AWS Penetration Testing: What It Is, Why You Need It and How It Works
Broadly speaking, AWS penetration testing (or “pen-testing”) is the process of identifying security issues that could impact the confidentiality, integrity or availability of your AWS resources. In this blog post, we'll cover the basics of AWS penetration testing, including what it is, why you need it and how it works. We'll also highlight the benefits of pen testing and outline what can't be tested in AWS.
How does AWS penetration testing work?
AWS penetration testing is conducted by our team of experienced security professionals who are familiar with the Amazon Web Services platform. The assessment begins with an evaluation of your environment to understand how it is configured and identify potential areas of concern. Once the evaluation is complete, the team will manually attempt to exploit any vulnerabilities that were identified. If successful, the team will document the steps taken to exploit the vulnerability so that you can remediate it.
What are the benefits of AWS penetration testing?
AWS penetration testing is a process that helps identify security issues in your AWS environment. It can help you protect your resources from unauthorized access, manipulation or destruction and ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of your data. There are other reasons why you might need an AWS pen test. For example, if you're required to meet specific industry, legal or compliance standards, such as PCI DSS, then you'll need to conduct regular penetration tests. It is also a great way to evaluate the security posture of your organization and identify potential risks generally. By identifying and addressing these risks, you can help protect your data, ensure the continued operation of your AWS environment and reassure your clients and customers that you place high importance on keeping their data safe.
What can't be tested in AWS?
AWS is a very comprehensive platform with many different services and features, many of which are based on a SaaS model. This means that the end user doesn’t own the environment and therefore cannot pen test in the way they could if they did own the environment. They can however test under a “Black Box” approach or through a security audit. Of course, physical hardware or infrastructure that belongs to AWS can’t be tested either; nor can security appliances that are managed by other vendors or Elastic Cloud Computing (EC2) environments that belong to others.
Final thoughts
After a pen test, a documented report of findings and remediation recommendations will be issued by our experts. The vulnerabilities found should be remediated, starting with the areas of highest risk first. Following remediation, a retest should be undertaken to confirm that all vulnerabilities are remediated. You should check if your industry standards, regulations or compliance standards require a retest. Should you wish to send any report relating to your pen test, you should think about how to do that safely; after all, your company’s vulnerabilities will be clearly set out and if these fall into the wrong hands, an attack on your company may not be far off.
If you're interested in learning more about AWS penetration testing, please do contact us below; or if you would like to see our template penetration test report please click here.
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