Replay - Hacking AWS in Good Faith with Nick Frichette

Update: 2024-12-26

Description

On this Screaming in the Cloud Replay, we’re taking you back to our chat with Nick Frichette. He’s the maintainer of hackingthe.cloud, and holds security and solutions architect AWS certifications, and in his spare time, he conducts vulnerability research at Hacking the Cloud. Join Corey and Nick as they talk about the various kinds of cloud security researchers and touch upon offensive security, why Nick decided to create Hacking the Cloud, how AWS lets security researchers conduct penetration testing in good faith, some of the more interesting AWS exploits Nick has discovered, how it’s fun to play keep-away with incident response, why you need to get legal approval before conducting penetration testing, and more.

Show Highlights

(0:00 ) Intro

(0:42 ) The Duckbill Group sponsor read

(1:15 ) What is a Cloud Security Researcher?

(3:49 ) Nick’s work with Hacking the Cloud

(5:24 ) Building relationships with cloud providers

(7:34 ) Nick’s security findings through cloud logs

(13:05 ) How Nick finds security flaws

(15:31 ) Reporting vulnerabilities to AWS and “bug bounty” programs

(18:41 ) The Duckbill Group sponsor read

(19:24 ) How to report vulnerabilities ethically

(21:52 ) Good disclosure programs vs. bad ones

(28:23 ) What’s next for Nick

(31:27 ) Where you can find more from Nick

About Nick Frichette

Nick Frichette is a Staff Security Researcher at Datadog, specializing in offensive security within AWS environments. His focus is on discovering new attack vectors targeting AWS services, environments, and applications. From his research, Nick develops detection methods and preventive measures to secure these systems. Nick’s work often leads to the discovery of vulnerabilities within AWS itself, and he collaborates closely with Amazon to ensure they are remediated.

Nick has also presented his research at major industry conferences, including Black Hat USA, DEF CON, fwd:cloudsec, and others.

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