Cloud security testing is the process of evaluating your entire cloud infrastructure for security risks and misconfigurations—proactively, systematically, and continuously. It’s crucial to leave no stone unturned, no matter your cloud service model (IaaS, PaaS, or SaaS). After all, in 2024, 44% of companies surveyed reported a cloud data breach within the past year.
And beyond the very real risk of a security incident, your business is vulnerable to reputational damage, compliance fines, and preventable inefficiencies if you don’t have a robust cloud security testing program in place.
In this article, we’ll take a look at key types of cloud security testing and give you actionable tips. First, let’s look at the differences between traditional security testing and cloud security testing.
Expose cloud risks no other tool can
Learn how Wiz Cloud surfaces toxic combinations across misconfigurations, identities, vulnerabilities, and data—so you can take action fast.
Why traditional testing falls short in the cloud
Why can’t you use traditional testing to protect cloud environments? First off, threat actors use totally different attack techniques to breach cloud environments than they use to wreak havoc on internal networks. (For example, Layer 2 attacks like ARP/MAC spoofing are generally not applicable in public cloud underlay networks; however, packet capture is still possible via authorized mechanisms like traffic mirroring or on a compromised host.)
Then, there are the crucial differences between the scanning and testing techniques themselves: Traditional IP-based network scanning is insufficient on its own – especially for PaaS and SaaS – where control-plane and configuration assessments matter most. Similarly, traditional penetration tests often emphasize host-level vulnerabilities; cloud-focused testing must also target identity and permission flaws, cloud service misconfigurations, and control-plane pathways that enable privilege escalation.
In the next section, we’ll take a closer look at what makes cloud risks unique.
Cloud-native risks
Cloud’s shared responsibility model: In the shared responsibility model, CSPs protect cloud infrastructure and customers secure their cloud data and applications—but this division of security responsibilities can cause confusion about who is in charge of what, leaving gaps and blind spots.
Misconfigured IAM roles: To keep systems safe, every IAM role needs minimum necessary privileges and nothing more.
Publicly exposed storage buckets: Remember: Cloud environments are internet-exposed. That means any time you set up a storage bucket, you need to take the configuration seriously. Many private networks allow unprivileged access, a bad habit that’s far more dangerous in the cloud due to the much wider exposure.
Unused but active permissions: Every active permission increases your attack surface; unused permissions expand blast radius if credentials are compromised or misused by advanced persistent threats.
Identity sprawl and lateral movement: Here’s a scary equation: a high number of services + a large number of user accounts for the same users + password re-use = lateral movement.
Vulnerable container images: Containers are dynamic and ephemeral; source-image scanning is essential but not sufficient – combine with image signing, SBOMs (Software Bill of Materials), policy enforcement, and runtime controls for layered defense.
A shifting network perimeter: Cloud environments use auto-scaling, serverless, and containers, making resources appear and disappear rapidly. Focus on mapping effective exposure – such as public reachability and cross-account access paths – and apply zero-trust principles rather than relying on a fixed ‘perimeter.’
IaC risks: In IaC-defined environments, scalability is a double-edged sword: Easy scaling means a misconfiguration can spread quickly across multiple entities.
The Board-Ready CISO Report Deck [Template]
This editable template helps you communicate risk, impact, and priorities in language your board will understand—so you can gain buy-in and drive action.
What should be tested in the cloud?
A comprehensive cloud security program should include testing coverage for…
Configurations
Start with IAM—make sure roles are correctly defined and every policy behaves the way it’s supposed to.
Check your network settings: Review security group members, confirm VPC isolation, and double-check your firewall rules.
Make sure no cloud resources are unintentionally exposed to the public.
Workloads
Analyze virtual machines, containers’ source images, and serverless functions.
Look for known vulnerabilities in base images, whether you use them directly or through dependencies.
Identities & access paths
Remove excessive permissions and make sure to adhere to the principle of least privilege.
Disable/remove unused access grants.
Identify attack paths (e.g., role chaining, toxic combinations).
Data security
Look for exposure of sensitive data (e.g., in publicly accessible S3 buckets and internet-exposed databases that can be targeted for attacks).
Verify data encryption and identify key management issues.
Supply chain & IaC
Look for insecure IaC templates that could propagate through multiple instances.
Find inherited default misconfigurations from third-party modules or registries.
Scan IaC templates for embedded secrets or overly permissive defaults from third-party registries.
The Only Cloud Security Checklist You’ll Ever Need
A comprehensive checklist that hits all the key pillars and cornerstones of a strong cloud security program.
Read more
Types of cloud security testing techniques
Continuous vs. point-in-time cloud security testing
A cloud environment is exposed 100% of its lifetime; every gap between a point-in-time test and the next one leaves a window of exposure. The solution? Continuous scanning. Prioritize testing tools that never stop scanning to close the window of exposure for good.
Better yet? Pick a tool that offers contextual prioritization: Full-time cloud security monitoring could lead to a huge number of alerts, which is a nightmare to face if issues aren’t organized by priority.
Configuration & posture scanning (CSPM)
Default configurations give you a false sense of security: More often than you might think, they’re vulnerable and expose you to attacks. That’s where CSPM tools come in. CSPM solutions identify common misconfigurations in your cloud control planes (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP). One example? A CSPM tool can find disabled monitoring and logging or disabled MFA on root accounts.
Select a CSPM tool that aligns scans with security benchmarks like CIS, the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, the CSA Cloud Controls Matrix, and the MITRE ATT&CK framework – and supports mapping to common compliance frameworks such as ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI DSS, and HIPAA.
Vulnerability scanning
When it comes to vulnerability scanning, automation is a game-changer. In fact, it’s the only way to keep up with the cloud. Pick a vulnerability scanner that covers OS/kernel and package-level CVEs for VMs, language and system dependencies for containers, and image registries – ideally with SBOM support and reachability/runtime context.
Identity risk analysis
Two cold, hard truths:
Over-permissioned accounts can have a worse impact than a critical vulnerability.
It’s not realistic to think that no account will ever be compromised.
These unpleasant facts are why it’s critical to define and review permission groups, enforce MFA for privileged accounts (e.g., cloud root), right-size roles based on effective permissions, and simulate attack paths (e.g., role chaining, trust policies) to test privilege escalation. Taking these steps limits potential attacks and gives your monitoring systems time to detect and respond to threats.
IaC security testing
IaC-defined environments have their advantages, including the fact that you can conduct static analysis on the code with tools like Terraform and CloudFormation.
Strengthen templates with policy-as-code (e.g., OPA/Rego), pre-commit checks, and pipeline gates to shift left, bringing security to the very beginning of the software development lifecycle.
Exposure & reachability testing
Every serious testing plan needs a validation phase – using exposure and reachability analysis (e.g., path analysis, effective network reachability) to confirm which findings are actually exploitable in your environment.
Exposure and reachability testing considers your overall exposure, combining identity management, workload data context, and network structure.
Security Leaders Handbook: The Strategic Guide to Cloud Security
Learn the new cloud security operating model and steps towards cloud security maturity. This practical guide helps transform security teams and processes to remove risks and support secure cloud development.
How Wiz takes cloud security testing to the next level
To take on the modern threats we’ve discussed in this article, Wiz has developed a comprehensive cloud security approach that’s trusted by 50% of Fortune 100 companies.
As an industry-leading CNAPP, Wiz delivers all the capabilities of a modern CSPM and more, detecting misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, and identity risks, including toxic combinations (for example, an exposed storage bucket combined with an overly permissive role).
Here are a just few of the ways that Wiz protects everything you build and run in the cloud:
Agentless, continuous scanning: Wiz continuously scans and analyzes cloud configurations, workloads, identities, and IaC—no agents required.
Attack path detection: The Wiz Security Graph correlates identities, configurations, vulnerabilities, exposure, and data sensitivity to map real attack paths and blast radius.
Prioritization: Wiz prioritizes what really matters based on exposure, exploitability, and business impact, helping your teams focus on real-world threats instead of static checklists.
Ready to see it in action? Schedule a demo to experience agentless coverage, code-to-cloud traceability, and graph-powered prioritization in one platform.
Expose cloud risks no other tool can
Learn how Wiz Cloud surfaces toxic combinations across misconfigurations, identities, vulnerabilities, and data—so you can take action fast.
