The Ultimate Guide to SOC 2 Penetration Testing

Launched in 2010 by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), SOC 2 (System and Organization Controls 2) is a widely recognized compliance framework and auditing procedure designed to assess the controls and security measures that service organizations have in place to protect customer data and ensure the security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy of that data.

Maintaining compliance with the stringent requirements of SOC 2 not only better enables organizations to prevent and defend against cyber-attacks, but it also displays an exemplary level of information security that serves as a competitive advantage. SOC 2 compliance proves that an organization has strong information security practices in place, which immediately garners a higher level of trust from its customers with peace of mind that their data will be handled responsibly.

With the average breach cost up to $4.45 million, it’s unsurprising that data security is a concern for many organizations, particularly those that contract with third parties like security providers.3 These providers can help to ease this concern by testing an organization’s security controls and implementing the guidelines of the SOC 2 standard. Here’s where SOC 2 penetration testing comes in.

What is SOC 2?

SOC 2 is a voluntary compliance standard for service organizations. It is based on five “trust services criteria” (TSCs): security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. Companies that implement security controls based on these criteria can effectively manage and protect customer data.

SOC 2 is not a legal requirement. Nonetheless, many companies mandate SOC 2 compliance for their service providers because it helps ensure that they are maintaining a high level of security and operational standards, reducing the risk of working with a third-party organization.

To achieve SOC 2 compliance, providers need to get their security controls audited by independent auditors. On completing the audit, the auditors document their findings in a SOC 2 audit report. There are two types of such reports:

Type I report

• A single point-in-time report that documents whether the provider’s security controls are designed properly.
• It enables providers to quickly prove their security posture to customers.

Type II report

• It documents the strength of security controls over a period of time.
• It takes longer to prepare and is more thorough than a Type I report.
• It provides greater assurance to customers that the provider has implemented strong data security controls (compared to a Type I report).

Choosing between obtaining a Type I or Type II report ultimately boils down to an organization’s timeline, its security maturity, what its customers require, and other factors. If, for example, an organization is trying to close a deal with an important enterprise prospect that requires their service providers to comply with SOC 2 requirements, they could do so much more quickly with a Type I audit that evaluates their security controls at a single point-in-time rather than enduring a several-month audit process. However, many enterprise organizations require their service providers to obtain a SOC 2 Type II report to prove that their information security practices are up to par over an extended period with a more rigorous audit.

Organizations like software as a service (SaaS) providers, business intelligence companies, financial services providers, managed service providers (MSPs), etc. can achieve SOC 2 compliance by proactively testing their controls with simulated attack scenarios – an approach known as SOC 2 penetration testing (pentesting).

The Importance of SOC 2 Penetration Testing

SOC 2 penetration testing is beneficial because it allows service providers to:

• Assess the strength of their security controls
• Identify the risks and vulnerabilities that place customer data at risk of breaches
• Verify their security posture and resilience to future cyberattacks
• Plan for vulnerability remediations to better protect data from security incidents

Penetration testing can also help organizations satisfy the requirements under the SOC 2 Security TSC. This criteria focuses on:

• Preventing unauthorized data access
• Preventing unauthorized, malicious, or inadvertent data deletions, alterations, disclosures, or misuse
• Identifying, responding to, and mitigating risks to data

For all these reasons, many auditors recommend pentesting for service organizations. The AICPA, under TSC sections CC 4.1 and CC 7.1, advises organizations to consider technical assessments like penetration testing to identify risks, implement strong controls, and ultimately, safeguard customer information.

SOC 2 Penetration Testing: Types and Techniques

In a SOC 2 penetration test, attacks are simulated against the organization’s networks, systems, or applications. The pentesters use the same tools and tactics as real-world adversaries to identify the exploitable vulnerabilities lurking in these assets. They also deliberately exploit the weaknesses to demonstrate how a real-world attack could occur and to clarify its potential impact.

SOC 2 penetration testing may involve some or all of these activities:

• Web application pentesting
• Mobile app pentesting
• API pentesting
• Cloud pentesting
• External/internal network pentesting
• Social engineering pentesting
• Wireless pentesting

These pentests may be of the black-box, white-box, or gray-box type.

In a Black Box pentest, the tester has no prior knowledge of the system being tested. They assume a real attacker’s perspective to attack the system and discover its security weak spots.

In a White Box test, the tester has complete access to the system, which allows them to target its specific parts and identify vulnerabilities that may not be apparent with Black Box pentesting.

Gray Box pentesting, a hybrid of White and Black Box pentesting, is where the tester has some knowledge of the system plus login credentials to help them identify and assess the risks posed by a privileged user. It typically involves automated testing to execute an all-out assault on the system and manual testing to locate its vulnerabilities.

It can be helpful for organizations to leverage established frameworks like OWASP Top 10 Web Application Security Risks,² OWASP Web Security Testing Guide,³ or NIST SP 800-115 Technical Guide to Information Security Testing and Assessment⁴ to guide testing efforts and support their SOC 2 compliance goals.

SOC 2 Penetration Testing: A 6-step Approach for Service Organizations

SOC 2 pentesting involves these key stages:

Step 1: Prepare for a SOC2 Pentest

In this initial phase, the organization determines the testing scope and goals to achieve a balance between identifying the maximum number of vulnerabilities and cost-effectiveness. They also select the pentesting methodology and perform reconnaissance to better understand the target system in preparation for actual testing.

Step 2: Scan the target system(s)

The tester uses automated pentesting tools to understand how the target system will respond to various intrusion attempts. They may use both SAST and DAST tools: SAST to test application code, discover vulnerabilities, and predict how it may react to intrusions, and DAST to test running applications and get real-time insights into application performance.

Step 3: Simulate attacks against the target system(s)

Now the tester attacks the target system in a controlled environment by using various methods used in real-world cyberattacks, such as SQL injections and backdoors. They aim to understand how real attackers may exploit the target’s vulnerabilities and the damage they may cause.

Step 4: Maintain access inside the target system(s)

The tester imitates an advanced persistent threat (APT) to see if they can gain and maintain in-depth access (“persist”) inside the system. They try to move laterally through it while trying to remain undetected for as long as possible.

Step 5: Interpret the Results of a SOC 2 Pentest

In this penultimate phase, the tester prepares a detailed report highlighting the discovered vulnerabilities plus remediation recommendations. For effective remediations – and SOC 2 compliance – it’s advisable for organizations to thoroughly review the report and properly interpret its findings.

Step 6: Remediate Vulnerabilities for Successful SOC 2 Audit and Compliance

The final step is to remediate the vulnerabilities, particularly those that put customer data most at risk. A post-remediation penetration test can be conducted to confirm that the discovered issues were adequately addressed.

Conclusion

Penetration testing can be incredibly valuable to achieve SOC 2 compliance. A comprehensive, systematic pentest enables organizations to find and fix security issues and thus, protect their customers’ data. That said, SOC 2 penetration testing can be time-consuming, leading to compliance delays and increased costs.

A solution that combines the speed of automation with the analytical capabilities of human testers can help accelerate penetration testing and reduce its costs. This is exactly what BreachLock’s SOC 2 pentesting solution does.

BreachLock’s human-delivered and continuous penetration testing offering can provide comprehensive SOC 2 penetration testing and reduce TCO by 50%. To know more about the benefits of SOC 2 penetration testing with BreachLock, schedule a free discovery call with our experts.

About BreachLock

BreachLock is a global leader in attack surface discovery and penetration testing services integrated into one seamless platform with a standardized, built-in pentesting framework. This framework serves as a safeguard for precision and quality, automating routine tasks like report formatting, proof of concept integration, and basic vulnerability identification. This also enables consistent and regular benchmarks of unique attacks, Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs), security controls, and processes to deliver enhanced predictability, consistency, and more accurate results in real-time, every time.

Know your risk. Contact BreachLock today!

References

1. IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2023
2. OWASP Top 10 Web Application Security Risks
3. OWASP Web Security Testing Guide
4. NIST SP 800-115