Cloud Network Security Testing: VPCs, Security Groups, and Firewall Rules

Security Group and NSG Testing

Testing evaluates every security group/NSG rule for overpermissive access—especially inbound rules that allow broad IP ranges, port ranges, or protocol wildcards. Stale rules, temporary exceptions that became permanent, and self-referencing groups that allow unrestricted intra-group communication all represent risk.

Network Segmentation Validation

Testing verifies that network segmentation actually isolates what it's supposed to isolate. Can a workload in the development VPC reach production databases? Can a compromised web server access the management network? Segmentation testing proves your network boundaries hold under adversarial conditions—essential for PCI DSS compliance.

Egress Control Testing

Most cloud security testing focuses on inbound access. Egress testing evaluates whether outbound traffic is properly restricted—preventing data exfiltration, command-and-control communication, and lateral movement through unrestricted outbound access.

Cross-Cloud and Hybrid Connectivity

Testing evaluates VPN connections, VPC peering, PrivateLink/Private Endpoints, and transit gateways for unintended cross-network access paths.

Cloud Network Testing with Penetrify

Penetrify's cloud network testing covers security groups, NACLs, firewall rules, segmentation validation, and cross-network connectivity across AWS, Azure, and GCP.