Cloud Penetration Testing to Boost Your Cloud Security
The cloud has transformed the way that it approaches the world to stores and accesses information. Everyone is deploying cloud-based platforms, including startups and giant corporations, to create time, cut on costs and grow more rapidly. In line with this is the utmost convenience, great responsibility and security as well. So cloud penetration testing is unavoidable for your cloud security.
What is Your Definition of Cloud Penetration Testing?
Cloud penetration testing means to test the cloud environments (AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud) and reveal weak points or spots where hackers could not attack. It is akin to recruiting an ethical hacker to conduct a mock attack so that one is in a position to fix a problem before the real hackers get there.
What Makes Cloud Penetesting so Important?
- The traditional systems are located in physical structures (such as data centers), whereas the cloud systems reside on the internet. This implies that they are constantly connected online, and at that, there is no time when they are not exposed.
- This is why cloud penetration testing can be performed through clouds:
- Clouds are shared environments, and they are usually complex.
- A minor config (such as an open bucket in a storage system) can result in thousands of confidential documents.
- They are frequently linked to other systems and apps that intensify the attack surface when it comes to the use of cloud services.
- It also assists in keeping the customers and partners in trust.
- It is frequently necessary to comply with such laws as GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI-DSS.
What is Checked in Cloud Penetration Testing?
Cloud pen testing is not one aspect it is based on testing of the total setup of the cloud. These are some of the major areas on which security professionals pay attention:
- Misconfigurations– Public buckets (such as AWS S3), Wrong firewall rules and poor access control.
- Identity and Access Management (IAM)– It makes sure that non-authorized users and applications do not access particular services and data in a cloud environment through systems of authentication and authorization.
- Data Security– Does the sensitive data get to be encrypted or not. Also, external files, say of the customers or internal files, can be opened by an unauthorized user.
- Application Vulnerabilities– In the case a web app is hosted in the cloud, is it safe against:
➢ SQL attack
➢ Cross-site scripting (XSS)
➢ Broken authentication - Network Exposure– are there any unnecessary services or the ports that are open to the internet and whether the internal traffic is secured or not.
- Logging and Monitoring– In case the organization sees any kind of unusual activity in the cloud, and whether alerts are set appropriately or not.
Cloud Penetration Testing Tools
The tools to do this of many. Combination of manual testing and automated scanners results in the best. The following are some of the popular tools-
- Burp Suite: to test web apps
- Nmap: to scan open ports and services
- Kali Linux: a hacking tools suite that provides deeper analysis
- AWS Inspector / Azure Security Center- cloud-native testing
- Cloud Sploit: performs common misconfiguration checks
- Scout Suite: verifies the cloud environments for security risks
Is Cloud Pen Testing Legal?
They must follow the following steps before implementing any form of penetration testing on cloud infrastructure-
- A signed permit of the organization.
- Uphold to the policies of the cloud provider (e.g., AWS or Azure has their policies).
- Test only allowed systems and timelines
The Phases of the Cloud Penetration Testing
- Planning & Scoping– The testing of the cloud services, apps, networks and data storage will be done.
- Reconnaissance– Public and internal acquiring of information regarding the target. This might comprise domain names, IPs and user accounts.
- Vulnerability Scanning– In order to identify known vulnerabilities or open doors within the environment with the use of various tools.
- Exploitation– To log in with the help of the flaw, which is identified.
- Post-Exploitation– Requirement to do checks on the penetration capability of the tester. Whether they will be able to get into the sensitive files or manipulate other systems.
- Reporting– Come up with a comprehensive report that demonstrates:
➢ What was subjected to test and found.
➢ What are risky issues and how will it be rectified.
Conclusion
The benefits of cloud computing are inexhaustible such as flexibility, cost benefit, and worldwide access. But there is also a high possibility of high cyber threats associated with big power.
That is why, Cloud Penetration Testing is not a tech buzzword. It is one step that is needed in order to protect the data and keep cyber attackers or hackers at bay.
Working in a small arena or a big company but utilize good cloud computing will save us great troubles and hackers surrounding us.