☁️ Cloud Security Testing

Explore techniques, tools, and best practices for testing cloud environments securely

What is Cloud Security Testing?

Cloud security testing focuses on identifying and mitigating vulnerabilities in cloud environments like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. It includes reviewing configuration issues, access control, identity management, exposed services, and network security across infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS), and software-as-a-service (SaaS) models.

🔑 Key Concepts

🧠 Step-by-Step Process

1. Reconnaissance

  • Enumerate domains, subdomains, cloud assets
  • Use tools like Amass, Shodan, and SecurityTrails
  • Discover cloud service usage via DNS signatures (e.g. s3.amazonaws.com)

2. Misconfiguration Assessment

  • Scan cloud storage for public access (e.g. aws s3 ls s3://bucket-name --no-sign-request)
  • Audit IAM policies for wildcard permissions
  • Check default security groups and open ports

3. Credential Leakage

  • Scan GitHub and GitLab for leaked cloud API keys using tools like truffleHog
  • Use git-secrets to prevent future leaks

4. Exploitation

  • Privilege escalation via misconfigured roles (e.g. iam:PassRole)
  • Abuse Lambda or EC2 permissions to pivot internally
  • Enumerate instance metadata (e.g. curl http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/)

5. Post-Exploitation

  • Enumerate cloud logs for detection gaps
  • Check for CloudTrail, GuardDuty, or Security Command Center configs

☁️ Provider-Specific Considerations

AWS

  • Check S3 bucket ACLs and policies
  • Review IAM role trust relationships
  • Use Prowler or ScoutSuite for automated auditing

Azure

  • Check exposed storage blobs and access tokens
  • Review role assignments with az role assignment list
  • Use Azucar for misconfiguration scans

GCP

  • Audit IAM bindings and service accounts
  • Enumerate open buckets and functions
  • Use GCPBucketBrute or ScoutSuite

📌 Real-World Example

# Discover public S3 bucket content
aws s3 ls s3://public-data-bucket --no-sign-request

# Enumerate EC2 metadata for credentials
curl http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/

# Scan cloud account with Prowler (AWS)
./prowler -M html -S -n -p <profile-name>

💡 Actionable Tips

🛠️ Recommended Tools