Professional Cloud Penetration Testing Services
At Trilight Security, we provide comprehensive cloud penetration testing services for organizations across the USA and the EU, including a strong focus on Germany. Our certified experts go beyond automated configuration scanning — actively exploiting misconfigured IAM roles, overpermissive storage buckets, insecure serverless functions, and container escape vulnerabilities to demonstrate real-world impact. We cover AWS, Azure, and GCP environments, hybrid and multi-cloud architectures, and cloud-native services including Kubernetes, serverless, and microservice deployments. Get in touch with Trilight Security to discover how our cloud pentesting services can reduce your attack surface, validate your cloud security controls, and satisfy compliance requirements under NIS2, ISO/IEC 27001, SOC 2, and PCI-DSS.
Our Offering
Black Box Pentesting
We assess your cloud environment with no prior knowledge of your architecture, account structure, or internal configuration — replicating the perspective of an external attacker who has discovered exposed cloud assets through OSINT and internet-facing service enumeration.
Grey Box Pentesting
We conduct grey box assessments with basic account information and limited credentials — such as a low-privilege IAM user — but without architecture docs or elevated permissions. This reflects the threat of a compromised credential or phished employee with standard cloud access.
White Box Pentesting
We conduct white box assessments with full access to cloud architecture docs, IAM configs, account structures etc. This approach enables the deepest assessment of your cloud security posture and is best for pre-migration reviews, compliance engagements.
Why Cloud Penetration Testing?
Cloud environments are uniquely vulnerable to a category of risk that traditional network pentesting cannot address: misconfigurations and design flaws in the cloud remain primary targets for cyberattackers, with overly permissive IAM policies, publicly accessible storage buckets, and insecure cloud-native services being the leading causes of cloud breaches in 2025. Cloud penetration testing requires specialized expertise in cloud-native services such as AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, and Google Cloud Run, containerization with Docker and Kubernetes, and the intricate web of IAM roles and permissions specific to each cloud provider — expertise that generic network pentesting teams do not carry. By engaging Trilight Security, you get a team that actively exploits IAM privilege escalation paths, tests serverless function injection, validates storage bucket access controls, and demonstrates what a real attacker could achieve across your cloud estate — producing the evidence that auditors, compliance frameworks, and enterprise customers require.
Cloud Configuration Review
We provide a structured review of your cloud environment’s security configuration against CIS Benchmarks for AWS, Azure, and GCP — identifying misconfigurations, policy violations, and compliance gaps without active exploitation. Ideal as a complement to penetration testing or as a standalone pre-audit exercise
What We Test
- AWS (Amazon Web Services) IAM roles, policies and trust relationships, S3 bucket access controls, EC2 security groups and metadata service (IMDSv1/v2), Lambda function injection and event trigger security, RDS exposure, Secrets Manager and Parameter Store configuration, CloudTrail logging gaps, and cross-account role assumption paths.
- Microsoft Azure Azure AD / Entra ID RBAC misconfiguration, Azure Blob Storage public access, Azure Functions and Logic Apps security, Key Vault access policies, Network Security Group configuration, Service Principal permissions, Managed Identity abuse, and Azure DevOps pipeline security.
- Google Cloud Platform (GCP) GCP IAM bindings and service account key exposure, GCS bucket permissions, Cloud Functions and Cloud Run security, Compute Engine metadata service, GKE cluster configuration, Secret Manager access, and VPC firewall rule analysis.
- Kubernetes & Container Security Cluster RBAC misconfiguration, pod security policy bypass, container escape via privileged containers and host path mounts, insecure container images and registries, exposed Kubernetes API server, secrets in etcd, and network policy enforcement.
- Multi-Cloud & Hybrid Environments Cross-cloud identity federation security, VPN and ExpressRoute/Direct Connect connectivity assessment, shared responsibility boundary analysis, and cloud-to-on-premises lateral movement paths
Penetration Testing Process
We use a combination of manual adversarial techniques and cloud-native automated tooling to assess cloud environments. Our methodology is adapted to the specific cloud provider, account structure, and architecture of each engagement. Typically, cloud penetration testing projects include the following stages:
- Reconnaissance & Asset Discovery: We enumerate all in-scope cloud assets — including publicly exposed services, storage buckets, cloud functions, APIs, container registries, and DNS records — using both passive OSINT and active cloud-native enumeration. For grey and white box engagements we supplement this with architecture review and IAM policy analysis to map the full attack surface before active testing begins.
- IAM & Access Control Assessment: We analyze the IAM configuration across all in-scope accounts — testing for overpermissive roles, excessive privilege assignments, broken trust relationships between accounts, weak credential policies, missing MFA enforcement on privileged accounts, and exploitable role assumption paths. IAM privilege escalation is the most frequently exploited attack vector in cloud compromises and receives dedicated, exhaustive testing in every engagement.
- Misconfiguration Exploitation: We actively test for and attempt to exploit cloud misconfigurations — including publicly accessible S3 buckets, Azure Blob Storage, and GCS buckets; exposed RDS/database instances; open security groups and network ACLs; insecure VPC configurations; and metadata service exposure (IMDSv1 SSRF). Every misconfiguration is validated for exploitability rather than simply flagged by automated scanner.
- Cloud-Native Service Testing: We assess cloud-native and serverless services for security weaknesses specific to their architecture — including injection vulnerabilities in Lambda, Azure Functions, and Cloud Functions; insecure event trigger configurations; container escape in Kubernetes and ECS environments; insecure container images and registry configurations; and secrets exposure in environment variables and cloud configuration stores.
- Lateral Movement & Privilege Escalation: Once initial access is established through a misconfiguration or compromised credential, we simulate lateral movement across cloud services — attempting to pivot between accounts, escalate from a low-privilege identity to administrator, access sensitive data stores, and reach the most critical assets in the environment.
- Data Exposure Assessment: We identify and validate paths to sensitive data exposure — including unencrypted storage, insecure data pipeline configurations, logging and monitoring gaps that would allow an attacker to operate undetected, and secrets stored in code repositories, environment variables, or snapshot backups accessible from the compromised identity.
- Reporting: Our reports are thorough, developer-friendly, and structured for both technical teams and executive stakeholders. Each report includes:
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- A detailed attack narrative for each finding, describing how the vulnerability could be exploited and what an attacker could achieve — with exact evidence from the cloud environment.
- Specific, prioritised remediation recommendations with cloud-provider-specific fix guidance (AWS CLI commands, Azure policy configurations, Terraform/IaC remediation examples where applicable).
- Compliance mapping to CIS Benchmarks, NIST SP 800-144, ISO/IEC 27017, SOC 2, NIS2, and PCI-DSS as required.
Our Benefits
Top Certifications
Our experts hold OSCE, OSCP, OSEP, AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner, Azure Security Engineer, CREST, CEH, and other certifications, and they have hands-on experience securing cloud environments across AWS, Azure, and GCP.
Top Methodologies
CIS Benchmarks (AWS, Azure, GCP), NIST SP 800-144, Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) Cloud Controls Matrix (CCM), MITRE ATT&CK for Cloud (IaaS matrix), PTES, and OWASP Cloud Security Testing Guide.
Rich Deliverables
We provide comprehensive cloud pentest reports with detailed findings, IAM attack path diagrams, proof-of-concept evidence, remediation guidance with IaC examples, compliance mapping, and other content.
Cost Efficiency
One of our core advantages is access to top-tier cloud security talent with extensive experience in demanding enterprise environments across AWS, Azure, and GCP — delivered at competitive, transparent pricing.
Cloud Penetration Testing Methodologies
Our cloud penetration testing services follow the CIS Benchmarks for AWS, Azure, and GCP as the primary configuration assessment standard, and the MITRE ATT&CK for Cloud (IaaS matrix) for adversary simulation — mapping all identified attack paths to real-world threat actor techniques across Initial Access, Execution, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, Defense Evasion, Credential Access, Discovery, Lateral Movement, Exfiltration, and Impact. The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) Cloud Controls Matrix (CCM) provides the governance and compliance mapping framework. For compliance-driven engagements, assessments are aligned to ISO/IEC 27017, NIST SP 800-144, SOC 2, NIS2 Article 21, PCI-DSS, and ISO/IEC 27001 as applicable.
Tools
Our cloud penetration testing toolset is purpose-built for cloud environments. For AWS assessment we use Pacu (Rhino Security Labs’ AWS exploitation framework), ScoutSuite for multi-cloud configuration review, Prowler for CIS Benchmark compliance scanning, and CloudMapper for network visualization and exposure analysis. Azure assessments use ROADtools and AzureHound for Azure AD / Entra ID attack path mapping and MicroBurst for service enumeration. GCP assessments use GCPBucketBrute and GCP_IAM_Collector for privilege analysis. Kubernetes testing uses kube-hunter and kube-bench. Container security uses Trivy and Grype for image vulnerability analysis. Infrastructure-as-code security review uses Checkov and tfsec. All automated findings are manually reviewed and validated before inclusion in the report.
Our Certifications
Deliverables
- Executive Summary: A high-level overview of the cloud security assessment results and overall risk exposure, written for management and non-technical stakeholders.
- Test Plan: A document outlining the agreed scope, cloud accounts and services in scope, objectives, methodology, rules of engagement, and timeline.
- Detailed Technical Report: All findings with CVSS risk ratings, step-by-step exploitation walkthroughs, proof-of-concept evidence from the cloud environment, and remediation guidance with cloud-provider-specific commands and IaC examples.
- IAM Attack Path Diagrams: Visual representations of privilege escalation and lateral movement paths identified during the engagement — showing how an attacker could move from a low-privilege identity to administrator access.
- Vulnerability Assessment: A full inventory of all misconfigurations, access control weaknesses, and vulnerabilities identified, with severity ratings and exploitability assessment.
- Evidence: Screenshots, AWS CLI/Azure CLI/GCP CLI command outputs, API response captures, and other supporting artefacts.
- Compliance Mapping: Findings mapped to CIS Benchmarks, MITRE ATT&CK for Cloud, SOC 2, NIS2, ISO/IEC 27017, and PCI-DSS as required.
- Action Plan: A structured remediation roadmap with recommended actions, IaC fix examples, suggested timelines, and responsible parties
After a follow-up retest to confirm remediation, we issue a Pentest Certificate for compliance audits, vendor due diligence, and customer communications.
Read more here:
Penetration Testing Methodologies
Penetration Test Report Sample
Penetration testing is a must for any business using digital services. We use different comprehensive tools, methodologies, and models for pentesting. DOWNLOAD our penetration test report sample and learn more.
FAQ
Cloud penetration testing is a security assessment in which our experts simulate real-world attacks against your cloud infrastructure — actively exploiting misconfigured IAM roles, exposed storage, insecure serverless functions, and other cloud-specific vulnerabilities — to identify what an attacker could achieve before they get the chance.
A cloud security assessment or compliance audit checks your configuration against a checklist of known best practices. Cloud penetration testing goes further — our experts actively attempt to exploit identified weaknesses, chain misconfigurations together, escalate privileges, and demonstrate real-world impact with proof-of-concept evidence. A compliance audit tells you what your configuration says; a penetration test tells you what an attacker can actually do with it.
We test AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, as well as multi-cloud and hybrid environments combining these providers with on-premises infrastructure. We assess all major cloud service categories including IaaS, PaaS, serverless, container, and SaaS deployments.
The most frequently exploited weaknesses include overpermissive IAM roles and broken privilege escalation paths, publicly accessible storage buckets containing sensitive data, exposed metadata services enabling SSRF-based credential theft, insecure serverless function configurations, container misconfigurations enabling cluster escape, hardcoded credentials in code repositories or environment variables, and missing MFA on privileged cloud accounts.
IAM (Identity and Access Management) privilege escalation occurs when a low-privilege cloud identity — such as a compromised employee account or a misconfigured service role — can abuse permission combinations to grant itself administrator-level access. This is the most commonly exploited attack path in cloud compromises. We systematically map all privilege escalation paths within your IAM configuration, including cross-account role assumptions, and test whether they can be exploited from realistic starting positions.
Yes. We assess Kubernetes clusters for RBAC misconfiguration, pod security policy bypass, container escape via privileged containers and host path mounts, exposed API server, secrets in etcd, insecure container images, and network policy enforcement. Container image analysis covers known CVEs in base images and application dependencies.
Our cloud penetration testing follows CIS Benchmarks for AWS, Azure, and GCP, MITRE ATT&CK for Cloud (IaaS matrix), the CSA Cloud Controls Matrix, and PTES. For compliance-driven engagements we align findings to NIS2 Article 21, ISO/IEC 27017, ISO/IEC 27001, SOC 2, PCI-DSS, and HIPAA as applicable.
Testing is conducted within clearly defined rules of engagement agreed upfront. We never perform destructive operations, modify or delete production data, or take actions that could impact service availability without explicit prior agreement. For sensitive environments we work within defined maintenance windows or against isolated test accounts where possible.
Yes. For white box engagements we review Terraform, CloudFormation, Bicep, and other IaC definitions for security misconfigurations before they are deployed — identifying insecure defaults, overpermissive policies, and exposed resources at the code level. Remediation guidance is provided in the same IaC format used by your team.
NIS2 Article 21 requires essential and important entities to implement appropriate technical measures and regularly test their effectiveness. Cloud infrastructure is explicitly within scope of these obligations for organizations whose critical services depend on cloud deployments. Our cloud penetration tests produce the methodology documentation, findings record, and retest confirmation that national supervisory authorities require as evidence of compliance.
Duration depends on the number of in-scope cloud accounts, services, and regions, the complexity of the IAM configuration, whether multi-cloud or hybrid environments are included, and the depth of container and serverless testing required. A typical engagement ranges from one to two weeks. We provide a detailed scoping estimate prior to any engagement.
For black box testing we require only the list of in-scope cloud account IDs and regions. For grey box testing we additionally require a low-privilege IAM user or service principal credential. For white box testing we require architecture documentation and read-level access across all in-scope services. All information is handled in accordance with our ISO 27001-aligned security practices.
Yes. Our cloud penetration tests can be scoped and documented to satisfy requirements under NIS2, SOC 2, PCI-DSS, ISO/IEC 27001, ISO/IEC 27017, HIPAA, and GDPR. We provide compliance-mapped reporting that aligns findings directly to the relevant control requirements.
Yes. Our team is available to consult on remediation, clarify findings, review proposed fixes, and provide IaC-level remediation examples. Once remediation is complete we conduct a focused retest before issuing the Pentest Certificate.
Pricing depends on the number of in-scope cloud accounts and services, the cloud providers covered, the depth of IAM and container testing required, and whether IaC review is included. Given that the average cost of a cloud data breach exceeded €4 million per incident in Europe in 2024, a cloud penetration test represents a highly proportionate investment. Contact us for a detailed, obligation-free quote.
Our Recognition
