Securing Cloud Application Infrastructure: Understanding the Penetration Testing Challenges of IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS Environments

Abstract

Cloud computing is rapidly becoming the go-to platform for businesses of all sizes, from startups to large enterprises. With this shift comes a responsibility to ensure that cloud applications are secure and can protect data from malicious actors. Joint responsibility model of cloud security says that while service providers have to make sure their services are secure, businesses that use those services must also take steps to maintain their own level of security. Identity as well as access management is a shared responsibility model that offloads some of the application security responsibilities to the client. It is important to understand the impact of such a system when it comes to protecting confidential data from malicious attacks. This includes putting in place protocols for identity as well as access management and doing ethical hacking and penetration testing to make sure that the most data protection is possible. Cloud security has become a joint responsibility between the user and the provider, so it is essential for clients to take responsibility for the security of their cloud applications. This mainly applies to IaaS and PaaS services. In order to ensure a secure virtual environment, advanced security measures such as ethical hacking and penetration testing are a must. These efforts will enable organizations to stay safe from malicious attacks and data leakage. Penetration testing for cloud-based assets is an effective way to increase risk visibility, discover vulnerabilities, control risks, and gain valuable telemetry data to ensure better security. The main objective of this research paper is to evaluate the methods used in hacking cloud applications while also developing a framework or checklist to identify associated risks and vulnerabilities. This will help keep cloud-based apps secure from malicious actors.