Cloud Penetration Testing Services

testing types

Artifice Security provides in-depth AWS penetration testing for both user-operated and vendor-operated cloud environments. Each type requires a different approach, and our methodology adapts to the specific security responsibilities outlined in the AWS Shared Responsibility Model.

User-Operated Services

These include services that your organization directly deploys and manages — such as EC2 instances or S3 storage buckets. Because you’re responsible for the configuration, our testing focuses on discovering misconfigurations, privilege escalation vectors, exposed services, insecure IAM policies, and more. Testing is conducted in a safe manner, with restrictions on disruptive actions like Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks, per AWS policy.

Vendor-Operated Services

This includes Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms hosted by third parties — such as AWS CloudFront, Salesforce, Microsoft 365, or Gmail. Since we don’t test the provider’s infrastructure, we focus on your specific usage and implementation — looking at things like identity federation, data exposure, misconfigured APIs, and insecure third-party integrations.

How We Access and Test AWS

To conduct a secure and thorough assessment, you provide Artifice Security with a dedicated test account that includes ReadOnlyAccess and SecurityAudit AWS Managed Policies. This enables a white-box security audit of your AWS infrastructure — allowing us to view architectural decisions and security settings that attackers wouldn’t normally see. With this insight, we go far beyond external testing to identify risk areas that are often overlooked.

AWS Services We Assess

We assess a wide range of AWS services for security misconfigurations, access control weaknesses, and improper deployments. Our typical cloud security audit includes, but is not limited to:

• IAM – Role misuse, excessive permissions, weak trust policies

• S3, RDS, EC2 – Misconfigurations, encryption issues, public access risks

• KMS & Secrets Manager – Key rotation policies, secrets handling practices

• CloudTrail, CloudWatch, Config – Logging, alerting, and event mismanagement

• Lambda, DynamoDB, VPC, Route 53, SES, SNS, SQS, and many more

Whether you use AWS for compute, storage, or serverless functions, our AWS penetration testing methodology will help you harden your environment against both external and internal threats.

google cloud

Artifice Security performs comprehensive penetration testing for Google Cloud Platform (GCP) environments using a white-box assessment approach that aligns with Google’s Shared Responsibility Model. While Google manages the security of the underlying infrastructure, your organization is responsible for the configuration, access controls, and data protection strategies deployed within your cloud environment.

Our GCP penetration testing focuses on identifying misconfigurations, excessive permissions, exposed resources, insecure API endpoints, and improper identity or access management policies that could be exploited by an attacker.

GCP Security Testing Focus Areas

Artifice Security examines the structure, access layers, and deployment practices within your GCP environment. Our testing includes an in-depth review of:

• Identity and Access Management (IAM): Detecting overly permissive roles, weak service account configurations, and privilege escalation paths.

• Compute Engine: Reviewing virtual machine (VM) configurations, firewall rules, metadata server access, and network exposure.

• Cloud Storage: Testing for publicly exposed buckets, insecure object permissions, and weak ACL policies.

• Cloud SQL: Examining authentication methods, network exposure, and misconfigured access settings.

• Cloud Resource Manager: Validating organization-wide policies, folder/project hierarchies, and policy enforcement.

• Kubernetes Engine: Testing GKE clusters for node metadata leaks, RBAC flaws, insecure pod permissions, and workload exposure.

• Key Management Service (KMS): Analyzing key access permissions, rotation policies, and encryption configurations.

• Stackdriver Logging (now Cloud Logging): Ensuring proper logging, retention, and monitoring of security-relevant events.

Our GCP cloud security assessments are customized to your architecture and compliance needs. We combine security best practices with attacker-like logic to ensure your environment is resilient against real-world threats — whether internal or external.

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure provides built-in security controls and undergoes regular third-party audits, but the security of your applications, virtual machines, and cloud configurations ultimately remains your responsibility. Azure’s shared responsibility model means that while Microsoft protects the platform, you must secure the data, services, and user access within your cloud environment.

At Artifice Security, we perform thorough Azure penetration testing using manual techniques combined with cloud configuration reviews. Our assessments are designed to identify security gaps specific to your Azure deployment — from exposed services and weak credentials to misconfigured identity and access controls.

We strictly adhere to Microsoft’s Pentest Rules of Engagement, which outline acceptable testing activities. While testing against customer data, other tenants, or denial-of-service attacks is prohibited, Azure permits testing across a broad range of services and assets within your tenant.

Azure Services Eligible for Testing

• Azure Active Directory (AAD)

• Microsoft Intune

• Microsoft Azure (core platform services)

• Azure DevOps

• Microsoft Dynamics 365

• Microsoft Power Platform

• Microsoft Account

• Office 365

What Artifice Security Tests in Your Azure Environment

• Manual penetration testing of your cloud-hosted applications

• Enumeration and fuzz testing of cloud endpoints

• Exploitation of Azure Active Directory misconfigurations (e.g., over-permissive roles, weak MFA policies)

• Lateral movement simulations between Azure resources

• Brute-force testing of login interfaces to uncover weak or reused credentials

• Token abuse from Managed Identity for privilege escalation

• Azure Storage Blob enumeration and access testing

• Exploiting flaws in Azure AD Connect configurations

• Bypassing conditional access controls

• Testing database encryption, access, and secrets management

Artifice Security’s Azure pentesting services provide a deep look into the attack surface of your Microsoft cloud environment. We identify real-world security risks specific to Azure and deliver actionable remediation steps to strengthen your cloud defenses.

methodology

At Artifice Security, our cloud penetration testing methodology is built on years of experience and real-world engagements. We follow a structured, manual approach that eliminates false positives and delivers proof-of-concept exploits to demonstrate actual risk. Our process is designed to assess cloud-native services, applications, and configurations across platforms like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud — all while ensuring your team gets actionable results and measurable value.

01

Define the Scope

Before any testing begins, we work closely with your team to define a clear and effective scope for the cloud penetration test. This step is critical to ensure the engagement focuses on your actual risk areas and aligns with your cloud architecture and business priorities.

During the scoping phase, we:

• Identify your cloud service provider (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP) and service model (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS)

• Determine which services, applications, APIs, or environments are in scope for testing

• Clarify any exclusions or sensitive assets that must be handled differently

• Establish testing windows and timelines to ensure minimal business disruption

• Designate primary contacts and escalation procedures for any critical findings

This foundation ensures transparency, minimizes risk, and allows our team to tailor the engagement to your specific cloud environment.

02

Information Gathering & Reconnaissance

During the Information Gathering (Recon) phase of our cloud penetration testing process, Artifice Security leverages passive reconnaissance techniques and Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) to uncover potential vulnerabilities, data exposures, and external threats that could target your cloud infrastructure.

This phase is critical because attackers often begin their campaigns using publicly available information — and we simulate that same approach to identify what sensitive details might already be exposed about your organization.

Key reconnaissance activities include:

• Enumerating domains and URLs tied to your cloud services, including misconfigured subdomains or third-party services that could introduce risk

• Searching for exposed documents (PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPT, etc.) indexed by search engines that may inadvertently reveal confidential information, internal IPs, or credentials

• Scanning breach databases and dark web sources for leaked credentials or passwords associated with your organization’s domains

• Identifying similar or spoofed domain names that could be used in phishing attacks or brand impersonation campaigns

Our goal in this phase is to replicate how real attackers would profile your cloud attack surface — and provide visibility into the risks you didn’t know existed.

03

Enumeration and Vulnerability Scanning

During the Enumeration and Vulnerability Scanning phase, Artifice Security performs active reconnaissance to map out your cloud environment and identify all potential entry points for an attacker. This step builds directly upon the insights gathered during the earlier recon phase, giving us a comprehensive view of your exposed services, configurations, and possible weak spots.

We use both open-source and proprietary scanning tools to thoroughly evaluate your infrastructure for vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and security gaps — all while avoiding any service disruptions.

Key enumeration and scanning activities include:

• Scanning all 65,535 TCP and UDP ports to identify open ports, exposed services, and potential misconfigured interfaces across your cloud-hosted assets

• Enumerating cloud services in use (e.g., compute, storage, identity, database) to assess their configuration, role in your environment, and exposure to unauthorized access

• Identifying misconfigurations in cloud systems such as overly permissive IAM policies, unsecured APIs, or exposed storage buckets

• Correlating known vulnerabilities using both public CVE databases and proprietary threat intelligence to detect security flaws relevant to your specific cloud setup

This phase lays the foundation for the next stage of testing — exploitation — by providing a clear picture of what’s exposed and how attackers might pivot through your cloud ecosystem.

04

Attack and Exploitation

In the Attack and Exploitation phase, Artifice Security leverages manual penetration testing techniques to safely and systematically exploit the vulnerabilities identified in your cloud environment. Our security engineers follow strict protocols to ensure that testing does not disrupt your normal business operations or violate any cloud provider security rules (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP).

Using real-world adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), we simulate the actions of a determined attacker to understand how deep a compromise could go — and more importantly, how to stop it.

During this phase, our expert cloud penetration testers will:

• Exploit application-layer vulnerabilities across cloud-hosted web apps, APIs, and services

• Compromise network-layer flaws such as exposed ports, insecure protocols, or misconfigured VPCs

• Target Azure-specific services such as Azure Key Vault, Azure App Services, Azure Automation, and role-based access controls to identify privilege escalation paths

• Escalate privileges within your environment to demonstrate lateral movement, data exposure, or control over critical assets

• Simulate controlled data exfiltration (with client approval) to demonstrate the potential impact of a real-world cloud breach

Each exploit is documented with detailed proof-of-concept examples, showing exactly how the attack succeeded and what could be done to prevent it. Our cloud penetration testing engagements give you a complete understanding of both technical vulnerabilities and their business impact.

05

Reporting and Documentation

At Artifice Security, our cloud penetration testing report is more than just a checklist of vulnerabilities — it’s a detailed roadmap for improving your security posture.

The Reporting Phase begins with an Executive Summary that translates technical findings into plain language for business leaders. This summary outlines the overall risk to your cloud environment, highlights the most critical issues, and includes a list of positive security controls discovered during testing.

From there, the report breaks down each vulnerability in technical detail, including:

• A concise description of the issue

• Affected locations within your cloud infrastructure or applications

• Step-by-step proofs-of-concept that demonstrate how each vulnerability was exploited

• Severity ratings and risk justifications based on real-world impact and exploitability

• Tailored remediation guidance based on your specific cloud architecture and configuration

We guarantee zero false positives because every finding is validated through hands-on, manual testing. This means your team can trust the report and take immediate, focused action.

To support your compliance and business needs, we also provide:

• A customer-facing summary report appropriate for auditors, clients, or partners

• A formal attestation letter upon request, confirming that a professional cloud penetration test was performed and remediated if applicable

Whether you’re preparing for a compliance audit or building a proactive security strategy, our reporting gives you the clarity and precision you need to move forward confidently.

06

Remediation Testing

Once your team has addressed the vulnerabilities identified during the initial assessment, Artifice Security performs a dedicated remediation testing phase (also known as retesting) to validate your fixes and confirm that the risk has been fully mitigated.

This follow-up assessment ensures that:

• All previously identified vulnerabilities have been properly remediated

• No new issues were introduced during the remediation process

• Your cloud environment aligns with security best practices and compliance standards

Our team re-tests each finding manually, using the same techniques used to exploit the issue during the original assessment. We verify successful remediation and update your penetration testing report to reflect the current state of your security posture.

This final report is critical for demonstrating due diligence to:

• Internal stakeholders and executives

• Compliance auditors

• Third-party partners or clients requesting proof of secure operations

If needed, Artifice Security will also provide a formal remediation attestation letter, confirming the vulnerabilities have been addressed and no longer pose a risk.

By including remediation testing as a standard part of every engagement, we help your organization close the loop on vulnerabilities — and deliver confidence to your security, compliance, and business teams alike.

FAQ