What is Cloud Penetration Testing?
Methodology
Reconnaissance
Gathering comprehensive information about the target cloud environment, including its architecture, services, and configurations. This step involves both passive (e.g., gathering public information) and active (e.g., network scanning) techniques to understand the cloud setup and identify initial vulnerabilities.
Automated Testing
Using automated tools to perform a wide range of security tests on the cloud environment. This includes scanning for common vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and compliance issues across various cloud services and resources.
Vulnerability Identification
Analyzing the results of automated tests and conducting manual reviews to identify security flaws within the cloud infrastructure. This step focuses on finding vulnerabilities such as weak access controls, insecure APIs, and data exposure.
Penetration
Actively exploiting identified vulnerabilities to assess their impact and the potential extent of damage. This involves simulating real-world attack scenarios to determine how an attacker could exploit the cloud environment's weaknesses and gain unauthorized access or disrupt services.
Reporting
Compiling a detailed report that outlines the discovered vulnerabilities, the methods used to exploit them, their potential impact, and recommendations for remediation. This report is essential for cloud administrators and security teams to understand the risks and implement measures to secure the cloud infrastructure and applications.
