like to run a Network Stress Test or a DDoS simulation test, they
have to refer to AWS’s guidelines on Stress Testing and DDoS Simulation Testing. As a
result, their testing can be further initiated after a positive nod from AWS itself;
otherwise, one has to drop the idea of testing this feature.
Most Common Cloud Vulnerabilities
There are certain cloud vulnerabilities that can lead to a hackable cloud account that can
be exploited anytime by a professional hacking professional with the help of some hacking
tricks, tools, and techniques on the job. However, defining each one of them is a pretty
difficult task for us, yet we try to define some of them in the following:
Insecure APIs
Cloud Server Misconfigurations
Weak Credentials
Outdated Software

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Insecure Coding Practices
Here, we have discussed the above-mentioned Most Common Cloud Vulnerabilities
in the following paragraphs so far:
Insecure APIs
The APIs are generously used in cloud penetration testing services to share crucial info
across several applications. However, insecure APIs could result in a vast-scale data leak,
as was visible in the case of Venmo, Airtel, etc. In addition, utilizing the HTTP
methodologies sometimes, such as PUT, POST, DELETE, etc., in APIs incorrectly can
permit hackers to upload malicious code or content on your server that can delete, alter,
modify, or hijack the database without your permission.
Moreover, improper access management and lack of input sanitization are some of the
prominent reasons for APIs getting hacked, which can sincerely be revealed while
implementing cloud penetration testing.
Cloud Server Misconfigurations
In the cloud service, misconfigurations are the most common cloud vulnerability today,
especially misconfigured S3 Buckets. In addition, the highly well-known case was
considered to be the Capital One data breach that led to the jeopardize of the databases of
something around 100+ million Americans as well as 6+ million Canadian citizens.
In this regard, the general cloud server misconfigurations are inappropriate allotments
that lead to not encrypting the databases and distinguishing between private and public
datasets.
Weak Credentials
Utilizing the most common or feeble passwords can certainly lead your cloud accounts to
stay vulnerable to any kind of cyber attack, say brute force attacks. In addition, the
malicious intent threat actor can nicely automate several tools to establish guesses of any
strings of possible passwords, thereby paving the way for your regular accounting to
exploit those credentials.
As a result, this could be very dangerous for individual or organizational databases to
confirm an entire account takeover. Whether people try to reuse passwords or utilize
easily memorized passwords, these kinds of cyber attacks are very common. This

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particular scenario can repeatedly be checked whilst attempting cloud penetration testing
best practices.
Outdated Software
Functioning on outdated software versions can also lead to very heinous results as they
are pretty vulnerable to the potential threats that the company has already taken care of
in the latest software version. One just has to update their working software to the latest
version for a safe & sound working methodology in the long run.
In addition, most software vendors do not intend to utilize a streamlined update protocol,
or the users incapacitate automatic updates themselves so that they do not get updated
and their storage gets uselessly filled. That’s strictly wrong! With these outdated software
versions, hackers track down them with automated scanners and can exploit them
immensely.
Insecure Coding Practices
Many organizations attempt to get their cloud infrastructure to be made as inexpensive as
it could be possible. Hence, because of the poor coding exercises, such assoftware often
includes vulnerabilities like SQLi, XSS, CSRF, etc. Moreover, the most common
vulnerabilities among them fall under the category of OWASP Top 10 and SANS Top 25.
As a result, these vulnerabilities are the root cause for a number of cloud web services
being compromised.
What are the Challenges in cloud penetration testing?
With the entire scanning in the cloud penetration testing of a cloud server, there are
certain challenges faced by many organizations in implementing cloud penetration testing
procedures:
Lack of Transparency
Resource Sharing
Policy Restrictions
Other Factors
In order to clarify your understanding of the above-mentioned challenges that are
generally faced while implementing cloud penetration testing, we have elaborated on
them in the following paras:
Lack of Transparency
In the absence of good cloud services, the corresponding data centers are well-controlled
by third-party associations. Resulting, the user might not be aware of the location of the
data storage and which hardware or software compositions are being used. In addition,
this clarity-less exposes the user database to the security risks of a cloud service.

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For example, the cloud service provider might be holding some sort of confidential
information without the prior user’s knowledge. In this regard, some famous CSPs, such
as AWS, Axure, GCP, etc., is pretty famous for running internal security audits.
Resource Sharing
It is a pretty famous evidentiary fact that cloud services massively share resources across
numerous accounts. However, this phase of resource-sharing could be highly challenging
whilst the cloud penetration testing. In this regard, the service providers sometimes do
not take the necessary measures to segment the entire users.
In the scenario, in case your organization requires to be PCI DSS compliant, the
standardization mentions that all the additional accounts sharing the same resource and
the particular cloud service provider should necessarily be PCI DSS compliant also. That
type of intricate case exists as there are numerous paths to enforce the cloud
infrastructure. As a result, this complexity delays the wide variety of cloud penetration
testing procedures.
Policy Restrictions
Every cloud service provider possesses one’s own dos and don’ts related to what is
allowed and what is not while conducting the wide processes associated with cloud
penetration testing. This elaborates on the related endpoints and types of tests which can
be implemented.
Most importantly, some even need you to propose an advance notice far before executing
the tests. Further, this policy disparity paves the way for a noteworthy challenge and
restricts the extent of conducting cloud penetration testing.
Subsequently, let’s read more about the main cloud penetration testing policies of the 3
most famous cloud service providers:
Cloud
Provider
Prohibited Attacks*
AWS Denial of Service (DOS) and Distributed Denial of Service Attacks (DDOS),
DNS zone walking, Port, Protocol, or Request flooding attacks, etc.
Azure DOS and DDoS attacks, intensive network fuzzing attacks, Phishing, or any
other social engineering attacks, etc.
GCP Piracy or any other illegal activity, Phishing, Distributing trojans,
ransomware, Interfering, etc.
*These prohibited attacks are subject to change as per the policy change of their
respective cloud service provider’s sole discretion.
Other Factors

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As there is a mere scale of cloud services in which a single machine can do numerous VMs
hostings, which adds to the scale of penetration testing. Similarly, the corresponding
scope for the same tests can differ from user software (CMS, Database, etc.) to the
corresponding service provider software (like VM Software, etc.)
In this regard, both these factors blend ahead to add to the intricacy of cloud penetration
testing. Moreover, when data encryption is added to this list, it can widely worsen the
circumstances for auditors as the organization being audited might be unwilling to offer
encryption services keys.
Types & Methods of Cloud Penetration Testing
It is a widely famous aspect that cloud penetration testing is generally divided into 3 types
of penetration testing techniques that are described below:
Black Box Penetration Testing
A Black Box Test is carried out in strict circumstances where a penetration tester would
not have any previous knowledge or any kind of User IDs and Passwords. This is the
same manner in which the actual black hat hackers functionalize their attempts to gain
access to any datasets of an organization.
Tools used for Black Box Penetration Testing are Selenium, Applitools, Microsoft Coded
UI, etc.
Grey Box Penetration Testing
As the name suggests, it is the amalgamation of White and Black Box Penetration
Testing. A working penetration testers team tries to launch many attacks on the IT
infrastructures of an organization with limited knowledge of the credentials.
Tools used for Black Box Penetration Testing are Postman, Burp Suite, JUnit, NUnit, etc.
White Box Penetration Testing
In this prominent technique, a penetration testing team will have every needful credential
that they require to hack the datasets of an organization. Most permanent paid ethical
hackers do possess all the required datasets to secure the information relevant to the IT
infrastructures of an organization.
Moreover, the renowned white box testing tools comprise Veracode, GoogleTest,
CCPUnit, RCUNIT, etc.
AWS and Azure Cloud Penetration Testing
In today’s era, where businesses are adapting cloud servers more than manual data
representation, two cloud service providers are working eminently for almost every
working enterprise hailing from any niche, and that is Amazon Web Services (AWS) and
Microsoft’s Azure.

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Both Azure and AWS allow penetration testing to the organizations to almost every
infrastructure of the business, which is hosted on the AWS or Azure platform, as long as
the corresponding test falls under their permitted standards.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft’s Azure are two of the common cloud-based
services that organizations use to support business activities in the cloud. Both AWS and
Azure permit penetration testing relative to any infrastructure the business is hosting on
the AWS or Azure platform as long as those tests fall within the list of “permitted
services.”
Moreover, we have also updated the corresponding “rules of engagement” associated with
the penetration testing that are allowed and not by both AWS and Azure in the below-
mentioned links:
Amazon Web Services Penetration Testing
Azure Penetration Testing
Apart from them, you may check the other two cloud services providing supergiants in the
following links:
Google Cloud Platform Penetration Testing
Oracle Cloud Penetration Testing
Cloud Penetration Testing Scope
Most working cyber security professionals that get engaged in cloud penetration testing
would generally verify the following areas of scope:
The Cloud Perimeter,
Internal Cloud Environments, and On-Premise Cloud Management,
Administration and Development Infrastructure
Moreover, cloud penetration testing usually takes place in 3 corresponding phases that
are described below:
Phase One: Evaluation: The working team of cloud penetration testing
professionals will sincerely implement a wide variety of cloud security discovery
procedures like cloud security needs, existing cloud SLAs, risks, and potential
vulnerability exposures.
Phase Two: Exploitation: Utilizing the data collected from the first phase, the
expert penetration personnel will blend info extracted during evaluation with any
particular pentesting procedures considering exploitable shortcomings. As a result,
this particular step will assess your cloud ecosystem’s efficiency.

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Phase Three: Remediation Verification: In this final step, cloud penetration
testing experts would execute a follow-up assessment to confirm whether the
exploitation stage’s remediation and mitigation efforts have been successfully
enforced or not. Resulting this also allows the pentesters to ensure that the client’s
security posture is aligned with industry standards.
Most Common Cloud Security Threats
The most common cloud security threats can essentially be mitigated with the correct
usage of cloud penetration testing under the extreme supervision of world-class cloud
penetration testing professionals having years of authentic experience in tracking down
the most vulnerabilities possessed in the IT infrastructures of many businesses hailing
from diverse industries. One can nicely check some of the most common cloud security
threats below:
Misconfigurations
Data Breaches
Malware/ Ransomware
Vulnerabilities
Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs)
Supply Chain Compromises
Insider Threats
Weak Identities and Credentials
Weak Access Management
Insecure Interfaces and APIs
Inappropriate Use or Abuse of Cloud Services
Shared Services/Technology Concerns
Cloud Penetration Testing Best Practices
A keenly working cyber security agency with the best measures of cloud penetration
testing can self-evaluate its varied steps to track down numerous cloud penetration
testing best practices. Moreover, we have listed some of the best tips that can assuredly
be taken to operate primetime cloud penetration testing activities that would certainly
give you fruitful outcomes as a result:
Work with an experienced provider of cloud penetration testing: As
numerous procedures related to cloud penetration testing are quite identical to
those utilized in standard penetration testing, diverse regions of understanding and
experience are needed.
Understand the Shared Responsibility Model: One can sincerely understand
that the cloud systems are monitored by the Shared Responsibility Model, which
describes the main regions of responsibility possessed by the client and the cloud
service provider (CSP).

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Understand any CSP Service Level Agreements (SLAs) or “Rules of
Engagement”: Your CSP’s service level agreements will definitely offer varying
levels of information on the “rules of engagement” associated with any kind of
penetration testing, including their cloud services.
Define the scope of your cloud: Knowing what elements are comprised in your
cloud assets to identify the full scope of the cloud penetration testing that will
certainly be required.
Determine the type of testing: Understanding the type of cloud penetration
testing (such as white box pentest, black box pentest, or grey box pentest) that
would be the best fit for your implementation in your business.
Codify expectations and timelines for both your security team and an
external cloud pentesting company: Getting to understand the best of your
business responsibilities and those of the external cloud pentesting company,
comprising receipt of reports, remediations, and follow-up testing necessities.
Establish a protocol for a breach or live attack: Establishing as well as
implementing a fool-proof and genuine plan in place if the cloud penetration testing
agency tracks down that your business has already lostits information in the data
breach or if they happen upon a corresponding attack that is in process.