Cloud Security Audit with AWS
Audit a misconfigured AWS environment — find exposed S3 buckets, overly permissive IAM roles, open security groups, and missing CloudTrail.
01 Overview
Cloud misconfigurations account for the majority of data breaches. In this mission you'll audit a deliberately misconfigured AWS environment using both manual techniques and automated tools like Prowler. You'll identify and remediate: public S3 buckets, wildcard IAM policies, overly permissive VPC security groups, disabled CloudTrail, and unencrypted EBS volumes. Finally, you'll codify the correct configuration using Terraform.
02 Environment Setup
**AWS CLI:** Install with `pip install awscli` then run `aws configure` and enter your Access Key ID and Secret Access Key from the AWS IAM console. **Terraform:** Download from [terraform.io/downloads](https://developer.hashicorp.com/terraform/downloads) and add to your PATH. **Prowler:** Install with `pip install prowler`. Verify with `prowler --version`. Create a dedicated IAM user for this mission with read-only access (SecurityAudit managed policy) so you're not using your root account.
03 Mission Tasks
Run Prowler against the target AWS account. Review the CIS benchmark findings and prioritise critical risks.
Identify publicly accessible S3 buckets. Review bucket policies and ACLs, enable Block Public Access, and implement server-side encryption.
Identify IAM users/roles with wildcard permissions. Apply least-privilege principles and replace overly broad policies with scoped ones.
Find security groups with 0.0.0.0/0 ingress rules on sensitive ports. Tighten rules and document the required access matrix.
Codify all security fixes as Terraform resources. Run terraform plan/apply and verify the changes using the AWS CLI.
04 Why This Matters
Cloud Security Engineers and DevSecOps roles require deep AWS knowledge. Cloud misconfiguration skills are tested in interviews and used daily on the job.
You'll Need
- An AWS account (free tier is sufficient)
- AWS CLI installed and configured
- Python 3.9+ installed
- Terraform installed
- Basic understanding of AWS services (EC2, S3, IAM)
Tools & Tech Stack
Skills You'll Gain
- AWS security
- IAM policies
- Cloud compliance (CIS)
- Terraform
- Incident response
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