conducting-cloud-penetration-testing

name	conducting-cloud-penetration-testing
description	This skill outlines methodologies for performing authorized penetration testing against AWS, Azure, and GCP cloud environments. It covers understanding the shared responsibility model for testing scope, leveraging cloud-specific attack tools like Pacu and ScoutSuite, exploiting IAM misconfigurations, testing for SSRF to cloud metadata services, and reporting findings aligned to MITRE ATT&CK Cloud matrix.
domain	cybersecurity
subdomain	cloud-security
tags	["cloud-pentesting","offensive-security","aws-exploitation","shared-responsibility","mitre-attack-cloud"]
version	1.0.0
author	mahipal
license	Apache-2.0
nist_ai_rmf	["MEASURE-2.7","MAP-5.1","MANAGE-2.4"]
atlas_techniques	["AML.T0070","AML.T0066","AML.T0082"]
d3fend_techniques	["Token Binding","Restore Access","Application Protocol Command Analysis","Reissue Credential","Network Isolation"]
nist_csf	["PR.IR-01","ID.AM-08","GV.SC-06","DE.CM-01"]

Conducting Cloud Penetration Testing

When to Use

• When performing authorized security assessments of cloud environments before production deployment
• When validating cloud security controls after a major architectural change or migration
• When compliance requirements mandate annual penetration testing of cloud infrastructure
• When testing incident response readiness by simulating realistic cloud-based attack scenarios
• When assessing lateral movement risk across multi-account or multi-cloud environments

Do not use for unauthorized testing against cloud accounts, for testing cloud provider infrastructure itself (covered by the shared responsibility model), or for DDoS simulation without explicit cloud provider approval.

Prerequisites

• Written authorization from the cloud account owner and scope definition document
• AWS, Azure, or GCP penetration testing policy acknowledgment (AWS no longer requires pre-approval for most services)
• Isolated testing account or explicitly scoped production account with breakglass procedures
• Cloud-specific offensive tooling installed: Pacu (AWS), ScoutSuite, Prowler, CloudFox
• MITRE ATT&CK Cloud matrix for finding classification

Workflow

Step 1: Define Scope and Rules of Engagement

Establish testing boundaries based on the shared responsibility model. The customer is responsible for testing configurations, IAM policies, application security, and data protection. The cloud provider manages physical infrastructure, hypervisor, and managed service internals.

Cloud Penetration Test Scope Document
=======================================
Target: AWS Account 123456789012 (Production)
Testing Window: 2025-02-24 08:00 UTC to 2025-02-28 18:00 UTC
Authorization: Signed by CISO, dated 2025-02-20

IN SCOPE:
  - IAM users, roles, policies, and cross-account trust
  - EC2 instances, security groups, and network ACLs
  - S3 bucket policies and data access controls
  - Lambda functions, API Gateway endpoints
  - RDS/DynamoDB access controls and encryption
  - EKS cluster RBAC and network policies
  - CloudTrail, Config, and monitoring gaps

OUT OF SCOPE:
  - AWS managed service internals (RDS engine, Lambda runtime)
  - DDoS attacks or volumetric testing
  - Physical infrastructure or hypervisor attacks
  - Social engineering of AWS support

EMERGENCY CONTACT: [e-mail], [phone]

Step 2: Reconnaissance and Cloud Enumeration

Use cloud-specific tools to enumerate the attack surface: exposed services, public IPs, S3 buckets, IAM configurations, and metadata endpoints.

# ScoutSuite multi-cloud assessment
scout suite aws --profile target-account --report-dir ./scout-report


prowler aws -M json-ocsf -o ./prowler-output --profile target-account


cloudfox aws --profile target-account all-checks


 bucket  $(aws s3api list-buckets --query  --output text); 
  aws s3api get-bucket-policy-status --bucket  2>/dev/null | grep -q  &&  



aws ec2 describe-instances \
  --query  \
  --output table