Traditional penetration tests offer value, but only for a small window of time. As soon as your environment changes, new code ships, or assets shift, the findings from this test become outdated. Sprocket Security’s Continuous Penetration Testing (CPT) solution is always on, always active to keep pace with modern infrastructure. By combining expert-driven testing with automated recon and real-time visibility, Sprocket helps teams identify, validate, and respond to threats as they emerge.  

Nowhere is that need for continuous visibility more critical than in the cloud. AWS environments are dynamic by design. Instances spin up and down, IP addresses change, DNS records evolve, and new domains are registered faster than manual processes can track. Sprocket’s AWS Scanner was built to solve this exact problem, providing automated discovery of your AWS cloud attack surface so CPT and Attack Surface Management are always operating with an accurate, current view of what’s exposed.  

Why the AWS Scanner Matters

From a real-world attacker’s perspective, AWS doesn’t exist as “accounts” or “regions,” it exists as reachable IPs, resolvable domains, and misconfigured services. If a resource is publicly accessible, it’s fair game.  

Security teams struggle with AWS visibility for a few common reasons:  

  • Assets are spread across multiple regions and accounts
  • Public IPs and DNS records change frequently
  • Ownership of domains and IPS isn’t always clear
  • Manual inventory processes quickly become outdated.  

Without accurate and current discovery, penetration testing and ASM programs are inherently incomplete. The AWS Scanner closes that gap by continuously mapping what’s actually exposed, and not just what you think exists.  

What the AWS Scanner Does

Sprocket’s AWS Scanner automatically identifies and inventories public-facing assets across your AWS environment, focusing specifically on components that contribute to external attack surface.  

What It Scans

The scanner performs multi-region discovery across key AWS services, including:  

  • EC2 Instances – Identifies all running EC2 instances with public IP addresses across every AWS region
  • Elastic IP Addresses – Discovers both associated and unassociated Elastic IPs, often overlooked but still routable attack vectors.  
  • Bring-Your-Own-IP (BYOIP) Pools – Inventories customer-owned IP ranges provisioned in AWS to ensure externally reachable address space is fully tracked.
  • Route53 DNS Records – Catalogs public DNS records (A, AAAA, and CNAME) from hosted zones.  
  • Registered Domains – Lists domains registered directly through AWS Route53 Domains  

What It Discovers  

Once configured, the AWS Scanner automatically collects and correlates:  

  • Public IP addresses tied to your AWS infrastructure  
  • Domain names registered through AWS
  • DNS records pointing to cloud-hosted assets  
  • Ownership verification with confidence scoring, using multiple validation sources
    • Route53 configuration data  
    • Live DNS lookups  
    • WHOIS registration records

The validation step is critical. It ensures assets are accurately attributed to your organization before including in ASM and testing workflows.

How To Configure the Integration in the Sprocket Platform

Why It’s Different Than Most AWS Discovery Tools

Most cloud security tools focus inward on configurations, permissions, and posture. The AWS Scanner is built from an external attacker’s viewpoint.  

Key Differentiators:  

  • Attack surface first design – focused exclusively on publicly exposed assets that matter for real-world exploitation.  
  • Multi-source ownership validation – reduces false positives by confirming asset ownership before inclusion.  
  • ASM-native integration – assets flow directly into Sprocket’s Attack Surface Management and Continuous Penetration Testing pipelines (no exports or manual reconciliation).  
  • Minimal operational overhead – one-time setup with automated, ongoing discovery across all regions.  

This isn’t just asset inventory. It’s actionable exposure intelligence. 

Real-World Impact  

In real-world environments, the AWS Scanner routinely uncovers exposure that security teams didn’t realize still existed. Elastic IP addresses that were provisioned for past projects but never released remain reachable from the internet, while legacy DNS records continue pointing to infrastructure that was assumed to be retired. Test and staging EC2 instances are often discovered running with public IPs long after their original purpose ended, and domains registered years ago still resolve to live cloud assets.  

By continuously identifying and validating these exposures, the AWS Scanner ensures Sprocket’s CPT is always operating against what attackers can actually see. The result is fewer blind spots, more accurate testing scope, and faster remediation of cloud risks before they’re discovered the hard way!  

Why Our AWS Scanner Belongs in Modern Security

Cloud attack surfaces don’t stand still, and neither should your security program.  

The AWS Scanner ensures that what’s exposed in AWS is:  

  • Discovered automatically
  • Validated accurately
  • Integrated seamlessly into ASM
  • Continuously monitored without manual effort  

For organization running workloads in AWS, this capability is foundational. You can’t secure, or test, what you can’t see. Sprocket’s AWS Scanner makes sure nothing slips through the cracks.