MongoDB, Redis, Kafka and Elasticsearch Security Review
These services were built to be fast inside a trusted network, and estates rarely stay that tidy. We test what they expose, what they accept and what they keep. CREST-certified testers, fixed price from £2,620, scoped in 24 hours.
- Unlimited retesting
- No rescheduling or cancellation fees
- Fixed quote within 24 hours
“I would highly recommend EJN Labs to any organisation seeking reliable, detailed, and well-managed penetration testing services, particularly for government or enterprise-level projects.”
Imran SaghirProject Lead, SquareOne“There wasn’t another company we could find that could deliver what we needed in the timeframe we needed. The client loved it, and we got instant ROI from the engagement.”
Dan WilcocksonCo-Founder, CelloriDocument stores, caches, search clusters and brokers were designed to sit inside a trusted perimeter. They start without authentication, they answer anyone who can reach the port, and they often hold a complete copy of the data your application worked hard to protect.
Fast by default, open by default, and usually one network hop from everything
The second theme is what the application sends them. Query operators taken from user input, search queries built by concatenation, and cache keys that do not include the user, so one account response is served to another.
The third is retention. A cache remembers sessions and tokens, a broker keeps messages for days, and a search index holds a flattened copy of your records with none of the row level checks the database applied.
ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI DSS and Cyber Essentials Plus audits accept manual penetration test evidence. Scan-only evidence is generally insufficient.
DATA PLATFORM SPECIFICS
What We Actually Test in NoSQL, Cache and Streaming
Ten areas that apply to document stores, caches, search clusters and message brokers, on top of the standard infrastructure checks. Every finding is verified, reproducible and mapped to CIS benchmarks, CWE and CVSS 3.1.
Exposure and authentication
Whether each service requires authentication, which interfaces are bound where, and who can reach them.
Operator and query injection
Query operators accepted from user input, search queries built from strings, and scripted queries where enabled.
Authorisation model
Users, roles, index and topic level permissions, and what a single compromised application credential reaches.
Cache contents
Sessions, tokens and personal data in the cache, key design, and whether one user response can be served to another.
Broker topics
Topic authorisation, consumer groups, message retention and what a new consumer can replay.
Search index contents
Data flattened into the index, fields that bypass application level filtering, and index level access control.
Management interfaces
Dashboards, monitoring endpoints and administrative APIs published without authentication.
Encryption and transport
TLS between clients and nodes and between nodes, certificate verification and encryption at rest.
Backups and snapshots
Snapshot destinations, their protection, and copies restored into lower environments.
Monitoring and abuse
Resource limits, expensive queries, and whether the activity in this test would appear anywhere.
METHODOLOGY
What a NoSQL and cache finding looks like
Written the way a finding appears in our reports. The example below is reconstructed from publicly documented research, with hosts, paths and identifiers redacted. We do not republish client findings, named or anonymised.
In-memory data store reachable without authentication allows session theft and file write
- Affected
- A Redis instance supporting [redacted], bound to all interfaces on the application subnet with protected mode disabled.
- What we found
- No password was set. From a low privileged host we connected directly, read session tokens belonging to signed in users, then used the configuration commands to write a file into the service account home directory and obtain a shell.
- Why it matters
- Session hijack against any signed in user, and command execution on the host as the service account, from a position that required no credentials at all.
- Fix
- Require authentication, bind to localhost or a private interface, enable protected mode, rename or disable the configuration commands, and put the instance behind a security group rather than trusting the network boundary.
Reconstructed from public research: the Redis security documentation, which records that Redis is designed for access by trusted clients and should never be exposed directly to untrusted networks.
Data Platform Penetration Testing: From Scope to Attestation
CREST-aligned methodology built on OWASP Web Security Testing Guide, OWASP ASVS, NIST SP 800-115, and PTES. Each finding maps to all four standards plus your specific compliance regime.
Reconnaissance
Application mapping, technology fingerprinting, content discovery, parameter enumeration, authentication-flow analysis, role-matrix construction.
Vulnerability Assessment
Authenticated and unauthenticated automated scanning across every user role, plus targeted manual checks for known weakness patterns.
Manual Exploitation
Hands-on testing by a CREST-certified pentester. Business-logic exploitation, chained vulnerabilities, privilege escalation, impact validation.
Reporting + Retest
Executive summary, technical report with CVSS scores and reproduction steps, walkthrough call, free retest after remediation, attestation letter.
CREDENTIALS
Verified Accreditations Auditors Accept
Every credential below is independently verifiable. UK procurement teams, FCA supervisors, ISO 27001 / SOC 2 auditors, and cyber insurance underwriters all recognise these standards.
GET YOUR QUOTE
Get a CREST Data Platform assessment pen test quote in 24 hours
A fixed-price quote back in one business day, from a named CREST assessor. No sales pipeline, no chasing.
- CREST and IASME accredited. Testing your auditors and clients already recognise.
- Fast-track testing within 24 hours where required. Free retest of every fix included.
- Live findings via your client portal, not a four-week PDF.
- Fixed price from £2,620 for a small, single-scope engagement, agreed up front. Most engagements run £3,940 and up. No day-rate surprises.
Dan WilcocksonCo-Founder, CelloriUnder NDA Further named references available on a scoping call.
- We reply within one business day with a fixed-price quote from a named CREST assessor.
- You approve the scope and we book a start date, usually within 24 hours.
- Live findings land in your client portal as we test, with a free retest of every fix.
Get your fixed pen test quote in 24 hours
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COMPLIANCE READY
Reports Mapped to Every Framework
Findings are explicitly tagged to the relevant control reference. Your audit team submits the report directly without translation work.
ISO 27001:2022
Annex A.8.8 management of technical vulnerabilities plus A.5.15-5.18 and A.8.2-8.5 access control validation.
SOC 2 Type I & II
CC6 logical access, CC7 system operations, CC8 change management evidence.
PCI DSS
Requirement 11.4 application penetration testing across cardholder data environments, including ecommerce penetration testing for online retail platforms.
FCA SYSC
SYSC 4.1.1R, 6.1.1R, 13 mapped to each finding for FCA-regulated firms.
UK GDPR
Article 32 effectiveness testing, customer-data security controls, ICO-acceptable evidence.
Cyber Essentials Plus
Direct certification through our IASME body status, single-vendor delivery.
PRICING
Transparent Data Platform Penetration Testing Pricing
Pricing depends on the number of builds and roles in scope, how much the estate varies from host to host, and the depth of the configuration review. The day count flexes; the included deliverables stay the same across all engagements.
2 to 3 days
Single user role, basic CRUD application, marketing website with auth. Typically 5-day engagement.
Get a fixed quote3 to 4 days
Multi-role SaaS, business application with payment integration. Typically 8-12 day engagement.
Get a fixed quote4 to 6 days
Multi-tenant platform, complex authorisation matrix, integration-heavy applications. 15-20 day engagement.
Get a fixed quotePart of Technologies We Pen Test. These are examples of the stacks we publish pages for, not a complete list. If yours is not here we still test it. Related pages:
BY SECTOR
Data Platform Penetration Testing for Your Sector
Sector-specialist scoping for UK businesses with sector-specific compliance regimes and threat models.
Fintech & FCA-Regulated
FCA SYSC, Open Banking FAPI 1.0, PSD2 SCA, payment-flow scrutiny, KYC/AML testing.
Fintech sector pageSaaS Companies
SOC 2 Type I & II evidence, multi-tenant boundaries, role escalation, customer-tenant isolation.
SaaS sector pageLaw Firms
SRA Cyber Standard, privileged data, conveyancing fraud defence, partner-tier procurement.
Law firm sector pageHealthcare
NHS DTAC, DSP Toolkit v6, UK GDPR Article 32, EHR systems, telehealth platforms.
Healthcare sector pageInsurance
FCA / PRA Operational Resilience, cyber underwriting, claims data, broker portals.
Insurance sector pagePublic Sector
CCS / G-Cloud framework, NCSC-aligned, citizen-facing services, PSN-compliance scrutiny.
Public sector pageWHY EJN LABS
What You Get From Data Platform Penetration Testing
Six concrete differentiators competitors don’t all match.
CREST-Certified Testers, Verifiable
Every test by a CREST-certified pen tester (CRT, CCT APP, CCT INF where applicable). Verify our company status at crest-approved.org.
24-Hour Startup, Where Required
From signed scope to active testing in a single business day for incident response, audit deadlines, or regulator-driven timelines.
Live Findings, Not 4-Week PDFs
Critical issues reported during testing through your client portal. Your team remediates while testing continues.
Audit-Ready Reports
Executive summary plus full technical report with CVSS scores and explicit framework mappings (ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI DSS, FCA SYSC).
Free Retests, Standard
Verify remediation of every finding before close-out. Letter of attestation for audit submission included. Most competitors charge £1,500-£3,000 per retest.
UK-Based CREST Testers
Every engagement performed by vetted, UK-based CREST-certified testers, matched to your needs, security clearance, and compliance scope.
FAQ
Frequently Asked
Do you need credentials?
Read access to each service makes the review complete. We also test what an unauthenticated neighbour can reach, which is often the finding.
Is managed hosting covered?
Yes. Atlas, Elastic Cloud, managed Kafka and similar, including the cloud permissions and network rules around them.
Will you read our production data?
We confirm access and stop. Anything we quote in the report is redacted, and we agree that in the scope.
Does this replace a database review?
No. Relational databases are covered on the database page. Most estates need both.
Can you test from inside our network?
Yes, and that is the realistic position. We usually run this alongside an internal network test.
What about the application that uses them?
Injection paths are in scope here. The application itself is the relevant technology page.
What is included in the price?
Scoping, testing, the executive summary, the technical report, a walkthrough call and free retests until the finding is closed. One scope, one number, no follow-up invoices.
How fast can you start?
Scope to active testing in 24 hours once the scope is agreed, subject to tester availability in your window.
Are your testers CREST certified?
Yes. EJN Labs is a CREST member company and testing is delivered by CREST-qualified testers. The membership is verifiable on the CREST marketplace.
20+ CREST-accredited testing services in one place
Web, mobile, API, cloud, AI, infrastructure, red team. Pick the test that fits your environment.
Get your data platform reviewed
Tell us which services you run and where. You will have a fixed scope and a number within 24 hours.
