Top 7 Azure Pentesting Tools To Use In 2024

Given the increased reliance on pentests, it is not surprising to know that 52% of organizations want to switch to a new assessment solution and minimize the number of false positives detected. In fact, half of them use commercial pentesting tools, and 72% of them rely solely on open-source pentesting tools. 

In the context of Azure, while various tools are available to scan its resources, others can assist you in conducting penetration testing activities.

This article explores the following topics:

1. The top seven Azure pentesting tools
2. The Azure Rules of Engagement (RoE)
3. The standard tests for pentesting Azure assets.

Top 7 Azure Penetration Testing Tools in 2024

1. Astra Security

Astra Security is a SaaS cybersecurity platform designed to help businesses protect online stores against numerous bothersome exploits and enhance their Azure data security. Its 24/7 active web application firewall enables administration to protect your virtual organization in real time.

The platform effectively blocks IP addresses, spam, and suspicious logins. It also comes with additional features, such as an automated vulnerability scanner and security boosters that ensure 360° protection of your cloud environment.

Recognized as one of the leading Azure pentesting tools in the market,  helps automate the scanning of your applications and systems, removes flagged files, and generates security status reports.

• Scanner capacity: Can perform unlimited continuous scans
• Accuracy: Delivers brilliant results with zero false positives
• Compliance: Maintains compliance with ISO 27001, HIPAA, SOC2, and GDPR
• Vulnerability management: Comes with a dynamic vulnerability management dashboard
• Price: starts at $199 per month

Key features

Automated vulnerability scans

Astra’s scanner conducts unlimited tests, matching vulnerabilities with an extensive database that includes OWASP Top Ten, SANS 25, known CVEs, and more.

User-friendly dashboard

The pentest dashboard is CXO-friendly and facilitates seamless team collaboration for quick vulnerability resolution.

Zero false positives

Astra’s Pentest team ensures zero false positives through meticulous vetting after automated scans.

Compliance checks

Continuous scans comply with HIPAA, PCI-DSS, GDPR, and SOC 2.

Manual pentest

Astra’s thorough manual pentest can identify business logic errors and perform scans behind logins.

Detailed reports

Astra provides comprehensive reports, including proof-of-concept videos, to help organizations swiftly patch vulnerabilities.

Certification

Upon completion of the security analysis and remediation, a publicly verifiable certificate is provided, enhancing the company’s credibility and trustworthiness.

Pros:

• Provides 24/7 customer support
• Easy detection of business login errors
• Offers rescanning for errors of vulnerability
• Delivers detailed compliance-based scans and reports
• It has a comprehensive malware and vulnerability scanner
• Ensure zero false positives through thorough manual vetting of scan results

Cons:

• The platform could have more integration options.
• It does not offer a free trial.

2. Azucar

Azucar is a versatile open-source Azure pentesting tool available on GitHub. With a focus on Azure environments, it excels in retrieving Azure Active Directory attributes, providing valuable insights into computers, users, groups, contacts, and events.

Additionally, the tool allows users to conduct high-level account searches within a specific Azure Tenant, identifying privileged accounts, classic administrators, and Directory Roles (RBAC). 

Azucar’s multi-threading support ensures efficient data retrieval and analysis, enhancing scanning speed. Moreover, its plugin support offers customization options, enabling seamless integration with other Azure pentesting tools.

With the ability to assess diverse Azure assets, including SQL databases, Storage Accounts, VMs, and more, Azucar emerges as a valuable tool for comprehensive security testing in Azure environments.

Pros:

• Customizable and free
• Efficient identification of privileged accounts and roles
• Faster scanning with multi-threading and plugin support
• Provides support for exporting data to popular formats like CSV, XML, or JSON

Cons:

• Limited user support.
• Complexity for beginners.
• Has stopped being updated.

3. Powerzure

PowerZure is a PowerShell project designed to manage and administer Azure resources from the command line. The software can be installed on your local machine or accessed in your browser with Azure cloud shell. PowerZure also performs well in exploiting and surveilling Azure and the associated resources, thus providing the use case Azure pentesting tool as well.

• Scanner capacity: Does not inherently scan but interacts with Azure resources and identifies potential security risks or misconfigurations
• Accuracy: Depends on the correctness of the scripts and the validity of the PowerShell commands it uses
• Vulnerability management: Does not directly provide vulnerability management capabilities but can identify potential anomalies
• Compliance: While it might help identify security issues that could impact compliance, the tool itself does not comply with the likes of HIPAA or PCI-DSS.
• Price: Free

Pros:

• Identifies potential security issues or misconfigurations
• Useful for system administrators for Azure environments
• Allows interaction with Azure resources through PowerShell, which can facilitate automation and scripting

Cons:

• Requires knowledge of PowerShell to use it effectively.
• May not include comprehensive features for vulnerability management or compliance.

4. NetSPI

NetSPI is a leading Azure pentesting tool and attack surface management that offers a comprehensive suite of security solutions.

It provides several services, such as penetration testing, attack surface management, breach, and attack simulation. NetSPI uses a combination of innovative technology and human ingenuity to find, prioritize, and remediate security vulnerabilities rapidly.

Its team of global cybersecurity experts has successfully secured a variety of organizations, from prominent corporations to healthcare companies and retail and eCommerce enterprises.

• Scanner capacity: Scans up to 1000 assets at a time
• Accuracy: Minimal false positives
• Vulnerability management: Offers Penetration Testing as a Service (PaaS), which helps users fix vulnerabilities more quickly.
• Compliance: Meets various compliance standards, including PCI and HIPAA.
• Price: Pricing information available upon inquiry

Pros: 

• Offers access to leading open-source pen-testing tools
• Correlates all your vulnerability data from across your organization into a single view
• Gives remediation workflows to fix vulnerabilities faster and reduce your risk exposure

Cons: 

• Some users might find the technology stack less diverse than other providers.

5. CS-Suite

CS Suite is a powerful one-stop solution for auditing the security posture of AWS, GCP, and Azure infrastructures and systems. It allows users to initiate all tools and audit checks simultaneously, streamlining and simplifying the auditing workflow. It also supports region-independent audits and automatically generates and fetches portable HTML reports.

• Scanner capacity: Leverages multiple open-source tools for comprehensive assessments
• Accuracy: Offers accurate system audits and security posture assessments
• Vulnerability management: Provides centralized collection and portable reports (in HTML) for audit checks.
• Compliance: No specific mention of compliance support or certifications
• Price: Pricing information available upon inquiry

Pros:

• Performs instance auditing based on IP addresses
• Offers infra audit, a centralized collection of audit checks, and portable reports
• Straightforward installation using Python virtual environments and Docker containers

Cons:

• Limited information about the tool.
• Only works on operating systems, such as OS X and Linux.

6. Intruder

Intruder is a user-friendly online vulnerability scanner designed for Azure environments. This tool offers effortless setup and continuous monitoring of your infrastructure, web applications, and APIs.

It continuously monitors the network and triggers vulnerability scans upon detecting changes, unintentionally exposed services, or emerging threats. 

The platform provides concise and actionable results, along with audit-ready reports. It simplifies vulnerability management by prioritizing results for focused remediation and offers 24/7 visibility and control over the attack surface.

• Scanner capacity: Conducts scans on cloud infrastructures, web apps, and APIs
• Accuracy: High precision with minimized false positives
• Vulnerability management: Streamlines finding and fixing vulnerabilities with prioritized actionable results
• Compliance: Assists in meeting SOC2, PCI-DSS, and ISO 27001 compliance requirements
• Price: Custom rates based on applications and infrastructure targets to scan

Pros:

• Easy setup and use
• No need to manually scan your systems
• A 14-day trial is available with the option to cancel anytime
• Seamless integrations with tools like Slack, GitHub, Zapier, and more
• Offers top-notch customer support, ensuring prompt issue resolution
• Automatically discover active IPs and get alerted to expiring SSL certificates

Cons:

• Limited information on pricing and integrations.
• Unauthenticated app scans can take quite some time to complete.
• The API cannot explore the assets’ details and associated vulnerabilities in detail.

7. Acunetix

Acunetix is a trusted Azure penetration testing tool used by over 2,300 companies. It automates application security testing, detecting 7,000+ vulnerabilities, including OWASP Top 10, SQL injections, and XSS.

The tool provides actionable scan results quickly, prioritizing high-risk vulnerabilities and offering remediation guidance. It offers excellent customer support and unlimited scans, making it a reliable choice for Azure security.

With its easy integration into the development process through a flexible API, Acunetix covers various web applications, including complex sites, and ensures no part of the app remains unscanned and vulnerable.

• Scanner capacity: Detects 7,000+ vulnerabilities with blended DAST + IAST scanning capabilities
• Accuracy: Most vulnerabilities detected are verified but do give a fair number of false positives.
• Vulnerability management: Not only provides a list of scan results with remediation advice but also automatically catalogs it and assigns it an “Open” status until resolved.
• Compliance: Includes compliance reports such as PCI DSS, OWASP Top 10, ISO 27001, and HIPAA
• Price: Pricing information available upon inquiry

Pros:

• Easy to use, intelligent crawling
• It gives on-premise and cloud deployment options
• Lightning-fast scan results and remediation guidance
• Offers native integrations into CI/CD and issue trackers
• Suitable for various web applications, including complex sites
• Automated scanning with comprehensive vulnerability detection

Cons:

• The configuration of DevSecOps can be improved for ease.
• It does not support multiple end-points well (for example – apps and services that do not reside at the same URL).
• The vulnerability detection capability is not as robust as other tools.

Azure RoE For Penetration Testing

Azure RoE, short for Azure Rules of Engagement, is designed to ensure the security of both Azure and its customers for a successful penetration test by Azure pentesting tools. Following are the rules surrounding it:

1. Prior authorization must be obtained from the customer before pentesting. Failure to do so can result in legal action and termination of the service agreement.

2. The results of penetration tests should not be shared without explicit permission from all stakeholders involved, including the customer and any third-party service providers associated with the tests. Violating this rule can cause severe confidentiality breaches and potential legal repercussions.

3. Penetration testers must take reasonable measures to prevent any unintended damage, disruption of service, or denial of service. Negligence in this regard may lead to financial liabilities and damage to reputation.

4. All penetration testing must be conducted within the scope of the customer’s agreement with Microsoft and the terms of use for Azure services. Non-compliance with these terms may result in penalties, service termination, and potential legal action.

Standard Tests For Pentesting Azure Assets

Penetration testing on Azure assets typically includes authentication checks, authorization checks, and configuration reviews. Authentication tests determine whether user accounts have been configured correctly and securely, while authorization tests assess the level of control each user has over specific assets.

Configuration reviews evaluate how Azure objects such as storage containers, virtual networks, databases, and applications are set up. They ensure Azure’s resources are configured to minimize vulnerabilities and maximize security.

In addition, pentesters should consider external services, such as third-party SaaS apps, identity providers, and CI/CD tools, which connect to Azure resources.

Testing should also extend to patch and mobile device management (MDM) areas. It is essential to understand the attack surface of an environment so that targeted tests developed more accurately reflect potential threats.

Conclusion

While every Azure pentesting tool has its own benefits and shortcomings, the right tool will depend on your organization’s specific requirements, budget, and technical capabilities. Choose an option that delivers penetration testing with minimum false positives, offers compliance checks, has a user-friendly dashboard, and provides detailed reports.

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