The top cloud platform in the world is Amazon Web Services (AWS). In addition to deployment and automation services, it offers elastic computing services, cloud storage, databases, a variety of data analytics and AI applications, and cloud services.
Companies should think about compliance requirements, the dangers of cyber attacks on cloud resources or sensitive data held in the cloud, and how to handle them before making the switch to AWS. What is aws cloud pentesting? Penetration testing is a very efficient method of identifying security flaws in a cloud system. A penetration tester can identify significant security flaws in an AWS implementation and offer practical solutions for fixing them.
However, as AWS is a third-party data center, organizations who conduct penetration tests are expected to adhere to certain guidelines and AWS regulations. In this article, newlifedn.com will discuss aws cloud pentesting.
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The shared responsibility concept is applied to security testing carried out on AWS. Amazon makes a distinction between two categories of security:
- Security of the cloud—this refers to the security of the AWS cloud pentesting platform, which encompasses both the cloud platform and every AWS service. Amazon is in charge of protecting the cloud platform, and security engineers from within or outside the company constantly test it. Customers of Amazon are prohibited from conducting penetration tests on this element of cloud security.
- Security in the cloud—this refers to the safety of the assets or resources that a company has deployed on the AWS platform. These fall within the purview of the business or resource owner, who must guarantee that the applications, assets, and systems are setup securely. Organizations may generally carry out penetration testing to confirm these elements of a secure implementation.
AWS Penetration Testing vs On-Premise Penetration Testing
AWS penetration testing differs significantly from conventional penetration testing in terms of methodologies and techniques. The ownership of the tested asset is the key distinction.
Every piece of the basic infrastructure used by AWS is owned by the Amazon organization. As a result, numerous techniques and procedures employed in conventional penetration testing may be in violation of the AWS Terms of Service. Penetration testing is not permitted on AWS infrastructure and may result in the AWS Incident Response Team being called in if it violates AWS policies.
What Are You Allowed to Test in AWS?
Customers of AWS are permitted to audit the security of AWS assets. The phrase “security assessment” refers to a number of procedures used to check and confirm security measures applied to all AWS assets.
Here are some notable examples of security assessments that AWS has approved:
- Port scanning
- Vulnerability scanning or checks
- Web application scanning
- Exploitation
- Forgery
- Injections
- Fuzzing
The guidelines for authorized security evaluations on Amazon are as follows:
- Allowed: Security tools, such as banner grabbing, that conduct a remote query of AWS assets to ascertain the name and version of the software. A list of versions that are DoS vulnerable is compared in this test.
- Allowed: For local or remote exploitation during a security evaluation, security tools or services that temporarily or permanently terminate a process that is currently operating on AWS assets. It is forbidden for this tool to flood protocols or with resource requests.
- Allowed: Security products or services with DoS capabilities that have the explicit ability to neutralize the DoS capability by disabling it or in some other way.
These tests can be run locally on your virtualized assets, remotely against your AWS assets, or between your AWS assets.
What Are You Not Allowed to Test in AWS?
You can do out security assessments using AWS cloud pentesting to verify your security measures. To continue offering high-quality services throughout the AWS ecosystem, AWS cloud pentesting must make sure that these testing don’t hurt any other AWS customers.
AWS forbids the imitation of DoS or comparable attacks against any AWS assets. The DDoS Simulation Testing policy of AWS explains this restriction.
Here is a list of Amazon’s prohibitions on security assessments:
- Not allowed: Any security service or instrument, whether simulated or real, that generates, displays, or ascertains the existence of a DoS condition.
- Not allowed: Tools, services, or functions offered by tools and services with built-in denial-of-service capabilities.
- Not allowed: Without any clear mechanism to explicitly disarm, disable, or otherwise render harmless the DoS capability, security technologies or services with DoS capabilities.
Customers must confirm and validate that any security assessment carried out by them or on their behalf complies with the policy, according to AWS’s policy. Customers that violate this policy will be held liable for any harm that their unlawful security assessment actions cause to AWS and its clients.
