AWS Cloud Penetration Testing Secrets#

The cloud is not just someone else's computer; it's a complex attack surface with unique vulnerabilities. As organizations migrate to AWS in 2025, cloud penetration testing has become the most lucrative skill set for ethical hackers.

Common AWS Misconfigurations#

1. S3 Bucket Leaks#

The classic vulnerability that never dies.

• Public Read/Write: Scanning for open buckets using tools like S3Scanner.
• Subdomain Takeover: Exploiting dangling CNAME records pointing to deleted buckets.

2. IAM Privilege Escalation#

Identity and Access Management (IAM) is the perimeter.

• PassRole Abuse: Granting an EC2 instance a role with higher privileges than the user.
• Policy Misconfigurations: Exploiting Allow * permissions to gain AdministratorAccess.

3. Lambda Injection#

Serverless functions are just code, and code can be exploited.

• Event Injection: Manipulating the JSON payload sent to a Lambda function.
• Dependency Poisoning: attacking the libraries the function imports.

Tools of the Trade#

• Pacu: The AWS exploitation framework.
• ScoutSuite: Multi-cloud security auditing tool.
• CloudSploit: Automated compliance checking.

Conclusion#

Cloud security is a continuous battle. By understanding these attack vectors, you can better secure your infrastructure against the next generation of cloud threats.