The Ultimate Guide For Cloud Penetration Testing in Singapore [2024]

• 28 March, 2023
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Cloud Penetration Testing in Singapore: Enhancing Cybersecurity for Businesses

Developing an enterprise that is properly maintained on cloud servers or moving information assets to the appropriate cloud servers makes a lot of financial and operational sense.  Several third-party apps and plugins that you could potentially employ rely on the cloud to function.  In this matter, many cloud providers are carefully constrained by specific security requirements and follow certain rules set up to guarantee data privacy; yet, it is not enough for any wild speculation.

Moreover, Craw Security, the best cloud penetration testing service provider in Singapore, offers world-class cloud penetration testing solutions through the most skilled, qualified, and duly experienced penetration testers in the entire vicinity of Singapore.

As a result, we are considering discussing Cloud Penetration Testing in Singapore in this blog.  Let’s get going!

What is cloud penetration testing?

By performing a cyberattack in a carefully monitored context, the process of identifying and taking advantage of security weaknesses such as flaws, threats, and gaps that could grant certain backdoor access to a black hat hacker in a cloud architecture is known as cloud penetration testing.  Moreover, cloud service providers like Amazon, GCP, Microsoft Azure, etc., conduct rigorous cloud penetration tests.

How Does Cloud Penetration Testing Differ From Penetration Testing?

Penetration testing, in layman’s terms, is a process where a qualified pentester looks for any minor to major security problems, like vulnerabilities, threats, and loopholes that could genuinely be exploited by a malevolent threat actor.  This pen testing is done to a particular extent on a system, service, or network to find any vulnerabilities that might fall into the hands of a black hat hacker.

When it comes to cloud penetration testing, it is necessary to carry out a simulated cyberattack while posing as a possible hacker to exploit every security vulnerability and assess the level of protection.

What Is the Purpose of Cloud Penetration Testing in Singapore?

Implementing trustworthy cloud penetration testing in Singapore in a cloud environment for a company has as its primary goal determining whether the related cloud server has any security issues.  Checking for security weaknesses before an actual hacker discovers them might be an organization’s top priority.

Moreover, depending on the specific design of your cloud server and its provider, several manual approaches and cloud penetration testing software may also be used.  However,   cloud penetration testing in Singapore may result in many legal as well as technical challenges if you do not own the cloud infrastructure, platform, or software but instead are using it as a service.

What Are The Cloud Penetration Testing Benefits?

We should be aware that using reputable cloud penetration testing services from a top-tier supplier, such as Craw Security, which provides the best penetration testing services in Singapore, may have some advantages.

Also, we’ve outlined a few advantages of primetime cloud penetration testing in Singapore below:

• Identifying any possible risks and weaknesses in the cloud system.
• Helping to optimize the cloud’s security settings.
• Improving incident response techniques & methods.
• Protect the image of your business.
• Maintaining visibility in the eyes of both present and new clients by Providing Cloud Penetration Testing in Singapore’s best practices.

Cloud Penetration Testing And The Shared Responsibility Model

The service terms and conditions of the appropriate cloud providers should be of concern to any operational cloud penetration testing business. What we can and cannot test is illustrated in the graphic provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS).

In this regard, the list below takes into account the names of the services that consistently fall under the umbrella of cloud penetration testing services provided by AWS:

• Amazon EC2 instances, NAT Gateways, and Elastic Load Balancers
• Amazon RDS
• Amazon CloudFront
• Amazon Aurora
• Amazon API Gateways
• AWS Lambda and Lambda Edge functions
• Amazon Lightsail resources
• Amazon Elastic Beanstalk environments

Users can thereafter perform as many trials as they wish on the services specified above.  Unfortunately, as seen in the following picture, there are several services that AWS does not permit to perform tests:

Furthermore, these are the services that are expressly prohibited by Amazon from doing cloud penetration testing.

• DNS zone walking via Amazon Route 53 Hosted Zones
• Kinds of Denial of Service (DoS) attacks
• Port flooding
• Protocol flooding
• Request flooding (e.g., login request flooding, API request flooding)

As a general rule, we may recognize that some prominent services are explicitly permitted by Amazon while others are forbidden; nevertheless, one can even verify the forbidden services after contacting AWS before conducting penetration tests on them.

Clients must follow AWS’s requirements for Network Stress Testing and DDoS Simulation Testing, for example, if they wish to execute these tests.  As an outcome, their testing can only move forward after receiving approval from Amazon; otherwise, the notion of researching this feature must be abandoned.

Most Common Cloud Vulnerabilities

A skilled hacker could use specific hacking skills, tools, and strategies while on the job to certainly exploit specific cloud flaws that could result in a hackable cloud account.  Although it would be challenging for us to define each one, here are some examples of them:

• Insecure APIs
• Cloud Server Misconfigurations
• Weak Credentials
• Outdated Software
• Insecure Coding Practices

Moreover, the following points have so far covered the list of the Most Common Cloud Vulnerabilities:

Insecure APIs

Cloud penetration testing services make full use of the APIs to distribute vital information among numerous applications.  So far, as it was quite evident in some of the cases of Venmo, Airtel, etc., insecure APIs could lead to a significant data leak.  Moreover, improperly using HTTP techniques in APIs, such as PUT, POST, DELETE, etc., might allow hackers to upload malicious code or other material to your server and remove, edit, alter, or take over the datasets without your consent.

Furthermore, poor access control and a lack of input sanitization are a couple of the major causes of API hacks that can be genuinely discovered when conducting cloud penetration testing.

Cloud Server Misconfigurations

Within the cloud service, misconfigurations have become the most widespread cloud vulnerability, particularly about incorrectly set up S3 Buckets.  Moreover, the Capital One data breach, which put the databases of approximately 100+ million Americans and 6+ million Canadians in danger, was also regarded as the most well-known incident.

In this context, common mistakes with cloud servers include improper allocations that fail to encrypt databases and distinguish between private and public databases.

Weak Credentials

Using weak or widely used passwords can leave your cloud accounts open to brute force attacks and other types of cyberattacks.   In addition, a malicious attacker with bad intentions can skillfully automate many tools to make educated guesses of any strings of potential passwords, opening the door for your routine accounting to use those credentials.

As an outcome, confirming a whole account takeover could be extremely risky for people or organizations with databases.  Additionally, these kinds of cyber attacks happen frequently, whether it’s because users try to reuse passwords or use passwords that are simple to remember.  While attempting cloud penetration testing best practices, this specific scenario can be evaluated frequently.

Outdated Software

Working with out-of-date software versions can potentially have horrifying outcomes because they are quite susceptible to potential hazards that the business has already addressed in the most recent software version.  To have a long-term safe and sound working procedure, one only needs to upgrade their working program to the most recent version.

Furthermore, the majority of software manufacturers do not plan to employ an efficient update protocol, or customers intentionally disable automatic updates so that they do not occur and their storage becomes pointlessly full.  It is entirely inaccurate!  With these out-of-date software versions, hackers can easily find them using automated scanners and take full advantage of them.

Insecure Coding Practices

Many businesses try to reduce the cost of their cloud infrastructure as much as they can.  Thus, these software programs frequently contain flaws like SQLi, XSS, CSRF, etc., because of the bad coding exercises. In addition, the majority of them fall into the SANS Top 25 and OWASP Top 10 categories for vulnerabilities.  As an outcome, a variety of online cloud services have been hacked as a direct consequence of these vulnerabilities.

What Are The Challenges In Cloud Penetration Testing in Singapore?

There are a few difficulties that many organizations encounter when putting cloud penetration testing processes into practice with the whole scanning of a cloud server:

• Lack of Transparency
• Resource Sharing
• Policy Restrictions
• Other Factors

In addition, the following paragraphs elaborate on the problems described above that are typically encountered when doing cloud penetration testing in Singapore to help you understand them better:

Lack Of Transparency

The associated data centers are quite well managed by third-party alliances in the lack of quality cloud services. As a result, the client might not be conscious of where the data is stored or what combinations of hardware and software are in use.  Additionally, this lack of transparency exposed the customer database to cloud service security concerns.   For example, even without the preceding awareness, the cloud service provider may be keeping some sort of sensitive data.  Certain well-known CSPs, such as Amazon, Azure, GCP, etc., are well-known for conducting internal security audits in this area.

Resource Sharing

Cloud services extensively share resources across several accounts, which is a well-known empirical reality.  However, during the cloud penetration testing, this resource-sharing stage could be very difficult.  In this context, service providers occasionally fail to comply with the necessary steps to segment all consumers.

If your company needs to be PCI DSS compliant, the standard stipulates that any other accounts utilizing the very same resource, as well as the specific cloud service provider, must also be PCI DSS compliant.  In addition, some cases are so complicated since there are many ways to regulate the cloud infrastructure.  Its intricacy causes a delay in the many different cloud penetration testing techniques.

Policy Restrictions

Each cloud service provider comes with a unique set of guidelines for what activities are permitted and prohibited throughout the extensive processes involved in cloud penetration testing in Singapore.  This provides more information on the applicable endpoints and test types.

Most crucially, some even ask that you offer a notification well in advance of running the testing.  This policy difference also creates a significant problem and limits how far cloud penetration testing in Singapore can go.

Above all, let’s learn more about the three most well-known cloud service providers’ primary cloud penetration testing strategies after that:

*These prohibited attacks are subject to change as per the policy change of their respective cloud service provider’s sole discretion.

Other Factors

The scope of penetration testing expands due to the small size of cloud services, where one machine might host many virtual machines.   Similarly, the user software (CMS, databases, etc.) and equivalent service provider software (like VM Software, etc.) may have different scopes for the same testing.

Moreover, each of these elements combines in this regard to increase the complexity of cloud penetration testing.   However, when data encryption is included in this list, the situation for auditors may significantly worsen because the firm being audited might not be willing to provide encryption service keys.

Types & Methods Of Cloud Penetration Testing

The fact that cloud penetration testing in Singapore is typically classified into three different categories of penetration testing approaches, each of which is explained below, is a widely known fact.

Black Box Penetration Testing

A penetration tester does a black box test under very specific conditions without any prior knowledge of the system or access to any User IDs or Passwords.  In addition, this is the same way in which real-time black hat hackers help to improve their attempts at obtaining any information about an organization.

Selenium, Applitools, Microsoft Coded UI, and other programs are used for Black Box Penetration Testing.

Grey Box Penetration Testing

It is, as its name implies, a combination of White Box and Black Box Penetration Testing.  With little access to the login credentials, a team of professional penetration testers attempts numerous attacks on the IT infrastructures of a corporation.

Grey Box Penetration Testing tools include Postman, Burp Suite, JUnit, NUnit, and others.

White Box Penetration Testing

In this well-known approach, a penetration testing team will have all the necessary authorizations to access an organization’s databases.  The majority of permanent, professional, ethical hackers do have access to all the datasets needed to secure the data related to an organization’s IT infrastructure.

Veracode, GoogleTest, CCPUnit, RCUNIT, and other well-known white box testing technologies are also available.

AWS And Azure Cloud Penetration Testing in Singapore

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft’s Azure are the two cloud service suppliers that are performing excellently for nearly every operating organization coming from any niche in today’s world, where enterprises are adopting cloud servers more than manual data representation.

As long as the appropriate test complies with their widely accepted criteria, both Azure and AWS permit penetration testing to organizations for nearly every infrastructure of the company that is hosted on the AWS or Azure platform.

Two of the popular cloud-based services used by businesses to enable cloud-based company operations are Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft’s Azure.  As long as the tests are among the “permitted services,” both Amazon and Azure accept penetration testing about any infrastructure that the company hosts on the AWS or Azure platform.

Furthermore, we have revised the relevant “rules of engagement” linked to penetration testing that relate to what is permitted and what is not by both Amazon and Azure in the links below:

• Amazon Web Services Penetration Testing
• Azure Penetration Testing

In addition to these, you may look at the following URLs for the other two cloud service giants:

• Google Cloud Platform Penetration Testing
• Oracle Cloud Penetration Testing

Cloud Penetration Testing Scope

When participating in cloud penetration testing, the majority of working cyber security specialists often confirm the following regions of scope:

• The Cloud Perimeter,
• Internal Cloud environments and On-Premise Cloud management
• Administration and Development Infrastructure

Furthermore, cloud penetration testing often occurs in the following three steps, which are outlined below:

• Phase One: Evaluation: A range of cloud security discovery processes, including those for identifying cloud security requirements, current cloud SLAs, risks, and potential vulnerability exposures, will be genuinely implemented by the operating group of specialists who specialize in cloud penetration testing.
• Phase Two: Exploitation: The skilled penetration specialists will combine information acquired throughout evaluation with any specific pen-testing processes, considering exploitable flaws using the data gathered from the initial phase. This particular stage will, therefore, evaluate the effectiveness of your cloud ecosystem.
• Phase Three: Remediation Verification: In this final step, professionals in cloud penetration testing would conduct a follow-up evaluation to figure out whether or not the remedial and mitigation measures from the exploitation stage had been successfully implemented. As a result, the pen testers are also able to confirm that the client’s security posture complies with industry standards.

Most Common Cloud Security Threats

With the proper application of cloud penetration testing, underneath the strict supervision of leading cloud penetration testing experts with years of real-world experience finding the most security flaws inhabited in the IT infrastructures of several enterprises from various industries, the most common cloud security threats can primarily be mitigated.  These constitute a few of the most prevalent cloud security issues that may be easily checked:

• Misconfigurations
• Data Breaches
• Malware/ Ransomware
• Vulnerabilities
• Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs)
• Supply Chain Compromises
• Insider Threats
• Weak Identities and Credentials
• Weak Access Management
• Insecure Interfaces and APIs
• Inappropriate Use or Abuse of Cloud Services
• Shared Services/Technology Concerns

Cloud Penetration Testing: Best Practices

To identify multiple cloud penetration testing best practices, a diligently operating cyber security agency can self-evaluate its various stages.  In addition, we have provided some of the top recommendations that may unquestionably be used to conduct cloud penetration testing operations in prime time that will undoubtedly result in beneficial outcomes:

• Work with an experienced provider of cloud penetration testing. It is necessary to have a variety of knowledge and experience because many processes used in cloud penetration testing are still quite similar to those used in traditional penetration testing.
• Understand the Shared Responsibility Model: One may honestly comprehend that the Shared Responsibility Model, which outlines the primary areas of obligation held by the customer and the cloud service provider, is in charge of monitoring the cloud systems (CSP).
• Understand any CSP Service Level Agreements (SLAs) or “Rules of Engagement”: The “rules of engagement” for all types of penetration testing, especially their cloud services, are clearly covered in varied degrees by your CSP’s service level agreements.
• Define the scope of your cloud: Understanding the components of your cloud assets will help you determine the complete scope of the cloud penetration testing that will undoubtedly be needed.
• Determine the type of testing: Be aware of the kind of cloud penetration testing (like a white box, black box, or grey box pentest) that is most appropriate for adoption in your company.
• Codify expectations and timelines for both your security team and an external cloud pen-testing company: Gaining knowledge of your company’s obligations and those of the external cloud pen-testing business, including receiving reports, making corrections, and requiring follow-up testing,
• Establish a protocol for a breach or live attack: Creating and putting into action a legitimate and flawless plan if the cloud penetration testing company discovers that your company has already compromised its information due to a data breach or that a related attack is already underway.

Frequently Asked Questions

About The Ultimate Guide for Cloud Penetration Testing

1. What is public cloud penetration testing?
   To verify the number of vulnerabilities, risks, and loopholes in a specific cloud provider that could genuinely pass on just about any backdoor access to real-time hackers and diminish the security posture of the organization, a known ethical hacker would launch a fictitious attack under the pretext of a potential hacker.
   With this approach, any security issues can be fixed by a professional team of knowledgeable penetration testers employing the appropriate valuation methods.
2. What is cloud pen testing?
   Cloud pen testing is essentially a method used by proficient penetration testing experts to identify all security faults present in an organization’s IT infrastructures in the form of threats, vulnerabilities, and gaps.  The very same pen-testing expert would also assist them in minimizing the discovered security holes and achieving a strong security posture that is challenging for real-time hacking experts to breach.
3. What is Sec588 cloud penetration testing?
   Identifying security vulnerabilities using a variety of skills and expertise required to connect a cloud ecosystem effectively is defined by SEC588 of the Cloud Penetration Testing standard.  If you are a penetration tester, the program will undoubtedly provide a way for you to learn how to modify your abilities for cloud ecosystems.
4. Do I need pre-approval to conduct a penetration test on Azure resources?
   Microsoft does not need prior authorization to execute a penetration test against Azure resources, according to the rules released on June 15, 2017.
5. What is cloud testing?
   Cloud testing is essentially a method of evaluating the efficiency, scalability, and dependability of web apps within a cloud computing environment.
6. How do you test cloud-based applications?
   By using the appropriate types of specialized tools for individual tests like performance monitoring, load testing, stress testing, and security, one may accurately examine cloud-based applications and look for any type of vulnerabilities, threats, and loopholes inside them.
   Additionally, there is another technique to evaluate cloud applications.  Organizations use testing-as-a-service (TaaS) solutions that are comprehensive and end-to-end.
7. How much does CloudTest cost?
   Depending on how many cloud-based services, software, hardware, and application scans you wish to run quickly, you can adjust the cloud test charges accordingly.
   On the contrary, Craw Security, the top provider of cloud penetration testing services in Singapore, provides the best cloud computing services in Singapore due to the expertise of leading pen testing experts who have years of experience trying to fix more than 500 IT infrastructures belonging to more than 350 businesses from prestigious industries.
   Moreover, you only need to call our hotline number, which is available 24 hours a day at +65-93515400, to schedule a demo session.

Conclusion

We have shed some light on the key components of cloud penetration testing in Singapore in our article.  Also, we highlighted the primary cloud shared responsibility architecture for pen testing and provided several useful pieces of information on cloud penetration testing in Singapore.  We have also revealed a variety of tools that may be useful for putting various cloud-pen testing techniques into practice. I hope you enjoy it!

In the end, utilizing Craw Singapore’s cloud penetration testing services, which are the best in Singapore and other prestigious nations all over the globe, could be the game-changing decision for your company’s perfect cyber security.