Terraform and Infrastructure as Code Review
If the environment is defined in code, the fastest route to the cloud account runs through the pipeline that applies it. We review the code, the state and the permissions behind the apply. CREST-certified testers, fixed price from £2,310, 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, CelloriWhatever applies the plan holds enough rights to create identities, open networks and read data. That makes the pipeline, its credentials and its approval gates a higher-value target than most of the workloads it creates, and it is rarely in scope for anything.
The pipeline that builds your cloud is the most privileged thing you own
State is the second problem. It records the shape of the estate and often the contents of sensitive attributes. A state file in an unprotected bucket, or in a repository, is a map with the keys attached.
Then the code itself: modules pulled from public registries without pinning, defaults that open security groups wider than intended, variables that carry secrets, and drift between what the code says and what the account actually runs.
ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI DSS and Cyber Essentials Plus audits accept manual penetration test evidence. Scan-only evidence is generally insufficient.
INFRASTRUCTURE AS CODE SPECIFICS
What We Actually Test in Infrastructure as Code
Ten areas that apply because the environment is defined in code, on top of the standard cloud review. Every finding is verified, reproducible and mapped to CIS benchmarks, CWE and CVSS 3.1.
State storage
Where state lives, who can read and write it, encryption, locking and whether sensitive attributes are exposed.
Pipeline permissions
What the apply identity can do, approval gates, and whether a pull request can change infrastructure without review.
Secrets in code and variables
Credentials in variables, tfvars files, environment configuration and commit history.
Identity and access resources
Roles, policies and trust relationships created by the code, and the privilege escalation paths they allow.
Network defaults
Security groups, firewall rules and public exposure produced by modules and defaults.
Module supply chain
Public modules and providers, version pinning, and what a compromised module could do at apply time.
Drift
Differences between the code and the live account, and resources created outside the pipeline.
Data protection defaults
Encryption, logging, retention and backup settings for storage and database resources.
Multi-environment separation
Whether one environment credentials can reach another, and how production is protected differently.
Policy and guardrails
Policy as code coverage, admission controls, and whether anything would stop a dangerous plan being applied.
METHODOLOGY
What a infrastructure as code 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.
Terraform state committed to the repository carries credentials in plain text
- Affected
- The infrastructure repository at [redacted], readable by every engineer with access to the organisation.
- What we found
- A state file in the repository held the database master password, an access key and a third party token in plain text. A later commit removed the file, but the values remained recoverable from history, and none had been rotated.
- Why it matters
- Every engineer, contractor and anyone holding an old clone of the repository had production database and cloud credentials. Deleting the file did not revoke anything.
- Fix
- Move state to a remote backend with encryption and access control, rotate every credential that appeared in the file, generate secrets in a secret manager instead of passing them through variables, and block state files at the pre-commit hook and in the pipeline.
Reconstructed from public research: the HashiCorp Terraform documentation, which records that state can contain sensitive values in plain text and must be treated as sensitive data.
Infrastructure 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 Infrastructure 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 £2,310 for a small, single-scope engagement, agreed up front. Most engagements run £3,540 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 Infrastructure 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
Infrastructure 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 Infrastructure 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 review the code or test the cloud?
Both, and the value is in the comparison. We review the code, then check what the account actually looks like.
Do you support Pulumi, CloudFormation or Bicep?
Yes. The patterns transfer directly, and we say in the report which tool the estate uses.
Do you need write access?
No. Read access to the repository and a read-only role in the cloud account is enough.
Will you run terraform plan against production?
Only with your agreement and your credentials, or we work from a plan output you provide.
Is this the same as the cloud review?
No. The cloud review tests the running account. This covers how it comes to exist and who can change it.
Can you help us add guardrails?
We recommend specific policies and controls. Implementing them is your team or a separate engagement.
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 infrastructure code reviewed
Tell us which repository and which account. You will have a fixed scope and a number within 24 hours.
