Cloud Security with Adversarial Exposure Validation

It is no surprise that as industries continue to embrace digital transformation, the adoption of cloud computing remains as prevalent as ever, especially with the disruption and emergence of AI technologies. Cloud environments offer unparalleled flexibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness, allowing customers and businesses to deploy, manage, and scale their applications. However, the cloud also brings with it an array of security challenges. As we look at how cloud security is changing, it is evident that the landscape is shifting toward a more holistic, proactive, and automated approach.

Adversarial Exposure Validation (AEV) addresses this shift providing effective ways to address cloud security challenges and ensure robust protection in the face of rapidly changing cloud environments.

AEV is an approach that is not new but is gaining traction not only in cloud security but across the attack surface. Even with traditional security measures in place, AEV focuses on validating and testing cloud environments from the perspective of a potential attacker, allowing security and red teams to identify and remediate vulnerabilities before they can be exploited. By proactively simulating attack scenarios using frameworks like MITRE ATT&CK® and the Cyber Kill Chain, AEV is a critical capability that strengthens security by continuously testing defenses, enabling organizations to quickly adapt and stay one ahead of attackers.

How Attackers See Cloud Infrastructure

Attackers view cloud environments as highly valuable targets due to the vast amounts of sensitive data, critical business plications, and systems that are essential for business operations. Unlike traditional on-premises infrastructure, cloud environments are typically distributed and shared across multiple providers and users, which can create unique vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit.

• Potential for Lateral Movement: In cloud environments, a compromised account can often lead to the exposure of other connected services or data. Attackers can leverage cloud’s interconnectedness to move laterally across the environment, finding new targets within the same network or even escalating privileges.
• Opportunities for Misconfigurations: Cloud infrastructure allows for greater flexibility and customization. However, this flexibility can lead to misconfigurations such as open storage buckets, mismanaged access controls, or improperly set up network rules, all of which can be easily exploited by attackers.
• Access to Multiple Environments: With multi-cloud and hybrid cloud strategies, attackers can target vulnerabilities across different environments or providers. This increases the complexity for security defense teams, as security controls may vary across providers or regions.
• Scalability of Attacks: Cloud environments offer immense computational power and storage capabilities, which means attackers can potentially scale their attacks. This can range from leveraging cloud resources to execute large-scale DDoS attacks, for example, to using excess compute powers for cryptomining or brute-force attacks.

Weak Points in Cloud Infrastructure That Can Be Exposed

While cloud environments offer tremendous benefits, they also introduce unique vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit if not properly secured. Below are some of the key vulnerabilities that can be exposed in modern cloud infrastructures.

Misconfigured Access Controls

• Attackers can escalate privileges or gain access to accounts with higher privileges than intended by exploiting overly broad permission, for example, due to improper set permissions.

Unsecured APIs

• Cloud services often expose APIs for interaction with cloud resources. Attackers can exploit weak API authentication or a vulnerability in the API itself to gain unauthorized access, exfiltrate data, or control cloud resources.

Exposed Cloud Storage

• Misconfigured cloud storage buckets, such as Amazon S3 buckets, can be left without proper access controls allowing attackers to easily access sensitive files, steal data, or inject malicious content.

Serverless and Container Vulnerabilities

• Serverless computing and containerized applications present unique challenges particularly with container orchestration tools such as Kubernetes, and insecure code within serverless functions. Attackers can exploit vulnerabilities in the code or misconfigurations in serverless functions to gain control of applications or services.

Data in Transit and at Rest

• If data is not properly encrypted while being stored or transferred across cloud networks, attackers can intercept unencrypted data in transit, or access unprotected data at rest, leading to data theft or modification.

Adopting AEV for Robust Cloud Security

Adversarial Exposure Validation was introduced as one of three pillars associated with Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM). CTEM offers a structured, proactive approach for identifying, validating, and remediating threats moving from a reactive to a proactive response and a more threat-informed and intelligent security posture. The three techniques that currently subsume AEV are autonomous penetration testing and red teaming as well as breach and attak simulation. All three of the tools provide automated and autonomous continuous security testing which can be augmented by human-led experts, if needed, for more nuanced vulnerability exploitation.

Adversarial Exposure Validation (AEV) is a technology category Gartner introduced in the Hype Cycle for Security Operations 2024. Gartner defines AEV as “the process and supporting technologies delivering consistent, continuous, and automated evidence of the feasibility of various attack scenarios.” AEV uses simulations and real attack techniques to empirically show how attackers could exploit identified exposures regardless of implemented security controls and processes. You will notice now that Breach & Attack Simulation, autonomous penetration testing, and red teaming, are now considered AEV tools. Prior to AEV, these tools were not automated nor autonomous and carried out by human experts making adversarial testing time consuming and less cost effective.

AEV addresses these challenges by utilizing advanced technologies like SAAS, prioritizing exposure management, enhancing automation, and integrating with security controls to identify weaknesses. In turn, AEV supports CTEM programs, enabling security teams to operate with greater efficiency, agility, and productivity.

Adversarial Exposure Validation Gartner Hype Cycle for Security Operations 2024 (source)

BreachLock’s CTEM Program with AEV

BreachLock’s AI-powered Unified Platform was developed to integrate AEV solutions like autonomous pentesting and red teaming alongside PTaaS to provide a seamless user experience with end-to-end visibility across the attack surface. Regardless of the tool, data-driven evidence-based results are made available across testing and environments, including cloud infrastructure. This makes BreachLock particularly attractive for enterprises looking for a complete, proactive threat exposure management solution under the CTEM framework.

Securing Cloud Environments

BreachLock’s Adversarial Exposure Validation tools play a critical role in security cloud environments by identifying testing and validating potential security gaps through autonomous and human-led offensive security techniques.

Continuous Automated Pentesting for Cloud Assets

• How AEV Helps: AEV tools leverage autonomous penetration testing to simulate real-world attacks on cloud environments, detecting misconfigurations, privilege escalation risks, and identity-based threats.
• BreachLock’s Role: BreachLock’s AI-driven unified platform continuously scans and tests cloud environments to uncover exploitable vulnerabilities.
• CTEM Alignment: Supports the “Discovery” and “Prioritization” stages by identifying high-risk exposures in dynamic cloud environments.

Attack Surface Monitoring & Exposure Discovery

• How AEV Helps: These tools map an organization’s cloud assets (including shadow IT and third-party integrations), identifying external-facing risks.
• BreachLock’s Role: BreachLock’s Attack Surface Analytics feature continuously assesses cloud environments to track new and unknown exposures.
• CTEM Alignment: Enhances the “Discovery” phase by ensuring organizations have real-time visibility into cloud-based risks.

Validating Cloud Security Controls & Misconfiguration Detection

• How AEV Helps: Tools simulate attacks to validate the effectiveness of cloud security controls, IAM policies, and network configurations.
• BreachLock’s Role: Automated and human-led pentesting test the resilience of security controls in AWS, Azure, and GCP environments.
• CTEM Alignment: Strengthens the “Validation” phase by continuously testing and verifying security control effectiveness.

AI-Assisted Threat Models & Risk Prioritization

• How AEV Helps: Ai-driven risk modeling evaluates potential attack paths and prioritizes vulnerabilities based on exploitability and business impact.
• BreachLock’s Role: BreachLock’s unified platforms uses AI-powered analytics and attacker tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) to rank cloud security risks based on performing real-world attack simulations either by autonomous pentesting or red teaming.
• CTEM Alignment: Aligns with the “Prioritization” phase by ensuring that organizations focus on the most exploitable threats.

Red Teaming for Cloud Environments

• How AEV Helps: Advanced AEV tools facilitate cloud-based red teaming to test detection and response capabilities against real-world adversaries.
• BreachLock’s Role: Combines autonomous and human-led red teaming exercises to evaluate cloud security defenses.
• CTEM Alignment: Supports the “Mobilization” and “Validation” phases by continuously challenging cloud security postures.

Regulatory & Compliance Validation

• How AEV Helps: Ensures cloud security aligns with compliance standards like NIS2, DORA, SOC 2, and ISO 27001.
• BreachLock’s Role: Provides compliance-driven security assessments and automated testing to help meet regulatory requirements.
• CTEM Alignment: Strengthens the “Validation” phase by ensuring that cloud security meets regulatory standards.

Connecting AEV, BreachLock, and CTEM for Cloud Security

AEV Capabilities	BreachLock Features	CTEM Alignment
Continuous, autonomous pentesting	AI-driven cloud penetration testing (autonomous and human-led)	Mobilization, Validation, Discovery Prioritization
Attack Surface Monitoring	External Attack Surface Management (EASM), Attack Surface Analytics	Discovery
Security Control Validation	Automated cloud security assessments, autonomous pentesting and red teaming	Discovery, Mobilization, Validation
AI-Driven Risk Models	AI-powered unified platform, evidence-based results, risk ranking and automated prioritization	Prioritization
Red Teaming for Cloud	Autonomous red teaming and human-led	Mobilization, Validation
Compliance Validation	Automated or autonomous pentesting for regulatory compliance	Validation

By integrating AEV tools within a CTEM program, organizations can proactively manage cloud security risks, ensuring end-to-end continuous visibility, validation, and response to evolving threats. BreachLock’s offensive security solutions reinforce this approach by offering automated, autonomous, and human-led security testing tailored for cloud environments.

Conclusion

Cloud security with Adversarial Exposure Validation (AEV) shifts organizations from reactive defense to proactive risk management, ensuring that security teams can stay ahead of attackers. By continuously challenging cloud environments through autonomous pentesting and red teaming, AEV uncovers vulnerabilities that traditional security measures might overlook. This approach aligns security with real-world attack tactics using frameworks like MITRE ATT&CK and the Cyber Kill Chain, for example, helping organizations build resilience against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.

BreachLock is implementing AEV in cloud security, enabling businesses to optimize security investments, reduce the attack surface, and improve compliance readiness. By integrating AEV-driven insights into security programs, organizations can make data-driven decisions, strengthen detection and response capabilities, and maintain a dynamic security posture that evolves with emerging threats.