Cyber Hacker Academy
Lesson 10 of 10

Cloud Security Capstone

In this capstone lesson, you will apply everything you have learned across the course to a comprehensive cloud security assessment of a realistic multi-service AWS environment. You will perform reconnaissance, identify misconfigurations, exploit a privilege escalation path, detect the attack using CloudTrail logs, and produce a professional security assessment report with prioritized findings and remediation recommendations.

Learning Objectives — Deep Dive

Each objective below is broken down into plain English so you know exactly what you are learning, why it matters, and what you will be able to do when you are done. Mark each one complete as you work through the lesson.

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In plain English

This is about developing analytical judgment — the ability to look at raw data or output and extract meaningful conclusions. You are training your brain to ask the right questions: What does this tell me? What is normal here? What is suspicious? This kind of thinking is what separates a skilled analyst from someone who just runs tools.

Why this matters

Cloud infrastructure now hosts the majority of the world's data and applications. Misconfigured cloud resources are responsible for some of the largest data breaches in history. Cloud security skills are among the most in-demand and highest-paying in the entire field.

Real-world analogy

Think of it like learning to drive. You do not need to understand how the engine works to drive safely, but knowing the basics helps you diagnose problems and avoid mistakes that could cause accidents. The same principle applies here — foundational knowledge prevents costly errors.

What you will be able to do

Apply this skill in a real lab environment, explain it clearly to a colleague or client, and use it as a building block for the more advanced techniques that come later in this course.

Beginner tip

Do not try to memorize everything at once. Read through the material once to get the big picture, then go back and work through the lab. The hands-on practice is what makes the concepts stick — passive reading alone will not get you there.

Cloud Security Capstone · Objective 1 of 4

VIDEO
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1

Run a full Prowler assessment

Execute a comprehensive Prowler scan against the target AWS account covering all security domains.

prowler aws --output-formats json html --output-directory ./prowler-results
2

Run ScoutSuite for multi-cloud audit

Use ScoutSuite to generate a visual HTML report of cloud security findings.

scout aws --report-dir ./scoutsuite-results
3

Analyze IAM for privilege escalation

Use Pacu or manual analysis to identify IAM privilege escalation paths in the environment.

python3 pacu.py
4

Write the executive summary

Summarize the assessment scope, key findings by severity, overall risk rating, and top three remediation priorities in business language — no technical jargon.

Incident Response in the CloudCourse Complete