Cloud Penetration Testing: Scoping, Rules of Engagement & Cloud-Native Exploits
Navigating cloud vendor penetration testing policies, IAM privilege escalation, and metadata service (IMDSv2) attacks.
The Shift from Network Ports to Identity Exploitation
Traditional network penetration testing looks for open ports and vulnerable daemon versions. In cloud environments like AWS and Azure, vulnerabilities almost always reside in overly permissive IAM policies and exposed metadata endpoints.
Understanding Cloud Provider Testing Policies
Both AWS and Microsoft Azure allow penetration testing of user-owned virtual machines and serverless functions without prior notification. However, DoS attacks, physical datacenter attacks, and testing provider control planes remain strictly prohibited.
Attacking and Hardening Cloud Instance Metadata
Adversaries exploit SSRF flaws in web applications to query `http://169.254.169.254` and steal temporary IAM instance profile credentials. Enforcing AWS IMDSv2 (which requires session tokens) mitigates simple SSRF exfiltration.
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