UK-based · penetration testing & red team operations
[email protected]
Forefront IT Security ServicesCloud security testing that goes beyond configuration and CIS benchmarks, we review the build, then actively attack and exploit identity, privilege-escalation and CI/CD paths across Microsoft 365, Azure and AWS to prove real, chained impact.
A benchmark scan tells you a box is unticked. It does not tell you an attacker can pivot from a leaked pipeline secret to Global Admin. We do both, the CIS baseline, then the hands-on exploitation that proves what the misconfiguration actually costs you.
A CIS benchmark scan is where we start, not where we stop. Each layer goes deeper, from what is configured, to what an attacker can actually do with it.
01
Configure
Configuration and security-group review across your tenancies, identity, network, storage, keys and logging, examined control by control.
02
Benchmark
A defensible CIS Cloud Benchmark scorecard, pass/fail with a risk rating per control, mapped for compliance reporting.
03
Exploit
We attack it, identity abuse, privilege escalation and lateral movement across M365, Azure and AWS, proving the real path from a foothold to Global Admin.
04
Pipeline
CI/CD secrets, over-trusted OIDC roles, build-step injection and insecure IaC, the supply-chain routes into your cloud most reviews never touch.
Cloud breaches are rarely an exotic exploit. They are far more often a misconfiguration, an over-permissive identity, a public storage bucket, a missing Conditional Access policy, a secret left in a pipeline. The difference is what you do about it: a benchmark scan flags the box, but only hands-on testing proves whether that gap is a genuine path to your data or Global Admin. We do both.
Reviews run in layers. We start with a control-by-control configuration and security-group review mapped to the CIS Cloud Benchmarks, then go offensive, abusing identity, escalating privilege and moving laterally across the tenant the way a real attacker would, using industry-standard cloud auditing tooling and the platforms' native security services, and validating and exploiting the issues that matter by hand.
Crucially, we test the routes most reviews never touch: CI/CD pipelines, over-trusted OIDC federation, build-step injection and insecure infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, Bicep/ARM, CloudFormation). Every finding is mapped to its CIS control and turned into a practical, prioritised fix, with IaC examples where they help, and can be kept under continuous watch through AETOS so configuration drift is caught as it happens.
Identity, network security groups and exposure, storage, key management and logging reviewed control by control across Microsoft 365, Azure and AWS, the build, examined the way an attacker would map it.
A control-by-control measurement against the recognised CIS Cloud Benchmarks, producing a defensible compliance scorecard with pass/fail and a risk rating per control.
Not just a list of over-permissive roles, we actively abuse them: Entra ID and IAM attack paths, service-principal and trust-relationship abuse, and the realistic route from a standard identity to tenant or account takeover.
Hands-on exploitation across M365, Azure and AWS, public exposure, token and key theft, resource-permission pivots and lateral movement, chained to prove real business impact, not a theoretical score.
Pipeline secrets, over-trusted OIDC federation, build-step injection and insecure Terraform, Bicep/ARM and CloudFormation, the supply-chain routes into your cloud a benchmark scan never sees.
Would you actually see us? We assess CloudTrail, Azure Activity and audit logging, retention and alerting against incident-response reality, and tell you which of our actions were detected.
Every engagement follows a structured, phased process, so you know exactly what happens, when, and what you receive at each stage.
We agree the tenancies, subscriptions and accounts in scope and provision the least-privilege access needed, from read-only audit roles for the review through to a scoped, assumed-breach identity for the exploitation phase.
Industry-standard cloud auditing tooling and native security services measure your configuration and security groups against the CIS Cloud Benchmarks across every in-scope service.
We map IAM and directory roles, MFA and Conditional Access, service principals and trust relationships, and identify the realistic privilege-escalation paths to account or tenant compromise.
We go offensive, safely and within agreed rules of engagement, abusing identity, escalating privilege, stealing tokens and pivoting across the tenant to prove which misconfigurations lead to real, chained impact.
Pipelines, OIDC trust, build steps and infrastructure-as-code are tested for the supply-chain weaknesses that hand an attacker a foothold in your cloud from outside it.
Every issue is mapped to its CIS control, risk-rated and turned into a concrete fix with IaC examples, and AETOS can keep the posture under continuous watch, alerting on drift and newly introduced exposure.
We agree the tenancies, subscriptions and accounts in scope and provision the least-privilege access needed, from read-only audit roles for the review through to a scoped, assumed-breach identity for the exploitation phase.
Industry-standard cloud auditing tooling and native security services measure your configuration and security groups against the CIS Cloud Benchmarks across every in-scope service.
We map IAM and directory roles, MFA and Conditional Access, service principals and trust relationships, and identify the realistic privilege-escalation paths to account or tenant compromise.
We go offensive, safely and within agreed rules of engagement, abusing identity, escalating privilege, stealing tokens and pivoting across the tenant to prove which misconfigurations lead to real, chained impact.
Pipelines, OIDC trust, build steps and infrastructure-as-code are tested for the supply-chain weaknesses that hand an attacker a foothold in your cloud from outside it.
Every issue is mapped to its CIS control, risk-rated and turned into a concrete fix with IaC examples, and AETOS can keep the posture under continuous watch, alerting on drift and newly introduced exposure.
Every engagement is delivered to be acted on, by your board and your engineers alike.
A cloud posture report with an overall rating and every finding mapped to its CIS Benchmark control
Prioritised, practical hardening recommendations with infrastructure-as-code examples where useful
A dedicated identity-and-access section with clear, specific fixes for privileged-access risk
An executive summary for leadership alongside the technical detail for your cloud engineers
A consultant walkthrough of the findings and remediation priorities
Optional ongoing monitoring with Managed Exposure (CTEM), delivered through AETOS, to catch configuration drift as it happens (a separate subscription to the review)
The configuration review uses least-privilege, read-only audit access such as the AWS SecurityAudit role or an equivalent reader role in Azure and Microsoft 365. For the active-exploitation phase we agree a scoped, assumed-breach identity and clear rules of engagement up front, everything is controlled, non-destructive and reversible, with an open escalation line throughout, so there is no risk to your production environment.
Have a question that isn't covered here? We're happy to talk it through.
Tell us about your environment, and we'll recommend the right approach and give you a clear quote.
Penetration Testing
Learn more
Red & Purple Teaming
Learn more
Continuous Vulnerability Assessment
Learn more
Cyber Essentials & CE+
Learn more
Security Consultancy
Learn more