Cloud Penetration Testing: AWS vs Azure Attack Surfaces Compared
A side-by-side look at the most common misconfigurations our cloud pentest team exploits in AWS and Azure environments.
Category: Cloud Security
Tags: Cloud Security, AWS, Azure, Pentesting
Published: 5/23/2026
Author: Digital Defense
Cloud Breaches Start with Misconfigurations
Over 90% of cloud security incidents trace back to customer-side misconfigurations rather than provider vulnerabilities. Cloud penetration testing simulates how an attacker chains these misconfigurations together.
Top AWS Findings
- Over-permissive IAM policies and role trust relationships
- Public S3 buckets containing sensitive artefacts
- IMDSv1 enabled allowing SSRF-to-credential pivots
Top Azure Findings
- Privileged service principals with expired ownership
- Storage account keys exposed in DevOps pipelines
- Conditional Access gaps for legacy authentication
Our methodology covers configuration review, identity attack paths, and exploitation with safe proof-of-concept demonstrations.