The frontiers of every organization are at the gate ways, firewalls and cloud access point which links the organization to the internet. However, with the migration of businesses to hybrid and cloud-based infrastructures, the attacker is increasingly becoming creative in exploiting vulnerability. This is why the external network penetration testing and AWS pen test are essential in determining the vulnerabilities both on-premise and cloud environments.
What is External Network Penetration Testing?
External network penetration testing emulates external attack on your organization to test the safety of your publicly available systems. This encompasses all the web servers, email systems, APIs and DNS settings. It is aimed at detecting vulnerabilities that can be exploited by a hacker to obtain access.
Testers typically look for:
- Unpatched operating systems or open ports
- Weak SSL/TLS configurations
- Improperly set firewalls and VPNs
- Unsecured or open passwords
- Threats of DNS hijacking or misrouting
You are depressing your attack surface significantly by identifying and remedying these vulnerabilities at an early stage.
The AWS Pen Test and its role in the current day security
Due to the increased adoption of the cloud, traditional perimeter defenses are no longer sufficient. A significant number of organizations have mission-critical workloads in AWS that add new levels of complexity. An AWS pen test provides information on the existence of misconfigurations, over permissions, and insecure data storage in AWS environments.
This test covers:
- S3 bucket policies and access
- IAM role misconfigurations
- Vulnerability of EC2 instances and RDS instances
- Functional security of API and Lambda
- Network Security Group (NSG) controls
It gives you a 360-degree perspective of your hybrid infrastructure in combination with external testing.
Why Combine External and AWS Testing
Attackers do not usually remain on a single attack-vector. They usually take advantage of the cloud vulnerabilities as well as external network vulnerabilities. When you mix external network penetration testing and AWS pen test, you have:
- Full visibility of all the open entry points
- Securing of policies to various platforms
- Better network to cloud segregation
- Enforcement of the international standards such as ISO 27001, SOC 2, and GDPR
In this way, assets located on-premise or in the cloud can be provided with constant protection.
The Testing Process:
1. Planning and Scope: Specify AWS assets, domains and external IP ranges
2. Reconnaissance: Scout the services, endpoints and network exposures
3. Vulnerability Analysis: Find misconfigurations and exploitable vulnerabilities
4. Exploitation: Carry out safe simulations to check on severity and possible impact
5. Reporting: Provide an overall report, including specific remediation measures
Both stages offer a systematic way of risk assessment and how it can be minimized.
Key Benefits:
- Single Visibility: See risks in both on-premise and in the cloud
- Better Protection: Vulnerable security vulnerabilities at the network perimeter
- Less Downtime: avoid data loss and disruption of service
- Audit Readiness: Be audit and certification-compliant
With the integration of the two tests, businesses to gain a better security structure can remain stronger and adaptable.
Why Choose Professionals for Testing
The professional testing partners are aware of the network infrastructure as well as cloud-specific vulnerabilities. The most suitable services use certified professionals (OSCP, CEH, or AWS-certified security professionals) and adhere to such approaches as OWASP and NIST.
By teaming up with Aardwolf Security, you are guaranteed of comprehensive, ethical, and compliant testing that will keep your systems safe against external and cloud-based attacks.
