With the advancement in technology, Cloud security holds an important role in today’s business landscape. Almost every business today relies on the cloud, and several organizations are moving their infrastructure and application workloads to the cloud every day. This brings the risk of several new attacks that are never seen before.

What is Cloud Penetration Testing?

Cloud Penetration Testing is similar to that of penetration testing, which engages the same concept but is performed on cloud-native systems. Cloud Pentest is an important step in this process, helping to discover insecure configurations and vulnerabilities in cloud infrastructure. The purpose of Cloud Penetration Testing is to find weak spots in cloud-based systems or networks. It impersonates how real-world attacks are conducted to reveal vulnerabilities that a malicious attacker might use.

Importance of Cloud Penetration Testing

Cloud Penetration Testing empowers businesses to bolster the security of their cloud environments, prevent avoidable beaches to their systems, and remain compliant with their industry’s regulations. It helps to maintain the strong security posture of the public and private clouds. The importance of Cloud Penetration Testing can be witnessed by real-world incidents such as the 2019 Capital One data breach.

In this case, a misconfigured web application firewall (WAF) on AWS permitted an attacker to access over 100 million customer records. If it had undergone a regular penetration test, this misconfiguration could have been identified before being compromised. Cloud Penetration Testing offers the following advantages:

• Vulnerability Finding- Helps to find weaknesses in the cloud with greater detail and speed and at a fraction of the cost compared to traditional tools.
• Risk Assessment- Offers visibility into the organization’s cloud security risks to focus remediation on high-risk items.
• Compliance Requirements- Ensures adherence to industry standards and regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, or PCIDSS.
• Incident Response Improvement- Pentest security controls and incident response procedures in the company’s cloud infrastructure.
• Low Cost- Identifies and corrects vulnerabilities at an early stage, costs less than managing a security breach.
• Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM)- Evaluates the security and cloud service providers and third-party integrations being used.

How does Cloud Penetration Testing Work?

Pen testing in a cloud environment usually narrows in on three essential considerations:

• Internal cloud environments
• The cloud perimeter
• The management of on-premises cloud infrastructure

The testing uses a three-step process.

1. Evaluation- In this phase, the testers perform initial finding activities, identifying vulnerabilities, risks gaps in the security program, and the overall needs and goals of the security team.
2. Exploitation- In the next phase, testers use the gathered information during their evaluation to identify the appropriate pen testing methods to use. Thereafter, pen testing methods are deployed, and they monitor the cloud environment closely to see how it responds to the attacks, how well the existing security tooling detects the attacks, and how comprehensive overall security programs and practices are. Next, where appropriate, the remediation activities are performed to resolve any identified security vulnerabilities.
3. Verification- In this phase, testers review the remediation activities performed in the previous phase. This review is done to ensure that appropriate remedies have been applied accurately and that the overall security program and practices are in alignment with industry best practices.

Types of Cloud Computing Models

It is mandatory to possess the knowledge of various cloud computing models when performing cloud penetration tests, as each model has security implications.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

IaaS offers virtualized computing resources over the Internet. The users have to use the OS, storage, and run applications but not the whole cloud infrastructure.

Examples: Amazon EC2, Google Computer Engine, Microsoft Azure VMs

Emphasis mine: Network security, VM hardening, IAM

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

PaaS delivers a complete platform, which allows the customers to develop, run, and manage applications without the complexity of developing and maintaining the infrastructure needed to make and launch an app.

Examples: Google App Engine, Heroku, Microsoft Azure App Service

Security emphasis: Application security, API security, data protection

Software as a Service (SaaS)

SaaS provides users access to applications over the Internet, which means that SaaS customers do not have to handle installations or run the applications on their own computers.

Examples: Salesforce, Google Workspace, and Microsoft 365

Key features: Security, Data security details and user access controls, Integration security

Thus, we can say that Penetration testing methods must be customized in each model based on the components under the customer’s purview or control and considers distinct attack surfaces presented by different services.

Cloud Penetration Testing Methodology

There are three types of Google Cloud Penetration Testing. It depends on the specific needs and requirements of the systems under test to determine the type of testing to be used. All three forms involve testers “poking and prodding” the system as an attacker would identify real and exploitable weaknesses in the system. The following are the cloud penetration testing methodology:

• Transparent box testing: Testers have admin-level access to the cloud environment, allowing them the most complete access and knowledge about the systems they are trying to compromise.
• Semi Transparent box testing: Testers have some knowledge about the systems they are trying to hack.
• Opaque box testing: Testers have no knowledge about or access to cloud systems before proceeding with their testing activities.

Common Threats in Cloud Computing

Some of the most commonly identified threats in cloud environments include

• Security vulnerabilities
• Data breaches
• Malware/ Ransomware
• Supply chain vulnerabilities
• Weak identities, credentials, or access management
• Insecure interfaces and APIs
• Inappropriate use of cloud services

Final Thoughts

Modern technology and cyber security plans require Cloud Penetration Testing, which acts as a solution, enabling the organizations to identify and remediate security vulnerabilities, in a tightly integrated cloud environment. This, in turn, keeps the infrastructure and applications safe from threats and enables compliance across the multi-cloud area.

The procedure requires a deep theoretical understanding of cloud architectures, along with comprehension of the specific challenges, such as the shared responsibility model and dynamic environments.

Periodic penetration testing keeps the organizations informed of constantly changing threats and maintains compliance with industry regulations. Cloud Penetration Testing is a continuous process, which is used by businesses to efficiently handle security risks. This zero-trust approach safeguards the assets and develops a reputation with stakeholders, thus, aiding business objectives in increasing cloud reliance.

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