Cloud
Penetration Testing
Most cloud environments are built by engineers optimising for delivery, not security. IAM policies accumulate excess permissions over years. Storage buckets get provisioned without lifecycle policies. Nobody checks whether a Lambda execution role can escalate to full account admin. Our CREST-accredited testers exploit the exact attack chains that automated tools cannot detect.
We exploit your cloud before attackers do.
Cloud penetration testing is a specialist security assessment where CREST-accredited testers actively exploit IAM misconfigurations, storage exposure, container breakout paths, and serverless attack chains. Every finding is validated as exploitable, mapped to industry standard security benchmarks, and delivered with IaC remediation.
Book a Free Scoping CallCloud Testing Services
Platform-specific testing by certified testers. Each cloud provider has unique IAM models, network architectures, and attack surfaces. We test each one differently.
AWS Penetration Testing
IAM privilege escalation, S3 exposure, Lambda execution role abuse, EKS RBAC, and CloudTrail coverage gaps.
Azure Penetration Testing
Entra ID Conditional Access bypass, hybrid identity attack paths, Azure RBAC, AKS, and Key Vault review.
GCP Penetration Testing
IAM binding exploitation, service account impersonation, GKE workload identity abuse, and VPC Service Controls.
Microsoft 365 Security Assessment
Entra ID, Exchange Online, SharePoint, Teams, Intune, and Conditional Access policy bypass testing.
Cloud Risk Profile
Cloud environments are the primary target for modern adversaries. 82% of cloud breaches involve misconfigured IAM permissions.
Valid Account Abuse
Of cloud intrusions in 2025 used valid accounts as the initial access vector (CrowdStrike).
IAM Misconfiguration
Of cloud breaches involve misconfigured identity and access management permissions.
Framework Mapping
Every finding mapped to industry standard security benchmarks, ISO 27001, SOC 2, DORA, NIST CSF, and CSA CCM.
Exploit First.
Report Second.
IAM Exploitation.
We chain iam:PassRole, sts:AssumeRole, Conditional Access bypasses, and service account impersonation to escalate privileges across your cloud estate.
Storage & Secrets.
Testing S3 buckets, Blob Storage, and Cloud Storage for public access, misconfigured ACLs, SAS token scope, and sensitive data exposure. Key Vault, KMS, and Secret Manager policy review included.
Kubernetes & Serverless.
EKS, AKS, and GKE RBAC misconfigurations, pod security policy bypasses, container escapes, workload identity abuse. Lambda and Azure Functions execution role escalation.
Cloud Network Review.
Security Groups, NSGs, VPC peering, Transit Gateway, PrivateLink, VPC Service Controls, and Cloud Armor rule effectiveness.
Visibility Gaps.
CloudTrail, GuardDuty, Defender for Cloud, and Security Command Center coverage analysis. We verify your cloud environment can detect the attacks we simulate, identifying blind spots before adversaries exploit them.
Engagement Workflow
Read-only access model. No agents. No production impact. Findings delivered with IaC remediation.
Scope
Free scoping call. Define accounts, subscriptions, or projects in scope. Fixed-price quote confirmed before work begins.
Enumerate
Automated and manual enumeration of IAM, network, storage, and logging configurations with platform-specific tooling.
Exploit
Active exploitation of misconfigured IAM roles, metadata endpoints, and inter-service trust relationships. Criticals reported immediately.
Report
Industry standard benchmark mapping, IaC remediation in Terraform/CloudFormation/Bicep, board-ready executive summary. Free retest included.
Scope
Free scoping call. Define accounts, subscriptions, or projects in scope. Fixed-price quote confirmed before work begins.
Enumerate
Automated and manual enumeration of IAM, network, storage, and logging configurations with platform-specific tooling.
Exploit
Active exploitation of misconfigured IAM roles, metadata endpoints, and inter-service trust relationships. Criticals reported immediately.
Report
Industry standard benchmark mapping, IaC remediation in Terraform/CloudFormation/Bicep, board-ready executive summary. Free retest included.
Cloud Penetration Testing
Pricing
Cloud penetration testing typically ranges from £4,000 for a single-account assessment to £15,000+ for multi-cloud environments. Every Precursor engagement is fixed-price, quoted after a free scoping call.
All prices are fixed-quote after a free scoping call. No hidden day rates. Prices shown are guide starting points.
What You Receive
Testing is the Start.
Detection is the Constant.
Your cloud penetration test report should not gather dust. We feed your exact findings directly into our 24/7 Cloud Security Monitoring, building custom detection rules based on your specific attack surface.
Explore Cloud MonitoringCloud Security Monitoring
24/7 threat detection across AWS, Azure, and GCP.
24/7 Managed SOC
Continuous eyes-on-glass monitoring of your entire estate.
Cloud Config Review
Industry standard benchmark assessment for ongoing compliance.
Internal Network Testing
Complement cloud testing with internal infrastructure assessment.
Full Penetration Testing Catalogue
Comprehensive penetration testing services tailored to your environment.
Internal Testing
Post-perimeter assessments targeting Active Directory, lateral movement, privilege escalation, and segmentation validation from inside your network.
Ready to test your cloud environment?
Book a free 30-minute scoping call. We identify which cloud accounts and subscriptions are in scope, confirm platform-specific access requirements, and provide a fixed-price quote. No obligation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about cloud penetration testing, methodologies, and deliverables.
Cloud penetration testing is a specialist security assessment of cloud-hosted infrastructure where CREST-accredited testers actively exploit IAM misconfigurations, storage exposure, container breakout paths, and serverless attack chains to identify vulnerabilities that automated tools cannot detect. Unlike a configuration review, cloud penetration testing demonstrates real-world exploitability, showing the exact attack path an adversary would follow from initial access to data exfiltration.
Yes. AWS removed the requirement for prior approval in 2019. You can test your own AWS resources without notifying Amazon for the majority of services. Azure and GCP operate under similar policies: no pre-approval is required for testing your own resources. Prohibited activities include testing shared infrastructure, performing denial-of-service simulations, and port flooding. We provide a rules-of-engagement document confirming compliance with each provider's acceptable use policy.
A cloud penetration test actively exploits vulnerabilities to demonstrate real attack paths, for example chaining an over-privileged Lambda execution role with an exposed metadata endpoint to escalate to AdministratorAccess. A cloud security assessment is a broader posture review that includes configuration review against industry standard security benchmarks, compliance gap mapping, and maturity scoring, but may not include active exploitation. Our cloud penetration testing service includes both: active exploitation testing to demonstrate real risk, plus a compliance mapping layer.
A single-account AWS, Azure, GCP, or Microsoft 365 assessment starts from £3,750 for a 3-5 day engagement. Multi-account or multi-cloud environments with Kubernetes clusters, serverless architectures, and hybrid identity components typically range from £8,000 to £15,000+. We provide a fixed-price quote following a free 30-minute scoping call, no obligation.
Typically 5 to 10 days depending on complexity. A single account assessment typically takes 3 to 5 days. Multi-account organisations with Kubernetes, serverless, and multi-cloud setups may require 10 to 15 days. We confirm the engagement timeline during the scoping call based on your specific environment.
For AWS, you provision the ReadOnlyAccess and SecurityAudit managed policies. For Azure, you assign Reader and Security Reader roles at subscription scope. For GCP, you assign Viewer and Security Reviewer roles at project level. For Microsoft 365, you assign Global Reader and Security Reader. Read-only access model throughout: no agents, no production modifications, no service disruption.
Automated tools detect common misconfigurations but miss complex security issues that require human analysis: IAM privilege escalation chains (how attackers chain three roles to escalate from developer to production admin), cross-account attack paths, business logic flaws (Lambda with database credentials accessible via API Gateway), and context-specific risks. Manual testing provides the so-what analysis: demonstrating actual exploitability and business impact.
Yes. We conduct unified multi-cloud assessments across AWS, Azure, GCP, and Microsoft 365 in a single engagement. Rather than producing separate reports, we deliver a consolidated findings report with a unified risk view across your entire cloud estate. Multi-cloud assessments additionally cover cross-cloud identity federation risks and inconsistent control application.
No. Cloud security assessments are entirely non-destructive and read-only. We only request read-only IAM roles (no delete, modify, or create permissions). Our tooling queries cloud APIs for configuration data without touching running workloads. No agents, probes, or scanners are deployed. In 500+ cloud assessments, we have never caused production disruption.
Our reports map findings to SOC 2 Type II criteria (CC6, CC7) and ISO 27001 Annex A controls (A.8.8). For cloud-specific compliance, findings are mapped to the relevant industry standard security benchmarks for each cloud platform. The executive report provides auditor-ready evidence that an independent CREST-accredited third party has assessed your cloud security controls.