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CLOUD PENETRATION TESTING SERVICES

AWS Penetration Testing Services

AWS penetration testing is a manual, expert-led security assessment of your Amazon Web Services environment that finds and proves exploitable weaknesses across IAM, S3, EC2, Lambda, API Gateway, EKS, and multi-account setups, before an attacker does. Bluefire Redteam delivers AWS penetration testing services aligned to the AWS Customer Support Policy for Penetration Testing, with exploit-validated findings, developer-ready remediation, and a scoped quote within 5 hours

Azure penetration testing is part of our broader cloud penetration testing services, covering Azure, AWS and Google Cloud environments.

AWS Penetration Testing at a glance

  • What we test: IAM, S3, EC2 (IMDS/SSRF), Lambda and serverless, API Gateway, EKS and containers, networking, multi-account AWS Organizations
  • Aligned to: AWS Customer Support Policy for Penetration Testing (permitted services, no prior approval)
  • Access needed: read-only IAM role (SecurityAudit or equivalent) plus in-scope account list; grey-box: limited credentials
  • Production-safe: rate-limited, destructive and DDoS techniques excluded by default
  • Deliverable: exploit-validated findings, MITRE-aligned reporting, developer-ready fixes, free retest
  • Turnaround: scoped quote in 5 hours

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Why Choose Bluefire Redteam for AWS Penetration Testing?

  • Identity-first AWS expertise We treat IAM as the primary attack surface, mapping effective permissions across users, roles, and service accounts, then finding the PassRole, policy-version, and role-assumption chains that end in administrative access. This is the depth that separates real AWS penetration testing from a config scan.
  • AI-augmented, human-validated We combine automated coverage with senior operators who chain misconfigurations into real attack paths. No scanner infers that a read-only role plus an SSRF-reachable metadata endpoint equals credential theft. You get exploit-proven findings, not tool output.
  • Aligned to the AWS testing policy Every engagement is scoped against the AWS Customer Support Policy for Penetration Testing, confined to your approved services, with prohibited techniques such as DDoS excluded by default.
  • Multi-account and multi-cloud capable Most serious findings live in cross-account trust and SCP gaps. We test multi-account AWS Organisations and can run combined engagements with Azure penetration testing as part of our broader cloud penetration testing services.
  • Reporting your team can act on Exploit-validated findings mapped to business impact, developer-ready remediation, and a free retest to confirm the fix holds. See what a strong report includes.

Comparing vendors first? See our breakdown of the top cloud penetration testing providers for AWS and Azure, or view penetration testing pricing packages.

What We Test in Your AWS Environment

Identity and Access Management (IAM)

IAM is where the highest-severity AWS findings almost always originate. We map the effective permissions of every user, role and service account, then identify escalation paths — including iam:PassRole combined with compute services, policy version manipulation, lambda:UpdateFunctionCode against privileged functions, and role assumption chains that terminate in administrative access.

S3 and Data Storage

Bucket policies, ACLs, public access block configuration, pre-signed URL handling, encryption at rest, and cross-account bucket access. We identify both publicly exposed buckets and those reachable by identities that should not have them.

EC2 and Compute

Instance metadata service configuration (IMDSv1 vs IMDSv2), credential theft via SSRF to the metadata endpoint, security group exposure, EBS snapshot and AMI permissions, and SSM access paths.

Lambda and Serverless

Function execution role permissions, environment variable secrets, event source injection, API Gateway authorisation flaws, and Lambda-based privilege escalation.

EKS and Containers

Cluster RBAC, IAM Roles for Service Accounts (IRSA) misconfiguration, pod-level credential theft, privileged container breakout to the underlying node, and ECR image supply chain risk.

Networking and Perimeter

VPC segmentation, security group and NACL rules, peering and Transit Gateway trust, exposed load balancers, and VPC endpoint policy.

Multi-Account and Organisations

Cross-account trust policies, AWS Organizations SCP effectiveness, delegated administrator risk, and identity federation via IAM Identity Center.

Detection and Logging

Whether CloudTrail, GuardDuty and Config actually detected our activity — including coverage gaps across regions and accounts, and log integrity controls.

AWS Penetration Testing Checklist

Use this checklist to sanity-check your AWS security before an engagement:

  • IAM: no wildcard admin policies, MFA on privileged users, unused access keys removed, PassRole restricted
  • S3: Block Public Access enabled, bucket policies least-privilege, encryption at rest
  • EC2: IMDSv2 enforced, no SSRF-reachable metadata, security groups least-privilege
  • Lambda: execution roles least-privilege, no secrets in environment variables
  • EKS: IRSA scoped, no privileged pods, network policies enforced
  • Networking: no 0.0.0.0/0 on sensitive ports, VPC endpoints used
  • Multi-account: SCPs enforced, cross-account trust relationships reviewed
  • Logging: CloudTrail enabled across all regions, GuardDuty on, Config recording

Want the full checklist? Download the AWS Penetration Testing Checklist (PDF) 

Our AWS Penetration Testing Process

We follow a structured, AWS-specific process aligned with the AWS testing policy and the shared-responsibility model, so results are realistic and safe for production.

Scoping and AWS policy alignment.

We confirm scope against the current AWS Customer Support Policy for Penetration Testing, agree in-scope accounts and services, document written authorisation, and set the access level (typically a read-only IAM SecurityAudit role for grey-box).

We map your accounts, IAM users, roles and policies, resources, and network topology to build the real attack surface across the estate.

We test IAM privilege escalation, S3 and data exposure, SSRF to the EC2 metadata service (IMDS), Lambda and API Gateway flaws, EKS and container weaknesses, and lateral or cross-account movement through trust relationships.

We assess what an attacker could actually reach: sensitive data, cross-account access, and paths to account or organisation-wide control, and validate whether CloudTrail, GuardDuty, and Config detected the activity.

You receive exploit-validated findings, business-impact ratings, and developer-ready fixes. For related work, see our full penetration testing services.

After you remediate, we re-test to confirm every fix holds.

Planning scope and budget? See our AWS penetration testing cost guide, or the full AWS penetration testing guide for policy and scope details.

AWS Penetration Testing Policy - Testing Within the Rules

AWS permits customer-initiated penetration testing against your own resources for approved services — including EC2, RDS, Aurora, CloudFront, API Gateway, Lambda, Lightsail and Elastic Beanstalk — without requiring prior approval.

Prohibited without separate authorisation from AWS:

  • Simulated denial-of-service and DDoS testing
  • Port flooding and protocol flooding
  • Request flooding against APIs or login endpoints
  • DNS zone walking via Route 53

How we work within the policy:

  • Scope is confirmed against the current AWS Customer Support Policy for Penetration Testing before testing begins
  • Prohibited techniques are excluded by default
  • Testing is rate-limited to avoid availability impact
  • Written authorisation is documented for every engagement

For a deeper breakdown of AWS policy and scope limitations, see our AWS penetration testing guide.

Key Benefits of Our AWS Penetration Testing Service

Close identity and misconfiguration risk

Find and fix the IAM privilege-escalation and policy misconfigurations that lead to account and organisation compromise, before an attacker does.

Protect data in AWS

Validate that S3, RDS, and secrets stores are not exposing sensitive business data through public access, over-permissioned roles, or unencrypted storage.

Compliance assurance

Support your PCI DSS, HIPAA, ISO 27001, SOC 2, and GDPR obligations with independent, evidence-backed testing. Pair with our red team services for full adversary-driven validation where regulators expect it.

Detection validation

Measure whether CloudTrail, GuardDuty, and Config actually detect real attack activity across your accounts and regions, and where the coverage gaps are.

Reporting for every audience

Board-ready risk narrative for leadership and developer-ready remediation for engineering, so findings turn into fixes, not backlog.

While this guide explains enterprise cloud testing strategies, our dedicated cloud penetration testing services Buyer’s Guide page outlines engagement scope, deliverables, and reporting structure.

AWS Penetration Testing Services

  • A manual, expert-led security assessment of your Amazon Web Services environment that finds and proves exploitable weaknesses across identity, storage, compute, serverless, containers, and networking, going beyond automated scanning to test how an attacker would actually move through your accounts.
  • Yes. Serverless and identity are core to AWS testing. We assess Lambda execution roles and environment secrets, API Gateway authorisation, event-source injection, and the IAM policy and PassRole paths that lead to privilege escalation.
  • A provider with deep, demonstrated AWS expertise across IAM, serverless, containers, and multi-account estates, and senior operators who chain misconfigurations into real attack paths. Bluefire Redteam specializes in exactly this.
  • Yes. We regularly run combined multi-cloud engagements across AWS and Azure (and GCP) under a single scope, which reflects how most organizations actually run their estate.
  • For most services, no. AWS permits customer-initiated testing of your own resources against approved services (EC2, RDS, Aurora, CloudFront, API Gateway, Lambda, Lightsail, Elastic Beanstalk) without prior approval. Simulated DDoS, port and protocol flooding, and DNS zone walking require separate authorisation, and we exclude them by default.
  • Typically a read-only IAM role (SecurityAudit or an equivalent scoped policy) plus a defined list of in-scope accounts. For grey-box testing we may request limited credentials to simulate a compromised user.
  • No. Testing is rate-limited, destructive techniques are excluded, and anything with potential availability impact requires explicit approval and a scheduled window.
  • Yes. Multi-account estates frequently contain the most serious findings: cross-account trust relationships and SCP gaps that allow movement between accounts.
  • Our AWS testing supports PCI DSS, HIPAA, ISO 27001, SOC 2, and GDPR requirements, with reporting structured as evidence for audits.
  • Cost and duration depend on account count, deployed services, and whether container and application layers are in scope. Most engagements run one to three weeks. See our AWS penetration testing cost guide or request a scoped quote.

Secure Your AWS Environment Before an Attacker Does

Get a scoped AWS penetration testing plan and quote within 5 hours, reviewed by a senior operator. Exploit-proven findings, developer-ready fixes, and a free retest included.

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