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Azure Penetration Testing Services

Azure Penetration Testing Services

Azure Penetration Testing Services

Test Your Azure Environment From an Attacker’s Perspective

Moving infrastructure to Microsoft Azure changes the way your company manages security.

Microsoft takes care of the core Azure platform, but your company still needs to manage things like identities, configurations, applications, data, and the cloud resources you create. This setup is known as the shared responsibility model. What you’re responsible for depends on whether you use IaaS, PaaS, or SaaS, but you always control your own data, identities, accounts, and access. Other tasks can change based on the services you use.

Azure penetration testing shows if an attacker could take advantage of weaknesses in the Azure resources your company manages.

Tanner Security tests Azure environments to find vulnerabilities, too many permissions, exposed services, insecure settings, identity issues, network risks, and attack paths that could lead to unauthorized access or data exposure.

We use automated tools and hands-on analysis, including safe testing of vulnerabilities. Our goal is not just to list Azure security issues.

We focus on a bigger question:

What could an attacker do if they found weaknesses in your Azure environment?

Schedule an Azure Penetration Test

Talk with us about your Azure environment, security concerns, and testing objectives.

What Is Azure Penetration Testing?

An Azure penetration test is a security check, done with your permission, that examines your Azure infrastructure, applications, identities, network controls, and other cloud resources from an attacker’s point of view.

This assessment can include Azure Virtual Machines, App Service apps, Functions, APIs, virtual networks, public services, identity settings, and other Azure components that are part of the agreed scope.

Microsoft explicitly permits customers and authorized third parties to conduct penetration testing against Azure resources without prior Microsoft approval, provided they follow Microsoft’s current Cloud Unified Penetration Testing Rules of Engagement. Third-party testers also need explicit written authorization from the resource owner.

This difference matters because cloud penetration testing is not the same as traditional network testing.

In Azure, an attacker might not have to break into a server first.

A stolen password, too many permissions, an exposed storage account, an insecure app, a compromised managed identity, or a poorly configured network can all give an attacker access or a path to more valuable resources.

Tanner Security looks at these connections during the assessment.

Why Azure Penetration Testing Services Matter

Cloud environments can change rapidly.

Your IT team might deploy a new virtual machine, add an API, change a role assignment, connect a storage account, add a managed identity, or expose a new service—sometimes without realizing how these changes affect your overall attack surface.

Microsoft’s current Defender for Cloud documentation describes cloud attack paths as chains that can start with an externally exposed resource and move through permissions, network connections, vulnerabilities, and other relationships until they reach critical assets.

This idea is central to effective Azure penetration testing.

A vulnerability is even more serious if an attacker can combine it with another weakness to reach something valuable.

For example, an internet-exposed application may have a vulnerability that allows an attacker to obtain credentials. Those credentials may have excessive Azure RBAC permissions. Those permissions may provide access to a storage account, database, Key Vault, or another resource containing sensitive information.

Every weakness matters.

But the full attack path is even more important.

Find Out What an Attacker Could See

Get an independent assessment of your Azure applications, networks, and cloud resources

What Does an Azure Penetration Test Review?

Identity is one of the key security boundaries in Azure.

Tanner Security can evaluate Microsoft Entra ID relationships, privileged access, Azure RBAC assignments, service identities, authentication controls, and other access mechanisms that affect what users and workloads can reach.

Microsoft’s Azure guidance emphasizes least-privilege RBAC and identity-based access, and Microsoft also recommends managed identities for supported service-to-service authentication to reduce the need to manage credentials directly.

The goal of testing is not only to find an administrator account.

We want to find out if an attacker who gains access to an identity could use its permissions to move deeper into your Azure environment.

Azure Virtual Machines can introduce risks similar to traditional servers, but cloud-specific networking, identities, storage, management interfaces, and resource permissions can create additional attack paths.

Tanner Security can test externally reachable services, network exposure, authentication, operating-system vulnerabilities, management access, privilege escalation, and relationships between virtual machines and other Azure resources.

App Service hosts web applications and APIs without requiring your team to manage the underlying virtual machines.

This changes how security works, but application risks still remain.

Microsoft recommends controls such as Microsoft Entra authentication, Azure RBAC, managed identities, Key Vault, and network restrictions for App Service environments.

Tanner Security can test the parts of your application that are exposed to the internet and also check Azure-specific permissions and settings that affect its security.

Serverless applications have their own security challenges.

Tanner Security can evaluate externally accessible functions, authentication, authorization, API exposure, permissions, application settings, and relationships between Functions and other Azure resources.

Microsoft’s guidance emphasizes least-privilege permissions and identity-based connections for Azure Functions and recommends using Key Vault references instead of storing secrets in application settings.

Storage accounts often hold a company’s most sensitive information.

Tanner Security can check for public exposure, access controls, authentication, permissions, storage settings, and other ways data could be exposed or changed.

Microsoft identifies storage-account keys as high-priority secrets and recommends Azure RBAC and other controls to limit unnecessary access.

If attackers get hold of secrets through applications, identities, settings, or other resources, those secrets can give them direct access.

Tanner Security can check how applications and identities access Azure Key Vault and whether too many permissions or insecure settings could expose sensitive credentials, certificates, or keys.

Azure virtual networks, subnets, network security groups, firewalls, private endpoints, public IP addresses, routing, and application gateways determine how resources communicate.

A penetration test checks if those controls actually prevent an attacker from moving through your network.

This is important because a secure-looking network diagram does not always mean your network is truly secure. The real question is whether an attacker can reach resources that should be isolated.

Many Azure environments support APIs and web applications.

Tanner Security can combine Azure infrastructure testing with web application and API testing when the application forms part of the Azure attack surface.

This approach lets the assessment cover both your cloud setup and application weaknesses that could give an attacker access.

Azure environments may include containers, managed Kubernetes services, serverless workloads, and other cloud-native technologies.

The testing approach depends on your setup and what’s included in the scope, but Tanner Security can check exposed services, identity links, network access, settings, and attack paths in supported environments.

Our Azure Penetration Testing Services Approach

Tanner Security delivers Azure penetration testing services using a methodology designed to reflect attacker methods in cloud environments.

We begin by identifying your external Azure attack surface, including internet-facing applications, APIs, storage accounts, and exposed services. This helps reveal what an attacker could discover without authentication.

Next, we analyze identity and access controls across Microsoft Entra ID and Azure Role-Based Access Control (RBAC). We look for excessive permissions, misconfigured roles, weak trust relationships, and privilege escalation paths that attackers could exploit.

Our Azure penetration testing services simulate real-world scenarios and chain weaknesses together to show how an attacker could move from initial access to broader compromise. For example, a misconfigured application may expose credentials that allow deeper access to Azure Key Vault or other critical services.

We also assess core Azure services, including virtual machines, Kubernetes clusters, App Services, serverless functions, managed databases, storage, and APIs. Each service is evaluated for direct vulnerabilities and its role in broader attack paths across your environment.

After testing, you receive a detailed report that outlines findings, likely attack paths, business risk, and prioritized remediation guidance. The report includes technical details for engineering teams and executive-level insights for leadership. Optional retesting is available after remediation.

We were fortunate to have collaborated with Tanner Security on our Azure penetration test. Their team had remarkable depth of knowledge and a clear understanding of our specific requirements in our cloud environment.

Andy W. – Chief Information Security Officer

Azure Penetration Testing vs. Azure Configuration Review

These services complement each other, but they answer different questions.

An Azure configuration review evaluates how Azure resources, identities, permissions, networking, security settings, and other controls are configured.

An Azure penetration test takes it further by safely testing for weaknesses.

A configuration review might identify an overly permissive RBAC assignment.

A penetration tester can determine whether that permission provides a realistic path to a sensitive resource.

A configuration review might identify an internet-exposed service.

A penetration test can determine whether an attacker can exploit the exposed service and what they can reach afterward.

For many Azure environments, using both services gives you a better understanding of your risks.

Cloud Risk Assessment and Penetration Test

Azure Penetration Testing vs. Cloud Risk Assessment

A cloud risk assessment reviews a cloud environment’s security posture, including governance, risk, configuration, identity, data protection, and security processes.

An Azure penetration test examines technical attack paths and how easily they could be exploited.

A risk assessment asks:

“Where does our cloud environment create risk?”

A penetration test asks:

“What can an attacker actually exploit in our cloud environment?”

Tanner Security can provide either service or combine them when your business needs both strategic risk insight and technical validation.

Azure Penetration Testing Services for Compliance

Our Azure penetration testing services can support cloud security and compliance initiatives tied to frameworks such as CMMC, SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, HIPAA, and FedRAMP.

Many of these frameworks require companies to do more than document security controls. They must also show that controls are tested and validated against real-world attack scenarios. Azure penetration testing services help provide that evidence by demonstrating how controls perform under adversarial conditions.

Get a Fixed-Fee Azure Penetration Testing Proposal

Take advantage of our customized Azure penetration testing approach.

Our Azure Penetration Testing Methodology

Every Tanner Security Azure project begins by setting up authorization, defining the scope, and agreeing on the rules of engagement.

  • Define the Azure Environment: We identify subscriptions, resource groups, applications, public endpoints, Azure services, identities, network boundaries, and other resources included in the assessment.
  • Establish Authorization and Testing Rules: Microsoft requires customers and third-party testers to follow its current Cloud Unified Penetration Testing Rules of Engagement. Tanner Security also establishes client-specific testing boundaries, prohibited activities, communication procedures, and escalation processes before testing starts.
  • External Reconnaissance: We examine the Azure environment from an outside attacker’s perspective and identify internet-exposed resources, services, applications, endpoints, and potential entry points.
  • Azure Configuration and Identity Analysis: We evaluate relevant Azure configurations, identity relationships, permissions, network controls, and other cloud-specific security mechanisms.
  • Automated Security Testing: Automated tools help find vulnerabilities and exposed resources across the approved scope.
  • Automation helps cover more ground, but it does not replace manual investigation.
  • Manual Validation and Exploitation: Our testers manually validate findings and perform controlled exploitation where the rules of engagement permit.
  • This helps us see if a weakness could actually be used as an attack path.
  • Attack-Path Analysis: We evaluate how an attacker could move from an initial entry point toward higher-value resources.
  • Microsoft Defender for Cloud also uses attack-path analysis to identify externally initiated, exploitable paths through cloud resources, permissions, vulnerabilities, and connections.
  • Reporting and Remediation Guidance: We document the attack path, findings, evidence, business impact, and severity, and give you practical recommendations for fixing issues.
  • Retesting: Once your team fixes the main issues, Tanner Security can retest those areas to confirm the vulnerability has been fixed.

Azure Penetration Testing and Microsoft Rules of Engagement

Azure customers can conduct penetration testing without Microsoft’s prior approval, but Microsoft requires customers and authorized third parties to follow its current Cloud Unified Penetration Testing Rules of Engagement. Microsoft also states that third-party testers need explicit written authorization from the Azure resource owner.

These rules set important limits on what can be tested.

For example, Microsoft currently prohibits denial-of-service testing and prohibits testing Azure resources that the customer or tester does not own or have explicit permission to test. Microsoft also restricts the use of Azure services for phishing and certain social-engineering activities.

Tanner Security incorporates these requirements into the planning and rules of engagement for Azure penetration-testing projects.

This protects your business while still allowing the testing team to find real vulnerabilities.

Microsoft 365 Security Review

When Should You Conduct an Azure Penetration Test?

You should consider an Azure penetration test when your company moves important workloads to Azure, launches new cloud apps, makes major changes to your Azure setup, adds new internet-facing resources, changes identity or access models, or experiences a security incident.

Tanner’s current guidance also recommends additional penetration testing after major cloud migrations because changes to identities, permissions, storage, APIs, virtual networks, and cloud services can create new attack surfaces.

Regular assessments help keep you secure, but you should also test again after major changes to your architecture or security that could affect your attack surface.

Who Needs Azure Penetration Testing?

Azure penetration testing is useful for businesses that run important apps, databases, APIs, customer portals, internal systems, or store sensitive information in Microsoft Azure.

The complexity of your Azure environment is more important than your company’s size.

A small business with just one simple Azure app might only need a focused assessment.

A company with many subscriptions, production apps, virtual machines, databases, APIs, storage accounts, identity setups, and hybrid networks may need a much broader assessment.

Tanner Security customizes the assessment to your Azure setup and business risks, rather than using the same approach for everyone.

Why Choose Tanner Security for Azure Penetration Testing Services

Tanner Security brings more than 25 years of experience in offensive security, cloud security, and risk assessment. Our Azure penetration testing services use real-world attacker methods to uncover exploitable weaknesses in identities, cloud services, applications, and access paths.

Tanner Security is an independent cybersecurity consulting firm. We do not sell security products, licenses, or managed security subscriptions. Because we are independent, our advice focuses on your security needs, not selling products.

Our consultants handle cloud security reviews, network penetration tests, web app testing, Active Directory assessments, IT risk assessments, and compliance consulting. This broad experience is important because Azure attacks often involve multiple services.

An identity weakness can lead to unauthorized resource access.

A vulnerable application can expose credentials.

An excessive RBAC assignment can turn a limited foothold into privileged access.

An exposed storage resource can expose sensitive data.

Tanner Security examines these relationships and focuses on the attack paths that create real business risk.

Our team uses both automated tools and hands-on technical testing, instead of relying only on scanners. Tanner’s current service materials explain this approach for cloud, network, identity, and application assessments.

Talk With an Azure Penetration Testing Expert

Discuss your Azure environment, attack surface, and testing objectives with Tanner Security

Your Trusted Azure Cloud Partner

At Tanner Security Consultants, we are the cybersecurity advisors who stand at the forefront of safeguarding your future. Trusted by Fortune 500 companies, dynamic SaaS enterprises, and cherished family-run businesses, we embody cybersecurity prowess. With extensive expertise, new technology, and innovative strategies, we empower companies to fortify their security programs and protect their digital infrastructure.

We guide businesses through complex cybersecurity regulations, offering tailored solutions that meet their specific needs and industry standards. With our innovation and expertise, we aim to be your strategic partner, delivering top-notch solutions to complex issues.

Proper cybersecurity is essential for business success. Our mission is to improve your IT security systems, helping you grow confidently with secure and protected systems.

Contact Us

At Tanner Security Consultants, we understand the critical importance of robust IT security and compliance in today’s digital landscape. Our IT security team offers tailored solutions for your challenges and regulatory needs. We can help you protect sensitive data, meet industry standards, and strengthen your IT systems against cyber threats. Contact us today to improve your security and support your business growth.

Azure Penetration Testing FAQ

Azure penetration testing is an authorized security assessment that simulates attacker techniques against Azure resources, applications, identities, networks, and workloads within an approved scope. Read more about what is included in a web application penetration test.

Azure vulnerability scanning is an automated process that identifies known security issues such as missing patches, weak encryption, exposed services, and common misconfigurations. Azure penetration testing goes further by attempting to exploit those weaknesses to determine whether an attacker could gain unauthorized access, escalate privileges, or reach sensitive data. In short, scanning identifies potential issues, while penetration testing validates real-world risk. Read more about the difference between vulnerability scanning and penetration testing.

No. Microsoft states that Azure customers do not need Microsoft’s prior approval to conduct penetration testing against Azure resources. Customers and authorized third parties must follow Microsoft’s current Cloud Unified Penetration Testing Rules of Engagement.

Yes. Microsoft allows authorized third parties, such as consulting firms and red teams, to test Azure resources with explicit written authorization from the resource owner.

The scope can include Azure Virtual Machines, App Service applications, Functions, APIs, storage, networking, cloud identities, and other Azure resources your company owns or is authorized to test. Microsoft specifically identifies Azure Virtual Machines, App Service, Functions, and API endpoints among permitted testing examples.

It can. Identity forms an important part of many Azure attack paths. Tanner Security can assess identity permissions, privileged access, authentication, Azure RBAC, and relationships between identities and Azure resources.

Yes. Tanner Security can review if user role assignments provide excessive permissions and whether a compromised account or workload could use those permissions to reach sensitive resources. Microsoft recommends least-privilege Azure RBAC as part of Azure security.

Yes. Microsoft permits penetration testing of Azure App Service applications and Azure Functions when the tester has appropriate authorization and follows the current Rules of Engagement.

Both provide value for compliance, but in different ways. Vulnerability scanning supports continuous security monitoring, while penetration testing provides independent validation of security controls under realistic attack conditions. Many frameworks, including SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, and NIST-based programs, expect companies to implement both vulnerability management and periodic penetration testing.

It can, but configuration review and penetration testing answer different questions. A configuration review evaluates how Azure resources are configured, while penetration testing assesses whether weaknesses provide a practical attack path. Read more about some of the hidden risks of Microsoft 365 misconfigurations.

The cost depends on scope and complexity. Factors include the number of Azure resources, subscriptions, public endpoints, applications, identities, network segments, and testing depth. Tanner Security provides fixed-fee proposals based on the defined scope. Learn more about typical costs of penetration tests.

No single schedule fits every Azure environment. Many businesses conduct periodic testing and add assessments after major cloud migrations, architecture changes, new internet-facing resources, significant identity changes, or other events that materially alter the attack surface. More importantly, it is important to understand the types of events that should trigger a penetration test.

Yes. Tanner Security can perform targeted retesting after remediation to determine whether a vulnerability or attack path remains exploitable.

Related Azure and Cybersecurity Services

Azure penetration testing often works best when combined with other cloud and cybersecurity services.

Azure Configuration Review: Review Azure resource settings, identity permissions, network controls, storage settings, and other cloud security controls without focusing only on exploitation.

Cloud Risk Assessment and Penetration Testing: Assess wider cloud risks across Azure, AWS, Microsoft 365, and hybrid setups when your company needs a multi-platform review.

Microsoft 365 Security Review: Review Microsoft 365 identity, authentication, Conditional Access, privileged access, sharing, and tenant security controls.

Web Application Penetration Testing: Test Azure-hosted applications in depth for authentication, authorization, business logic, session management, API security, and application vulnerabilities.

Network Penetration Testing: Test both internal and external network connections that link Azure to your business environment.

Network Vulnerability Assessment: Find known vulnerabilities and configuration weaknesses in your systems and infrastructure between penetration tests.

IT Risk Assessment: Assess wider technology risks and help leaders understand cybersecurity investments based on business impact.

NIST Cybersecurity Consulting: Review and improve your cloud security program based on relevant NIST guidance.

Schedule an Azure Penetration Test

Discuss your Azure environment, attack surface, and testing objectives with Tanner Security

Find Out What an Attacker Could Do in Your Azure Environment

Azure offers strong security features, but your company is still responsible for key parts of security.

Your identities, permissions, settings, applications, data, and workloads can create attack paths that automated tools or configuration reviews might not reveal.

Tanner Security uses Azure-specific testing, manual analysis, safe exploitation, and practical advice to help businesses understand their true cloud security risks.

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