Cloud Penetration Testing

Close every misconfiguration and exposed service in your cloud before an attacker finds it.

What It Is

Cloud Penetration Testing (Cloud VAPT) simulates real-world cyberattacks against your public, private, or hybrid cloud environments including AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). The assessment combines cloud configuration review, privilege-escalation testing, API abuse simulation, and controlled live exploitation to expose the exact attack paths an adversary could use to compromise workloads, exfiltrate sensitive data, pivot into on-prem networks, or generate fraudulent compute usage.

Why proactive testing matters

  • Over 80% of data breaches now involve cloud assets, such as misconfigured S3 buckets, open APIs, or weak IAM policies.

  • The average cost of a cloud breach has exceeded USD 4 million, often followed by regulatory penalties and brand damage.

  • Organizations that adopt continuous cloud security testing and cloud vulnerability assessments reduce incident response costs by approximately 27% and avoid headline-grabbing data exposures.

Network Security

Why Choose Trace for Network Security?

  • Scoping & Planning

    We begin with precise engagement scoping aligning on business objectives, compliance frameworks (ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, GDPR, RBI, SEBI), and change-freeze windows to define a controlled and risk-aware penetration testing scope.

  • Vulnerability Assessment

    Our experts leverage CSP-native APIs and industry-leading vulnerability assessment tools to map your cloud and network infrastructure. We identify misconfigurations across Identity & Access Management (IAM), storage services, network security groups, and container orchestration platforms like Kubernetes and Docker.

  • Remediation & Re-testing

    After mitigation steps are applied, we perform remediation validation and retesting to ensure every vulnerability has been completely resolved. Our post-assessment verification gives you assurance of continuous network security compliance.

  • Risk Analysis & Reporting

    All findings are prioritized by severity and mapped to frameworks like OWASP Top 10, NIST SP 800-115, and CIS Benchmarks. We deliver clear, actionable reports designed for both cloud engineers and executive stakeholders to support strategic risk management.

  • Penetration Testing

    Using safe exploitation techniques, we simulate real-world cyberattacks to test over-privileged IAM roles, instance metadata exposure, SSRF vulnerabilities, public bucket access, and serverless function exploits assessing the true business impact without disrupting production workloads.

Testing Modes We Offer

  • Black-Box
        An external perspective with no internal credentials, designed to identify publicly exposed cloud misconfigurations, attackable services, and open network surfaces that threat actors can exploit.

  • White-Box
        With full access to system credentials, source code, and infrastructure configurations, we leverage our 40+ global OEM cybersecurity partnerships to deliver future-proof network security solutions tailored to your cloud architecture and business needs.

  • Grey-Box
        A controlled hybrid approach using limited credentials to simulate a compromised developer account or leaked SaaS token uncovering insider-level attack paths, privilege escalations, and lateral movement opportunities.

  • All testing aligns with CIS Benchmarks, NIST SP 800-144/190, CSA Cloud Controls Matrix (CCM v4), and PTES (Penetration Testing Execution Standard) to ensure global compliance and technical precision.

What We Test For

  • Identity & Access Misconfigurations - Detect over-privileged IAM roles, weak access policies, stale API keys, and insecure identity federation settings.

  • Storage Exposures & Data Leaks - Identify publicly exposed cloud storage buckets, unsecured databases, and sensitive data disclosures.

  • Network Segmentation Gaps - Evaluate cloud network isolation, firewall misconfigurations, and lateral movement risks across hybrid environments.

  • Serverless & Container Risks - Test for insecure container orchestration, serverless function vulnerabilities, and supply chain risks in Kubernetes and Docker environments.

  • API & Metadata Abuse - Simulate API exploitation, metadata service abuse, and mass assignment vulnerabilities in cloud-native apps.

  • Logging & Monitoring Weaknesses - Detect disabled audit logs, inactive CloudTrail/Activity Logs, missing Defender or GuardDuty alerts, and SIEM integration gaps.

  • Encryption & Key Management Flaws - Audit unencrypted storage volumes, hard-coded secrets, insecure TLS configurations, and misused KMS (Key Management Service) keys.

  • CI/CD Pipeline Vulnerabilities - Identify insecure DevOps workflows, exposed build environments, and supply chain risks within continuous integration pipelines.

What You Receive

  • Executive Risk Reports
        Concise, C-suite-ready cybersecurity summaries highlighting risk severity, business impact, and strategic cloud security recommendations for leadership decisions.

  • Detailed Vulnerability Matrix
        Comprehensive vulnerability assessment report including CVSS and CSPM scores, exploit paths, and annotated screenshots offering full visibility into cloud misconfigurations, API risks, and IAM weaknesses.

  • Remediation Playbook
       Step-by-step vulnerability remediation guide with Terraform, CLI, and infrastructure-as-code (IaC) examples enabling fast, consistent cloud configuration fixes aligned with CIS Benchmarks and NIST standards.

  • Free Retest
       After applying fixes, we conduct a complimentary revalidation test to confirm every vulnerability is fully resolved, ensuring zero false assurance and continuous compliance.

Benefits for Your Business

  • Prevent Data Leaks & Cloud Abuse
       Protect against unauthorized access, cryptomining exploits, and cloud data exposure before they disrupt operations.

  • Meet Compliance Standards
       Achieve and prove compliance with ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, GDPR, RBI, SEBI, and SOC 2 regulatory frameworks.

  • Reduce Downtime & Costs
       Minimize outage risk, incident response time, and remediation costs through prioritized vulnerability management.

  • Enhance Customer & Investor Trust
       Strengthen credibility with third-party security validation and cloud hardening evidence.

  • Optimize Cloud Spend
       Lower costs by eliminating unused cloud services, redundant configurations, and insecure defaults.

FAQS

Frequently Asked Questions

Find answers to your questions
about our Cloud Penetration Testing and approach.

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How often should we conduct a Cloud Pen-Test?

Perform a Cloud Penetration Test (Cloud VAPT) at least once a year, and after any major cloud architecture changes, multi-region deployments, or significant Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) updates. Regular testing ensures continuous cloud security posture management (CSPM) and helps maintain compliance with ISO 27001, SOC 2, and GDPR standards.

Will testing impact live workloads?

No. Our cloud security testing framework is designed to ensure zero downtime and no service disruption. We use read-only API calls, controlled exploit simulations, and automated rollback procedures to safeguard production workloads during testing.

How is this different from a CSPM scan?

A CSPM (Cloud Security Posture Management) scan identifies misconfigurations, while a Cloud Pen-Test goes further chaining misconfigs, exploiting real-world attack paths, and demonstrating cross-account and multi-region breach impact that scanners can’t replicate.

How long does an engagement take?

Typical Cloud Penetration Testing engagements take 5–12 business days, depending on your cloud provider (AWS, Azure, GCP), environment size, and security complexity. Larger estates or hybrid setups may include additional manual exploitation testing for deeper coverage.