How long does a GCP penetration testing engagement take?

Two to four weeks of active testing, plus a one-week scoping phase up front and a free re-test after fixes land. Exact window depends on project count, Workload Identity pools, and GKE cluster scope.

What is tested in a GCP pentest?

Four control planes: VPC + perimeter, IAM + identity, GKE + workloads, Storage + secrets. Named bug classes per surface: VPC Service Controls bypass, service account impersonation, GKE node pool escape, Workload Identity Federation confusion, Cloud Storage IAM, Secret Manager accessor scope.

Does GCP allow third-party penetration testing?

Yes. Google Cloud does not require advance notification for most penetration testing activities on your own projects. Denial-of-service and load testing have specific rules; SecureLayer7 scopes around those upfront.

How does a GCP pentest differ from a Security Command Center scan?

Security Command Center, Forseti, and Cloud Asset Inventory report what your GCP project looks like. A GCP pentest reports what an attacker can do with it. The pentest chains flagged findings into a working exploit transcript with code-level fix guidance.

How does GCP pentesting differ from AWS?

Same methodology, different surfaces. GCP focuses on Workload Identity Federation, Organization policies, allow + deny policy interaction, and GKE Autopilot. AWS focuses on IMDSv1 SSRF, IAM role chaining, Lambda over-privilege, and EKS. SecureLayer7 runs both with one auditor team.

Do you include a re-test?

Yes. Every SecureLayer7 GCP penetration testing engagement includes a free re-test of the same scope after fixes land. PoC reverts on patch.

GCP penetration testingBuilt for US Google Cloud workloads.

For US Google Cloud workloads: evidence packs accepted by SOC 2 / FedRAMP / PCI DSS auditors on first review. Austin-headquartered, US business-hours coverage. Manual GCP penetration testing for Google Cloud Platform. We hunt named bug classes: Workload Identity Federation confusion, service account impersonation, Cloud Run trigger replay, GKE node pool escape, VPC Service Controls bypass.

CREST-accredited testers · CERT-In empanelled · 14 years of offensive research

See the GCP attack paths

Four GCP control planes, VPC, IAM, Workload Identity, GKE, converging on a privileged-pod escape proof card.

GCP surfaces

VPC · IAM · GKE · Workload Identity Federation. One pod, one method, four control planes.

Working proof

Every finding ships with a working exploit transcript, code-level fix guidance, and a free re-test.

Compliance-ready

PCI DSS, HIPAA, ISO/IEC 27001, SOC 2 Type II. Your auditor reads the same artefact.

Trusted by security teams across Fintech, SaaS & Education, Enterprise & Telecom, Security & Critical Infrastructure

On record

What we test

Four GCP surfaces. One method.

Each surface scoped against named bug classes. We chain across them. A Workload Identity token misuse can land in BigQuery, exfiltrating data tagged for VPC Service Controls.

VPC + perimeter

VPC Service Controls bypass, firewall egress oversight, Identity-Aware Proxy misconfig, Cloud NAT exposure. Lateral movement chained inside the perimeter.

IAM + identity

Service account impersonation via iam.serviceAccounts.actAs, allow-policy plus deny-policy interaction gaps, Organization policy drift, custom-role privilege creep.

GKE + workloads

Node pool escape via privileged pod, GKE Autopilot constraint bypass, Workload Identity binding abuse, metadata API exposure inside the pod.

Storage + secrets

Cloud Storage bucket IAM, signed-URL leakage, Secret Manager accessor scope, Cloud KMS key policy bypass, Firestore unauth read.

Why a Security Command Center scan isn't a pentest

A flag passed is not a finding proven.

Security Command Center, Forseti, and Cloud Asset Inventory report what your GCP project looks like. A GCP penetration testing engagement reports what an attacker can do with it. SecureLayer7 operators chain those flagged findings into the proof-of-exploit your dev team can fix and your auditor will accept.

How AI fits across AWS, Azure, GCP, and Kubernetes pentests

IN SCOPE.

Where we look across your GCP estate.

IDENTITY

Service-account chains

Workload Identity, impersonation paths, Org-level IAM, Cloud Identity federation.

WORKLOAD

GCE, GKE, Cloud Run

Metadata server access, node-pool escape, Cloud Run service-account scope, Cloud Build trust.

DATA

GCS, BigQuery, KMS

Bucket IAM, dataset sharing, authorized views, KMS key rings, snapshot lineage.

NETWORK

VPC + perimeter

Shared VPC, VPC Service Controls, Private Service Connect, peering gaps across projects.

GCP PENTEST METHODOLOGY.

Eight phases. One artifact.

Each GCP penetration testing engagement moves through eight phases and lands on one named artefact: a CREST-mapped severity rubric scored against your project invariants.

01
Threat-model & scope
02
Reconnaissance
03
IAM & Workload Identity
04
GKE & workload
05
Data & secrets
06
Perimeter & egress
07
Report
08
Re-test

Insights

GCP attack-path Resources.

Service-account chains, IAM condition gaps, and GCE/GKE pivots, write-ups from the reviewers who pentest Google Cloud estates.

GCP

Google Cloud pentesting methodology

GCP project enumeration, service-account key abuse, and IAM impersonation chains on Compute and GKE workloads.

Cloud penetration testing playbook

Provider-agnostic kill chain for SaaS tenants, IAM drift, and exposed object storage across AWS, Azure, GCP.

Picking a cloud pentest partner

What separates a cloud-native pentest from a checkbox scan: scoping, tenant access, and post-exploit depth.

One named lead from scope to close.

John Dill

vCISO at SecureLayer7

200+

engagements scoped

6

surfaces in one SOW

14 yr

SL7 offensive lineage

John scopes your GCP engagement, writes the SOW with named bug classes per surface, and stays on the line into the pod through execution.

Read the redactable sample report.

Pick a 30-minute slot. We will scope your engagement on the call.

Book a 30-min call

Common procurement questions

What buyers ask about GCP penetration testing.

Six questions Google surfaces for GCP penetration testing buyers. Answered against our methodology and your auditor.

Show all 6 questions

Have a procurement question not listed here?

Tested by industry.

The bug classes named below come from real engagements in each sector. Pick the closest fit.

Tech SaaS

Multi-tenant SaaS on GCP, IAM bindings, Cloud Run cross-tenant paths.

See Tech SaaS pentest

Retail

E-commerce on GCP, BigQuery customer-PII reads, recommendation engines.

See Retail pentest

FinTech

Fintech on GCP, Workload Identity boundaries, AppEngine banking surfaces.

See FinTech pentest

Sample GCP pentest report, kill-chain · evidence · remediation

Sample GCP engagement report

See what arrives in your inbox.

A redactable PDF of a real GCP engagement: Workload Identity Federation chain, GKE node escape, Cloud Storage IAM leakage, with working PoC transcripts and CREST-mapped severity. Sent after a short scoping call.