The Ultimate Guide for Cloud Penetration Testing [2024]

• vijay
• November 1, 2022
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The Ultimate Guide for Cloud Penetration Testing

Get to know about The Ultimate Guide for Cloud Penetration Testing in this amazing article. Let’s discuss how cloud penetration testing can secure cloud platforms against online threats causing unwanted data breaches.

You will learn about cloud penetration testing techniques under the guidance of professionals in cloud penetration testing skills. What are we waiting for? Let’s get straight to the point!

What is Cloud Penetration Testing?

To find weaknesses and evaluate the effectiveness of defenses, cloud penetration testing mimics cyberattacks on cloud infrastructure, apps, and services.

It entails examining cloud configurations, data storage, and access controls for vulnerabilities. Organizations can improve cloud security and stop possible breaches by using this procedure.

Types of Cloud Penetration Testing

S.No.	Types	What?
1.	Infrastructure Penetration Testing	Assesses the networks, servers, and storage systems that make up the underlying cloud infrastructure’s security.
2.	Application Penetration Testing	Evaluate the security of cloud-deployed web apps and APIs.
3.	Data Penetration Testing	Focuses on cloud data security, including data protection and privacy.
4.	Red Teaming	Tests the organization’s security defenses by simulating sophisticated attacks, such as physical security breaches and social engineering.
5.	Cloud-Specific Penetration Testing	Takes advantage of flaws unique to the cloud, like incorrect setups, unsafe APIs, and lax access controls.

Cloud Penetration Testing Best Practices

Following are some of the Cloud Penetration Testing Best Practices:

1. Clear Scope and Objectives: Specify the testing parameters, including the particular cloud services, apps, and infrastructure that will be evaluated.
2. Risk-Based Approach: Sort testing activities according to the risks and vulnerabilities that have been found.
3. Ethical Hacking Principles: Before beginning any testing, follow ethical hacking guidelines and secure the required authorizations.
4. Collaboration with Cloud Providers: To comprehend the security settings and controls in place, work closely with cloud providers.
5. Automated Tools and Manual Testing: To find a variety of vulnerabilities, combine automated tools with manual testing.
6. Post-Exploitation Testing: To determine the possible impact of a breach, model the actions of an attacker after they have gained initial access.
7. Continuous Monitoring and Testing: Perform penetration testing on a regular basis to find and fix new vulnerabilities and threats.
8. Detailed Reporting: Provide thorough reports that include conclusions, suggestions, and corrective actions.

What are the Cloud Penetration Testing Benefits?

S.No.	Advantages	How?
1.	Identify Vulnerabilities	Identifies possible flaws in data storage systems, apps, and cloud infrastructure.
2.	Assess Security Posture	Analyze cloud environments’ overall security posture and pinpoint areas that need work.
3.	Simulate Real-World Attacks	Malicious actors employ mimics as a means of evaluating how well security measures are working.
4.	Validate Security Controls	Confirms the efficacy of security measures like access controls, intrusion detection systems, and firewalls.
5.	Comply with Regulations	Demonstrates adherence to industry standards and laws, including GDPR, PCI DSS, and HIPAA.
6.	Risk Assessment	Determines security risks, ranks them, and creates mitigation plans.
7.	Continuous Improvement	Continuously enhances cloud environments’ security posture by locating and fixing vulnerabilities.
8.	Enhanced Security Awareness	Increases knowledge of best practices and possible security risks among cloud administrators and users.

What are the Challenges in Cloud Penetration Testing?

Following are some of the challenges in cloud penetration testing:

1. Dynamic Nature of Cloud Environments: Because cloud environments are always evolving, it can be challenging to stay on top of the most recent configurations and security flaws.
2. Shared Responsibility Model: It can be difficult to comprehend the shared responsibility model and determine which security controls should be tested.
3. Access Restrictions: It can be difficult to get the required access to test cloud environments, particularly for black-box testing.
4. Evolving Threat Landscape: Effective penetration testing requires staying abreast of the most recent attack methods and threat intelligence.
5. Legal and Ethical Considerations: It is essential to follow ethical hacking guidelines and stay away from unwanted access.
6. Tool Limitations: Traditional penetration testing tools might not be able to quickly identify certain cloud-specific vulnerabilities.
7. Integration with Existing Security Tools: It can be difficult to integrate cloud penetration testing tools with current security setups.
8. Skillset Requirements: Specialized abilities and familiarity with cloud technologies and security best practices are necessary for cloud penetration testing.

Most Common Cloud Vulnerabilities

Following are some of the common cloud vulnerabilities:

1. Misconfigurations: Sensitive information may be made public by improperly configured cloud services, including storage buckets, databases, and network settings.
2. Insecure Interfaces and APIs: Data breaches and illegal access can result from weak or incorrectly configured APIs.
3. Insufficient Logging and Monitoring: The identification and handling of security incidents may be hampered by inadequate logging and monitoring.
4. Lack of Patch Management: Attackers can take advantage of operating systems and outdated software that have unpatched vulnerabilities.
5. Weak Access Controls: Security can be jeopardized by inadequate access controls, such as weak passwords and no multi-factor authentication.
6. Data Exposure: Unintentional disclosure of private information to unapproved parties or programs.
7. Insecure Network Configurations: Open ports and default configurations are examples of misconfigured network settings that can pose security threats.
8. Lack of Data Encryption: Sensitive information may be vulnerable to unwanted access if it is not encrypted while in transit and at rest.
9. Supply Chain Risks: Cloud security may be impacted by flaws in third-party hardware and software.
10. Insider Threats: Cloud systems can be compromised by malicious insiders using privileged access.

Most Common Cloud Security Threats

S.No.	Cloud Security Threats	What?
1.	Data Breaches	Unauthorized access to private information kept on cloud servers.
2.	Data Loss	Data deletion, whether deliberate or unintentional.
3.	Malware Attacks	Malicious software that targets cloud apps and infrastructure.
4.	Denial-of-Service (DoS) Attacks	Services that are disrupted by excessive cloud resources.
5.	Phishing Attacks	Fooling people into disclosing private information.
6.	Insider Threats	Malicious actions taken by contractors or employees.
7.	Misconfigurations	Incorrect configurations that reveal weaknesses.
8.	Supply Chain Attacks	Compromising hardware or software owned by third parties.
9.	Account Hijacking	Access to user accounts without authorization.
10.	Cryptojacking	Using cloud resources for cryptocurrency mining without permission.

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 paragraphs:

Lack of Transparency

In the absence of good cloud services, the corresponding data centers are well-controlled by third-party associations. Consequently, 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 lack of clarity exposes the user database to the security risks of a cloud service.

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., are 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 during cloud penetration testing.  In this regard, service providers sometimes do not take the necessary measures to segment the entire user base.

In this scenario, if your organization requires it 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 as well.  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 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 that 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, such as 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

There is a mere scale of cloud services in which a single machine can do numerous VM 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 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 known fact 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 ID or password.  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 an amalgamation of white-box and Black Box Penetration Testing.  A working penetration testing team tries to launch many attacks on the IT infrastructure of an organization with limited knowledge of the credentials.

Tools used for Grey 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 necessary 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.

Cloud Penetration Testing and the Shared Responsibility Model

The following are the duties of cloud providers toward security:

1. Physical Security: Ensuring data centers’ physical security, including environmental, surveillance, and access controls.
2. Network Security: Putting in place robust network security measures like encryption, intrusion detection systems, and firewalls.
3. Data Security: Utilizing regular backups, access controls, and encryption to protect data.
4. Compliance: Following industry rules and guidelines, including PCI DSS, GDPR, and HIPAA.
5. Incident Response: Identifying, containing, and reacting to security incidents promptly by having a strong incident response plan.

The following are the duties of cloud customers toward security:

1. Secure Configuration: Putting in place robust security settings, such as encryption, logging, and access controls, for cloud services.
2. Data Protection: Putting data loss prevention measures in place and encrypting sensitive data both in transit and at rest.
3. Regular Updates: Maintaining the most recent security patches and updates installed on cloud services and apps.
4. Monitoring and Logging: Keeping an eye out for unusual activity in cloud environments and turning on thorough logging to make incident investigation easier.
5. Employee Training: Employees should receive security awareness training to reduce the possibility of human error.

How Does Cloud Penetration Testing Differ from Penetration Testing?

S.No.	Factors	Testing Types	How?
1.	Scope	Cloud Penetration Testing	Focuses on settings, services, and environments unique to the cloud.
		Penetration Testing	Encompasses a wider variety of systems, such as devices, apps, and networks that are located on-site.
2.	Shared Responsibility Model	Cloud Penetration Testing	Takes into account the shared responsibility model that exists between the customer and the cloud provider.
		Penetration Testing	Usually concentrates on protecting the company’s own networks and systems.
3.	Dynamic Nature	Cloud Penetration Testing	Adjusts to the ever-changing infrastructure and service updates that characterize cloud environments.
		Penetration Testing	Frequently works with environments that are more static, though updates and modifications are still possible.
4.	API Security	Cloud Penetration Testing	Places a high priority on API security because cloud environments frequently use APIs as a point of attack.
		Penetration Testing	Testing for API security may be part of it, but it’s not always the main priority.
5.	Data Privacy and Compliance	Cloud Penetration Testing	It takes into account cloud-specific data privacy and compliance laws like GDPR and HIPAA.
		Penetration Testing	Focuses on compliance and data privacy issues, but it might not be as focused as cloud penetration testing.

AWS and Azure Cloud Penetration Testing

1. Applications and resources hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) are subjected to security assessments known as AWS Cloud Penetration Testing. Without interfering with AWS’s infrastructure, it finds weaknesses in assets under customer control, like apps and configurations. To safeguard shared infrastructure, AWS mandates compliance with its testing guidelines.
2. Azure Cloud Penetration Testing evaluates the security of Microsoft Azure-hosted networks, apps, and resources. While adhering to Azure’s infrastructure policies, it looks for vulnerabilities in assets that are managed by customers.

Microsoft mandates that pen tests adhere to its guidelines to avoid interfering with shared cloud services.

Cloud Penetration Testing Scope

Examining cloud infrastructure, configurations, and security controls for vulnerabilities is usually part of the scope of cloud penetration testing. In addition to identity and access management, it covers services like virtual machines, storage, databases, and networks.

Only components that are owned by the company and fall under the authorized policies of the cloud provider may be tested.

Conclusion

Learn about some of the most amazing topics related to The Ultimate Guide for Cloud Penetration Testing developing your knowledge & skills related to techniques to protect cloud platforms against online threats causing data breaches globally.

For a better learning experience, you can even go with the amazing AWS Security Training Course in Singapore offered by Craw Security with the support of well-qualified trainers. With that, you will also be able to join the online sessions, if you are a remote learner.

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Frequently Asked Questions

About The Ultimate Guide for Cloud Penetration Testing

1. What is public cloud penetration testing?

The process of finding and taking advantage of security flaws in public cloud environments is known as public cloud penetration testing.

2. What is cloud pen testing?

The process of finding and taking advantage of security flaws in cloud environments is known as cloud penetration testing.

3. What is sec588 cloud penetration testing?

An advanced cybersecurity certification that focuses on identifying and taking advantage of vulnerabilities in cloud environments is SEC588 Cloud Penetration Testing.

4. Do I need pre-approval to conduct a penetration test on Azure resources?

Yes, to perform a penetration test on Azure resources, prior authorization from the administrator or owner of the Azure subscription is usually needed.

5. What is cloud testing?

The process of testing infrastructure and software programs in a cloud setting is known as cloud testing.

6. How do test cloud-based applications?

Following are some of the ways you can test cloud-based applications:

1. Functional Testing,
2. Security Testing,
3. Performance Testing,
4. Load Testing, and
5. Stress Testing.

7. How much does CloudTest cost?

CloudTest’s price in Singapore may vary depending on the particular services and resources needed. For precise pricing information, it is best to contact CloudTest directly.