Listen to this Post
Introduction:
Continuous Offensive Security (COS) merges automated penetration testing, red teaming, and vulnerability validation into a non-stop adversarial simulation against cloud-native environments. XBOW’s rapid 3‑month onboarding into the AWS ISV Accelerate Program signals a paradigm shift: enterprises can now draw down AWS commitments while embedding persistent security validation directly into their cloud procurement and operations workflows—turning compliance-driven checkboxes into real-time resilience metrics.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand how the AWS ISV Accelerate Program accelerates go‑to‑market for offensive security tools and simplifies customer procurement via AWS Marketplace.
- Apply Linux and Windows commands to simulate continuous adversary emulation, detect misconfigurations, and harden AWS-native assets.
- Implement API security testing and cloud hardening recipes using open-source tools and XBOW-like continuous validation principles.
You Should Know:
- Continuous Offensive Security in AWS: A 3‑Month Accelerator Playbook
The LinkedIn announcement highlights XBOW achieving in ~90 days what typically takes 1‑2 years. This speed stems from automating legal/vendor onboarding, leveraging AWS Marketplace for simplified procurement, and aligning with customer‑obsessed roadmaps. For security teams, this means you can now integrate persistent red‑teaming as a service that draws down cloud spend commitments—converting a cost center into a strategic advantage.
Step‑by‑step guide: Simulate continuous AWS misconfiguration discovery (Linux/macOS + AWS CLI)
Prerequisites: Install AWS CLI, jq, and nmap sudo apt update && sudo apt install awscli jq nmap -y Debian/Ubuntu brew install awscli jq nmap macOS Configure AWS credentials (read-only or security audit profile) aws configure --profile security-audit Enumerate open security groups (overly permissive rules) aws ec2 describe-security-groups --profile security-audit --query 'SecurityGroups[?IpPermissions[?IpRanges[?CidrIp==<code>0.0.0.0/0</code>]]]' --output table Use nmap to verify exposed services from an external perspective (authorized only!) nmap -sV -p- -T4 <your-public-ec2-ip> -oA external_scan Automate daily checks with cron (red-team simulation) (crontab -l 2>/dev/null; echo "0 6 /usr/bin/aws s3 ls --profile security-audit --human-readable >> /var/log/aws-inventory.log") | crontab -
Windows equivalent (PowerShell with AWS Tools)
Install AWS Tools for PowerShell
Install-Module -Name AWSPowerShell -Force
Set credentials
Set-AWSCredential -ProfileName security-audit
Find unrestricted security groups
Get-EC2SecurityGroup | Where-Object { $_.IpPermissions.IpRanges.CidrIp -contains "0.0.0.0/0" }
Continuous monitoring via Scheduled Task
$Action = New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute "powershell.exe" -Argument "-Command Get-EC2SecurityGroup | Export-Csv C:\Audit\open_sg.csv"
$Trigger = New-ScheduledTaskTrigger -Daily -At 6AM
Register-ScheduledTask -TaskName "ContinuousOffSec" -Action $Action -Trigger $Trigger
- AWS ISV Accelerate Program: Technical Leverage for Offensive Security Vendors
The program provides co‑sell support, funding, and architectural validation. For customers, it enables using AWS credits or committed spend to purchase XBOW-like services. Security teams gain auditable procurement paths and faster onboarding of continuous assessment tools. The key technical outcome: you can deploy an agentless scanner that runs inside your VPC, validates every IAM role, and exports findings to AWS Security Hub.
Step‑by‑step: Deploy a free continuous compliance scanner (Steampipe + AWS plugin)
Install Steampipe (Linux/macOS) sudo /bin/sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/turbot/steampipe/main/install.sh)" Install AWS plugin steampipe plugin install aws Run a continuous CIS benchmark check every hour (cron) echo "0 steampipe query \"select resource, reason from aws_compliance_finding where status='ALARM'\" --output csv >> /var/log/aws-cis-violations.csv" | crontab - Real-time S3 bucket public access detection steampipe query "select bucket_name, public_access_block_configuration from aws_s3_bucket where public_access_block_configuration is null"
Windows Scheduled Task for same
Install Steampipe via Chocolatey choco install steampipe -y steampipe plugin install aws Create a PowerShell script (C:\Scripts\check-compliance.ps1) steampipe query "select from aws_iam_credential_report where password_enabled = 'true' and password_last_used_days > 90" | Out-File C:\Audit\old-passwords.txt Task every 6 hours $Trigger = New-ScheduledTaskTrigger -RepetitionInterval (New-TimeSpan -Hours 6) -At (Get-Date) Register-ScheduledTask -TaskName "ComplianceCheck" -Action (New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute "powershell.exe" -Argument "C:\Scripts\check-compliance.ps1")
3. API Security Hardening for AWS-Native Offensive Tools
Continuous offensive security requires testing API endpoints that XBOW’s platform would target: Lambda URLs, API Gateway, and Cognito. Misconfigured APIs are the 1 cloud entry point. Use the following approach to emulate adversarial API discovery.
Step‑by‑step: Enumerate and fuzz AWS API Gateway endpoints (authorized testing only)
Install tools pip install boto3 arjun httpx List all API Gateway REST APIs aws apigateway get-rest-apis --profile security-audit --query 'items[].id' --output text Extract endpoint URLs for id in $(aws apigateway get-rest-apis --profile security-audit --query 'items[].id' --output text); do aws apigateway get-stages --rest-api-id $id --profile security-audit --query 'item[].invokeUrl' --output text >> api_endpoints.txt done Fuzz for hidden parameters (Arjun) arjun -u https://your-api.execute-api.region.amazonaws.com/prod/resource -o api_params.json Rate-limit testing (mitigation check) httpx -l api_endpoints.txt -threads 10 -status-code -content-length -o api_health.csv
Windows (WSL or PowerShell with AWS CLI)
Using AWS CLI in PowerShell
$apis = aws apigateway get-rest-apis --query 'items[].id' --output text
foreach ($api in $apis.Split("`t")) {
aws apigateway get-stages --rest-api-id $api --query 'item[].invokeUrl' --output text >> api_endpoints.txt
}
Then use WSL to run Arjun and httpx
wsl arjun -u (Get-Content api_endpoints.txt | Select-Object -First 1) -o wsl_params.json
4. Cloud Hardening Against Continuous Adversarial Simulation
To defend against services like XBOW, implement AWS Config rules, GuardDuty, and Security Hub with auto-remediation. The AWS ISV Accelerate partnership emphasizes drawing down commitments by proving security maturity—hardened environments reduce incident response costs and accelerate compliance.
Step‑by‑step: Deploy auto-remediation for S3 public blocks using AWS CLI and Lambda
Create a remediation Lambda function (Python 3.9+)
cat > remediate_s3.py << 'EOF'
import boto3
def lambda_handler(event, context):
s3 = boto3.client('s3')
for bucket in event.get('buckets', []):
try:
s3.put_public_access_block(
Bucket=bucket,
PublicAccessBlockConfiguration={
'BlockPublicAcls': True,
'IgnorePublicAcls': True,
'BlockPublicPolicy': True,
'RestrictPublicBuckets': True
}
)
except Exception as e:
print(f"Failed on {bucket}: {e}")
EOF
Package and deploy
zip remediate_s3.zip remediate_s3.py
aws lambda create-function --function-name autoBlockPublicS3 --runtime python3.9 --role arn:aws:iam::<account-id>:role/execution-role --handler remediate_s3.lambda_handler --zip-file fileb://remediate_s3.zip
Attach to AWS Config rule (s3-bucket-public-read-prohibited)
aws configservice put-config-rule --config-rule ConfigRuleName=s3-public-prohibited --source Owner=AWS,SourceIdentifier=S3_BUCKET_PUBLIC_READ_PROHIBITED
Windows PowerShell equivalent
Create a remediation script (C:\Scripts\lock-s3.ps1)
$buckets = (Get-S3Bucket).BucketName
foreach ($b in $buckets) {
Write-S3PublicAccessBlock -BucketName $b -BlockPublicAcls $true -IgnorePublicAcls $true -BlockPublicPolicy $true -RestrictPublicBuckets $true -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
}
Schedule daily execution
$TaskAction = New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute "powershell.exe" -Argument "-File C:\Scripts\lock-s3.ps1"
Register-ScheduledTask -TaskName "S3AutoHarden" -Action $TaskAction -Trigger (New-ScheduledTaskTrigger -Daily -At 3AM)
5. Vulnerability Exploitation & Mitigation for AWS-Native Services
Continuous offensive security finds exploitable issues like overly permissive IAM roles, exposed RDS snapshots, and vulnerable Lambda dependencies. The XBOW model automates validation of these findings. Below, we simulate a common IAM privilege escalation and its mitigation.
Step‑by‑step: Detect and block IAM roles that allow `iam:CreateAccessKey` on any user
Find risky policies
aws iam list-policies --scope Local --profile security-audit --query 'Policies[?contains(DefaultVersionId, <code>v</code>)].[PolicyName, Arn]' --output text > local_policies.txt
Download and inspect each policy for iam:CreateAccessKey
while read name arn; do
version=$(aws iam get-policy --policy-arn $arn --query 'Policy.DefaultVersionId' --output text)
aws iam get-policy-version --policy-arn $arn --version-id $version --query 'PolicyVersion.Document.Statement[?Effect==<code>Allow</code> && contains(Action, <code>iam:CreateAccessKey</code>)]' --output table
done < local_policies.txt
Mitigation: Attach a service control policy (SCP) in AWS Organizations
cat > deny_create_access_key.json << EOF
{
"Version": "2012-10-17",
"Statement": [{
"Effect": "Deny",
"Action": "iam:CreateAccessKey",
"Resource": ""
}]
}
EOF
aws organizations create-policy --name DenyCreateAccessKey --content file://deny_create_access_key.json --type SERVICE_CONTROL_POLICY
Linux oneliner to continuously monitor for new risky IAM policies
watch -n 60 'aws iam list-policies --scope Local --query "Policies[?AttachmentCount>0].[bash]" --output text | xargs -I {} sh -c "echo '{}' && aws iam list-entities-for-policy --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::$(aws sts get-caller-identity --query Account --output text):policy/{} --query PolicyRoles[].RoleName"'
- Procurement & Compliance Traceability Using AWS Marketplace APIs
The XBOW announcement stresses simplified procurement. Security teams can programmatically validate that purchased tools (like continuous scanners) meet compliance. Use AWS Marketplace Metering Service to track usage and generate audit trails.
Step‑by‑step: Query AWS Marketplace entitlement for offensive security products
Install AWS Marketplace Commerce Analytics SDK pip install aws-marketplace-catalog List active entitlements for your account aws marketplace-catalog list-entities --catalog AWSMarketplace --entity-type Product --query "EntitySummaryList[?contains(Name, <code>security</code>)].[Name, ProductId]" Get detailed usage records (for cost drawdown tracking) aws marketplace-metering register-usage --product-code your-product-code --timestamp $(date -u +"%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ") --dimension Scans --quantity 1
Windows PowerShell for audit logging
Export all Marketplace subscriptions to CSV $subscriptions = Get-MPPurchasedProducts -Region us-east-1 $subscriptions | Export-Csv -Path "C:\Audit\marketplace-tools.csv" -NoTypeInformation Send to Security Hub as custom finding aws securityhub batch-import-findings --findings file://marketplace-finding.json
What Undercode Say:
- Speed is a security metric: XBOW’s 3‑month AWS ISV Accelerate entry proves that rapid compliance and procurement are achievable when offensive security is continuous and automated—waiting 1‑2 years to validate your cloud posture is no longer acceptable.
- Draw down spend, scale up resilience: The ability to consume offensive security services via AWS commitments turns cloud budgets into active defense mechanisms. Every dollar spent on continuous validation reduces potential breach costs by an order of magnitude.
The integration of persistent red‑teaming with cloud-native procurement (AWS Marketplace, ISV Accelerate) signals a future where security is not a gate but a pipeline. Enterprises that adopt COS will outpace adversaries by continuously validating assumptions rather than relying on annual pentests. However, the challenge remains cultural—teams must embrace real-time findings as improvement drivers, not blame artifacts. The Linux and Windows commands provided above are the tactical building blocks for any organization wanting to emulate this model today. As AWS and XBOW deepen their partnership, expect to see more turnkey solutions that automatically translate cloud spend into hardened infrastructure. The only question left: is your team ready to be customer‑obsessed about security?
Prediction:
Within 18 months, major cloud providers will mandate continuous offensive security validation as a prerequisite for ISV Accelerate or similar co‑sell programs. This will spawn a new category of “continuous compliance” products that merge real-time exploitation with financial incentives (e.g., premium discounts for maintaining a sub‑24‑hour mean‑time‑to‑remediate). Organizations that delay adoption will face higher insurance premiums and slower cloud migrations, while early adopters will leverage their security posture as a competitive differentiator—turning the XBOW announcement from a niche milestone into a mainstream mandate.
▶️ Related Video (74% Match):
🎯Let’s Practice For Free:
IT/Security Reporter URL:
Reported By: Chrisnicosia Today – Hackers Feeds
Extra Hub: Undercode MoN
Basic Verification: Pass ✅
