Exposed Training Apps Leave Cloud Environments Vulnerable

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Exposed Training Applications Leave Fortune 500 Cloud Environments Vulnerable to Crypto-Mining

A recent investigation by Pentera Labs has uncovered a concerning trend in the deployment of training and demo applications in cloud environments.

Investigation Findings

Pentera Labs examined how training and demo applications are being used across cloud infrastructures and identified a recurring pattern: applications intended for isolated lab use were frequently found exposed to the public internet, running inside active cloud accounts, and connected to cloud identities with broader access than required.

The investigation found that many of these exposed training environments were directly connected to active cloud identities and privileged roles, enabling attackers to move far beyond the vulnerable applications themselves and potentially into the customer’s broader cloud infrastructure.

Evidence of Active Exploitation

The exposed training environments identified during the research were not simply misconfigured. Pentera Labs observed clear evidence that attackers were actively exploiting this exposure in the wild.

Across the broader dataset of exposed training applications, approximately 20% of instances were found to contain artifacts deployed by malicious actors, including crypto-mining activity, webshells, and persistence mechanisms.
These artifacts indicated prior compromise and ongoing abuse of exposed systems.

Scope of Impact

The exposed and exploited environments identified during the research were not limited to small or isolated test systems.

Pentera Labs observed this deployment pattern across cloud environments associated with Fortune 500 organizations and leading cybersecurity vendors, including Palo Alto, F5, and Cloudflare.

Why This Matters

Training and demo environments are frequently treated as low-risk or temporary assets.

However, the research shows that exploitation does not require zero-day vulnerabilities or advanced attack techniques.

Default credentials, known weaknesses, and public exposure were sufficient to turn training applications into an entry point for broader cloud access.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the findings of Pentera Labs’ investigation highlight the importance of proper cloud security posture and the need for organizations to reassess their deployment of training and demo applications.

By taking steps to isolate and monitor these environments, organizations can reduce the risk of exploitation and protect their cloud infrastructures from potential threats.