In this detailed walkthrough, I’ll take you through a real-world penetration test that uncovered multiple critical vulnerabilities in a cloud-hosted web application. You’ll learn the methodology, tools, and thought process behind each step of the assessment.

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Introduction

Penetration testing is often seen as a mysterious art practiced by security experts with expensive tools and years of experience. But the truth is, many successful penetration tests rely on fundamental techniques, careful observation, and methodical testing rather than sophisticated exploits.

In this article, I’ll walk you through a complete penetration test I conducted on a cloud-hosted web application. What started as a simple port scan led to the discovery of multiple critical vulnerabilities, including command injection, SSRF (Server-Side Request Forgery), exposed credentials, and misconfigured cloud services.