conducting-cloud-penetration-testing

name	conducting-cloud-penetration-testing
description	Use when 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
tags	["cloud-pentesting","offensive-security","aws-exploitation","shared-responsibility","mitre-attack-cloud"]
subdomain	cloud-security
version	1.0.0
author	oyi77
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

Overview

Cybersecurity skill for conducting cloud penetration testing. Follows industry best practices and security standards.

When to Use

Trigger phrases:

• "conducting cloud penetration testing"

• "This skill outlines methodologies for performing authorized penetration testing "

• 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.

When NOT to Use

• When you lack proper authorization for testing
• For production systems without change management
• When the task requires legal or compliance expertise beyond technical scope

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

# Example: IOC detection
import re

IOC_PATTERNS = {
    "ip": r"\b(?:\d{1,3}\.){3}\d{1,3}\b",
    "domain": r"\b[a-z0-9-]+\.[a-z]{2,}\b",
    "hash_md5": r"\b[a-f0-9]{32}\b",
    "hash_sha256": r"\b[a-f0-9]{64}\b",
}

def extract_iocs() -> :
     {k: re.findall(v, text)  k, v  IOC_PATTERNS.items()}