Cloud Audit

The Threat

Cloud technology has become an integral component of IT infrastructure for many companies today, whether in the form of classical virtualized servers, serverless services, Kubernetes clusters and containers, or pure software-as-a-service products such as Office 365 or Google Workspaces. While the cloud offers flexibility and simplified IT management, improper usage can serve as a gateway for attackers to access the most critical company resources. Over the years, even well-established organizations have experienced compromises in their cloud environments, resulting in substantial data breaches. It is imperative to comprehend the limitations of the cloud while maximizing its potential to adequately safeguard valuable assets.

The Solution

A cloud security assessment concentrates on identifying vulnerabilities and weaknesses in the infrastructure before potential attackers can exploit them, ultimately compromising the entire company. The assessment involves analyzing deviations from best practices, paths for privilege escalation, misconfigurations, incident response readiness, and mechanisms for protecting confidential data. Each security assessment places emphasis on a comprehensive review, collaboration with customers, and guidance on mitigations. These steps enable IT teams to explore and implement tailored security strategies that enhance the overall security posture of cloud infrastructures. A properly protected cloud environment, utilizing various security measures provided by the cloud itself or third-party cloud-integrated services, becomes exceedingly challenging to breach without detection.

Customers often combine this test with:

• Web App Penetration Test: Apps are rarely standalone, they usually communicate with some web application or backend using APIs. In these cases, it is important to include the associated web app(s) in the test so the testers get a full picture of the threat model. For example, a mobile API issue might be irrelevant for the security of the mobile app but could introduce a serious issue in the web app. Similarly, invalid input could be harmless on the web app but result in a serious issue on the mobile or desktop app.
• Mobile/Desktop app penetration test: When there are apps communicating with the web application, these often use APIs that talk back to the application backend, in these cases it is important to include the associated app(s) in the test so the testers get a full picture of the threat model. For example, a mobile API issue might be irrelevant for the security of the mobile app but could introduce a serious issue in the web app. Similarly, invalid input could be harmless on the web app but result in a serious issue on the mobile or desktop app.
• Code Audit: A code audit in combination with a web app pentest provides you with the most value for money as testers have complete visibility. Many subtle issues can only be found in an efficient way via Code Review. We are familiar with the vast majority of popular web app development languages (i.e. PHP, Java, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, C#, etc.) and their associated frameworks.
• Server Hardening Audit: You could provide us with SSH/Remote Desktop access to a staging server so that we can review the current hardening situation and suggest improvements. This limits the potential impact of a breach as much as possible.