Cloud penetration testing is the service most often sold as one thing and delivered as another. Many vendors run a configuration scanner against your account, format the output, and call it a penetration test. A real cloud test has two halves: a configuration review against the CIS benchmarks, and an exploitation phase that starts from a realistic foothold (a leaked developer key, an over-permissive role, one compromised instance) and shows how far it reaches. The firms below all offer the second half. What separates them is scale, price model and how much of the work is manual.
This list is written by a penetration testing company, so Invadel is first and this is our site. Descriptions of other firms are limited to what they publicly say about themselves, and there are no prices for them because none publish any. Ours are on the cloud penetration testing pricing page.
What a cloud penetration test has to include in 2026
The data moved this year. Exploited vulnerabilities in third-party software became the primary entry vector in 44.5% of cloud intrusions in the second half of 2025, overtaking weak credentials (27.2%). (Google Cloud Threat Horizons Report, H1 2026) Cloud-conscious intrusions rose 37%. (CrowdStrike 2026 Global Threat Report) So a test that stops at IAM policies misses the leading way in. Whoever you hire, the scope should cover:
- IAM: policies, roles, trust relationships, privilege escalation chains, MFA on privileged principals.
- Every internet-facing workload and the software version on it.
- Storage exposure and encryption (S3, Blob, Cloud Storage).
- Network controls, security groups, exposed management ports.
- Secrets: in code, images, environment variables, pipelines.
- Serverless and container permissions (Lambda, Functions, EKS, AKS, GKE).
- Whether logging (CloudTrail, Activity Log, Cloud Audit Logs) would have caught each step.
Our AWS penetration testing guide walks through the AWS version in detail, including what AWS permits without approval.
The best cloud penetration testing companies in 2026
1. Invadel
Best for: fixed-price, manual cloud testing of AWS, Azure and GCP for startups and mid-market companies.
Our cloud engagement is the two halves described above: a CIS benchmark review of the account, then exploitation from an assumed-breach position, with every action logged for your defenders and the detection gaps written into the report. Prices are published, the retest is free, and the report maps findings to SOC 2, PCI DSS, HIPAA or NYDFS Part 500. Web applications and APIs hosted in the account can be tested in the same engagement, which matters because the server-side request forgery that reaches the metadata service lives in the application, not the cloud console. The honest limitation: we are a boutique, and a multi-region estate with hundreds of accounts is a long engagement for us.
2. Rhino Security Labs
Best for: AWS-heavy environments that want specialists.
Rhino Security Labs is known for AWS-focused offensive research and for building Pacu, the open-source AWS exploitation framework. A natural fit when the estate is mostly AWS and the buyer wants testers who write the tooling.
3. Bishop Fox
Best for: enterprise cloud and attack surface programs.
One of the largest independent offensive security firms, combining cloud penetration testing with a continuous attack surface management platform. For large organizations that want one vendor across cloud, application and red team work, at enterprise pricing.
4. NetSPI
Best for: large enterprises running continuous cloud testing at scale.
An enterprise penetration testing company with a large in-house bench and a delivery platform, strong in banking and other regulated industries where cloud testing runs as a program rather than a project.
5. Praetorian
Best for: offensive security engagements that combine cloud, application and product testing.
Praetorian is an offensive security firm with a research culture and a continuous offensive platform, often engaged by technology companies for cloud and product security together.
6. NCC Group
Best for: global enterprises that need cloud assurance alongside hardware, cryptography and software review.
A large independent consultancy with deep assurance practices across cloud platforms, well suited to organizations with global procurement and multi-cloud estates.
7. Coalfire
Best for: cloud testing tied to FedRAMP and PCI DSS.
Coalfire’s offensive security practice sits next to its FedRAMP 3PAO and PCI QSA work, which makes it a fit when the cloud test has to feed a specific regulated attestation.
8. Cobalt
Best for: fast-scheduled PTaaS cloud testing through a platform.
A penetration-testing-as-a-service platform with a tester network behind it. Quick to start and integrated with ticketing; depth depends on who is assigned to the engagement. See our Invadel vs Cobalt comparison.
9. Packetlabs
Best for: manual-first cloud and infrastructure testing from a Canadian boutique.
A manual-first firm with cloud penetration testing among its infrastructure services. See our Invadel vs Packetlabs comparison.
10. BreachLock
Best for: platform-driven cloud testing with continuous retesting.
A PTaaS provider combining automation with human validation and a portal for retesting. See our Invadel vs BreachLock comparison.
The questions that tell a cloud test from a configuration scan
Ask every vendor on your shortlist:
- What is the starting point of the exploitation phase? If the answer is “we run the scanner with a read-only role” and nothing else, it is a configuration review, not a penetration test.
- Will you attempt privilege escalation and prove it? A real test shows the chain from a developer role to administrator, with evidence.
- Do you test the software on the instances, or only the cloud configuration? After 2025 the software is where most intrusions start.
- Do you record whether our detection fired? The finding “we reached the database and nothing alerted” is the one that changes the budget.
- Which frameworks does the report map to, and can I see a sample? Ours is on the sample report page.
- What does it cost, in writing, before the call? Day-rate estimates are how a cloud test doubles in price. See how much a penetration test costs.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need the cloud provider’s permission? Not for standard testing of your own resources on AWS, Azure or GCP, which all publish policies allowing it. Red team exercises, stress testing and phishing simulations need advance notice; AWS asks for two weeks.
How long does a cloud penetration test take? Five to ten testing days for a single organization’s accounts, plus the retest. Multi-account, multi-region estates take longer.
Is a cloud security posture management tool enough? It is the first half. It cannot chain two medium findings into the escalation path that makes them critical, and it cannot tell you whether your detection works.
Can the application and the cloud be tested together? They should be. The most damaging cloud finding, an application flaw that reaches instance credentials, spans both.
The short version
Hire a firm that will start from a realistic foothold and show you how far it reaches, test the software on your workloads and not just the console, and write down whether your detection noticed. If you want that at a fixed price with a free retest, scope a cloud engagement.
Written by
Invadel Team
Senior penetration testers writing from real engagements, the same team that scopes, tests, and reports for our clients. About Invadel →