Why Cloud Security Matters
As organizations migrate to cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, misconfigurations and insecure defaults have become major attack vectors. Cloud security is not just about traditional controls—it's about understanding shared responsibility, service models, and cloud-native risks.
🛠️ Most Common Cloud Vulnerabilities
1. Misconfigured Storage Buckets
Publicly accessible S3 buckets or Azure Blob containers can leak sensitive files, source code, or credentials.
# Example: List open S3 buckets with Bucket Finder or tools like s3scanner
s3scanner scan --bucket example-company-assets2. Overly Permissive IAM Roles
Giving *:* permissions to users, roles, or services increases lateral movement and privilege escalation risks.
Attackers often search for misconfigured roles like AdministratorAccess or use STS AssumeRole to pivot.
3. Exposed API Endpoints
APIs in cloud services may be externally accessible and lack rate-limiting or authentication. This opens doors to brute-force, enumeration, or injection attacks.
4. Secrets in Public Repos
Developers accidentally push cloud keys to GitHub or GitLab, exposing credentials via Git history or commits.
# Search for leaked keys using GitHub dorks:
"aws_access_key_id" AND "secret_access_key" site:github.com5. Insecure Default Configurations
Cloud services often launch with defaults like open security groups, unrestricted firewall rules, or weak password policies.
Cloud providers assume users will harden their infrastructure. Sadly, many forget to do so.
6. Container & Kubernetes Misconfigurations
Containers in cloud-hosted clusters may run with root privileges, expose dashboards to the internet, or allow insecure workloads.
Example risks: exposed Kube API server, hostPath volume mounts, or privileged: true pods.
📈 How to Identify Cloud Vulnerabilities
Step 1: Enumerate Cloud Resources
- Use AWS CLI, Azure CLI, or GCP SDK to list resources
- Leverage open-source tools like ScoutSuite, CloudSploit, Prowler
Step 2: Review IAM Policies & Permissions
- Audit user and role permissions with least privilege in mind
- Look for wildcard permissions, unmanaged users, and long-lived keys
Step 3: Scan for Exposed Buckets & Services
- Use tools like
s3scanner,Bucket Finder,grayhatWarfare - Map open ports, cloud services (e.g., Elasticsearch, Redis, RDS), and web-facing apps
🌍 Real-World Breach Examples
- Capital One (2019): A misconfigured WAF and SSRF to AWS metadata exposed 100M customer records.
- Accenture (2021): Open AWS S3 buckets revealed internal data and cloud infrastructure details.
- Uber (2016): AWS keys exposed in a GitHub repo led to the breach of 57M user records.
🔐 Hardening Tips
- Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all accounts
- Apply least privilege IAM and review policies regularly
- Turn on CloudTrail, GuardDuty, Security Center (AWS/Azure/GCP)
- Use service control policies (SCP) for org-wide restrictions
- Continuously scan your cloud infrastructure for misconfigurations