enumerating-cloud-with-cloudfox

name	enumerating-cloud-with-cloudfox
description	Map AWS and Azure attack paths and find exploitable misconfigurations with CloudFox.
domain	cybersecurity
subdomain	cloud-security
tags	["cloudfox","aws","azure","cloud-pentest","attack-paths","situational-awareness","enumeration","offensive-security"]
version	1.0
author	mahipal
license	Apache-2.0
nist_csf	["ID.AM-03"]
mitre_attack	["T1526"]

Enumerating Cloud with CloudFox

Legal Notice: This skill is for authorized cloud penetration testing and assessment only. CloudFox makes read/describe API calls against the cloud account whose credentials you supply. Run it ONLY against accounts you own or are authorized to test under a signed scope. Although CloudFox is read-only by design, the enumeration it performs is reconnaissance against a live environment and must be in scope.

Overview

CloudFox is an open-source command-line tool from Bishop Fox that helps penetration testers and red teamers gain situational awareness in unfamiliar cloud environments. Where tools like ScoutSuite focus on a defender-style configuration audit, CloudFox is built from the attacker's perspective: it answers questions like "what are the most attackable secrets, endpoints, and instances in this account, and what can the identity I just compromised actually reach?" It is read-only — it only performs Describe/List/Get style calls — and writes its findings to per-command CSV/TXT/loot files plus a combined report directory, so output can be triaged offline.

CloudFox covers AWS most deeply (30+ commands) and supports Azure. The workhorse is cloudfox aws all-checks, which runs the full battery of enumeration commands with sensible defaults: inventory, internet-reachable endpoints, EC2 instances (with IPs and instance-profile roles), iam-simulator and permissions for IAM analysis, principals, secrets from Secrets Manager/SSM, buckets, role-trusts (which identities can assume which roles — a core attack-path primitive), access-keys, route53, ecr, lambda, and more. CloudFox also emits ready-to-run command suggestions (e.g. aws s3 ls lines, aws ssm start-session lines) in its "loot" files so an operator can pivot immediately.

This skill covers installing CloudFox, authenticating to AWS and Azure, running targeted and full enumeration, interpreting the high-value outputs (role-trusts, secrets, endpoints), and feeding the results into attack-path planning. Source: github.com/BishopFox/cloudfox.

When to Use

• Establishing situational awareness immediately after compromising a cloud credential
• Quickly identifying internet-exposed endpoints, instances, and exposed secrets
• Mapping sts:AssumeRole trust relationships to plan lateral movement / privesc
• Triaging an unfamiliar AWS or Azure account during an authorized assessment
• Producing attacker-centric inventory artifacts that complement a defensive audit

Prerequisites

• CloudFox installed:

  # Homebrew
  brew install cloudfox
  # Go (1.21+)
  go install github.com/BishopFox/cloudfox@latest
  # or download a release binary from GitHub and chmod +x
  

• Valid cloud credentials in scope:

  # AWS — configure a named profile and verify
  aws configure --profile assess
  aws sts get-caller-identity --profile assess
  
  # Azure
  az login
  az account show
  

• A signed authorization / Rules of Engagement defining the in-scope accounts
• awscli (AWS) and/or azure-cli (Azure) installed for credential setup and follow-up

Objectives

• Install CloudFox and confirm cloud credentials
• Run full and targeted enumeration across AWS and Azure
• Identify internet-reachable endpoints, instances, and exposed secrets
• Enumerate IAM principals, permissions, and role-trust attack paths
• Triage CloudFox loot files for immediate pivot commands
• Export findings to a structured output directory for reporting

MITRE ATT&CK Mapping

ID	Name	Use in this skill
T1526	Cloud Service Discovery	CloudFox enumerates the available cloud services and resources in an account
T1580	Cloud Infrastructure Discovery	inventory, instances, buckets map the infrastructure footprint
T1087.004	Account Discovery: Cloud Account	principals, access-keys enumerate cloud identities
T1069.003	Permission Groups Discovery: Cloud Groups	permissions, iam-simulator, role-trusts reveal entitlements
T1538	Cloud Service Dashboard	Aggregated situational-awareness reporting across services

Workflow

1. Confirm the identity and run all AWS checks

aws sts get-caller-identity --profile assess
cloudfox aws --profile assess all-checks -o ./loot

2. Inventory the account footprint

cloudfox aws --profile assess inventory

3. Find internet-reachable endpoints and exposed instances

cloudfox aws --profile assess endpoints
cloudfox aws --profile assess instances

4. Enumerate IAM principals, permissions, and role-trust attack paths

role-trusts is the key lateral-movement primitive — it shows who can assume what.

cloudfox aws --profile assess principals
cloudfox aws --profile assess permissions
cloudfox aws --profile assess role-trusts
cloudfox aws --profile assess access-keys

5. Hunt for exposed secrets

cloudfox aws --profile assess secrets

6. Enumerate storage, registries, and serverless

cloudfox aws --profile assess buckets
cloudfox aws --profile assess ecr
cloudfox aws --profile assess lambda
cloudfox aws --profile assess route53

7. Use IAM simulator to confirm what a principal can do

cloudfox aws --profile assess iam-simulator

8. Enumerate Azure

CloudFox Azure works against the subscriptions the az session can see.

cloudfox azure inventory --outdir ./azure-loot
cloudfox azure rbac
cloudfox azure storage
cloudfox azure vms

9. Triage the loot

CloudFox writes per-command CSV/TXT plus a loot directory of pivot commands.

ls -R ./loot/cloudfox-output/
# Loot files contain ready-to-run follow-ups, e.g. aws s3 ls / ssm start-session lines

See scripts/agent.py to run a curated set of commands and summarize output files.

Tools and Resources

Resource	Purpose	Link
CloudFox GitHub	Source, releases, full command list	https://github.com/BishopFox/cloudfox
CloudFox docs/wiki	Per-command output explanations	https://github.com/BishopFox/cloudfox/wiki
Bishop Fox CloudFox blog	Design and usage walkthrough	https://bishopfox.com/blog/introducing-cloudfox
AWS CLI reference	Follow-up exploitation commands	https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/
Pacu	Active exploitation after enumeration	https://github.com/RhinoSecurityLabs/pacu

OPSEC and Detection Considerations

CloudFox is read-only, but its enumeration is far from silent. Each command issues many Describe*/List*/Get* API calls in a short burst, which is highly visible to defenders:

• CloudTrail records every read call. A spike of iam:ListUsers, iam:ListRoles, secretsmanager:ListSecrets, ec2:DescribeInstances, and sts:GetCallerIdentity from one principal within seconds is a strong enumeration signal.
• GuardDuty finding types such as Discovery:IAMUser/AnomalousBehavior and Discovery:S3/MaliciousIPCaller can fire on this burst pattern.
• Defenders should baseline normal API-call rates per principal and alert on enumeration bursts, especially from new IPs/ASNs or newly created credentials.

For an authorized assessment, document the source IP and timestamp of CloudFox runs so the blue team can correlate, and prefer running from an in-scope, attributable host.

Recommended Operator Workflow

1. Run all-checks once to populate the full output directory.
2. Open role-trusts first — it reveals the assume-role graph for lateral movement.
3. Cross-reference secrets and env-vars for credentials that unlock new principals.
4. Use endpoints + instances to map externally reachable attack surface.
5. Feed confirmed assume-role / privesc candidates into Pacu for active exploitation.

High-Value Command Reference

Command	Why it matters
all-checks	Runs the full enumeration battery with defaults
role-trusts	Maps assume-role paths — core for lateral movement/privesc
endpoints	Surfaces internet-reachable attack surface
secrets	Exposes credentials in Secrets Manager / SSM
permissions	Lists effective IAM permissions per principal
instances	EC2 with IPs and attached instance-profile roles
access-keys	Active access keys (potential credential targets)

Validation Criteria

• CloudFox installed and runs cloudfox aws --help
• Cloud credentials confirmed via sts get-caller-identity / az account show
• all-checks completed and output directory populated
• Internet-reachable endpoints and instances identified
• IAM principals, permissions, and role-trusts enumerated
• Exposed secrets located and documented
• Azure enumeration run (if Azure in scope)
• Loot files triaged for pivot opportunities
• Findings exported to a structured directory for reporting
• Enumeration confirmed to stay within authorized scope