Report: 1 in 3 Easily Exploitable Vulnerabilities Found on Cloud Assets

  • May 27, 2025

CyCognito recently released new research highlighting critical security vulnerabilities across cloud-hosted assets, revealing that one in three easily exploitable vulnerabilities or misconfigurations are found on cloud assets. As organizations increasingly shift to multi-cloud strategies, the findings underscore significant security gaps that could provide attackers with potential footholds into networks.

Gartner predicts double-digit growth across all cloud segments in 2025, with organizations increasingly adopting multi-cloud strategies. This expansion coincides with rising security concerns, as researchers with Palo Alto Networks found that by the end of 2024, organizations suffered a 388 percent increase in cloud security alerts compared to 2023.

"While cloud computing offers tremendous benefits, we're seeing an alarming increase in serious security issues affecting cloud assets," said Emma Zaballos, Senior Researcher, CyCognito. "Organizations must understand the crucial difference between high-severity vulnerabilities and those that are easily exploitable—both present distinct risks that require targeted security approaches."

For this research, CyCognito analyzed anonymized, aggregated data across nearly five million internet-exposed assets – web applications, servers, domains, and more – that the company monitors, focusing on how vulnerabilities behave "in the wild" rather than just in controlled testing environments.

This research focused on the assets hosted on cloud platforms, rather than the cloud platforms themselves. While assets were aggregated by cloud hosting providers, further research is needed to understand why variance existed between different populations of assets.

Key findings:

  • Significant Vulnerability Variations Across Providers: 38 percent of assets hosted by Google Cloud were vulnerable to at least one security issue or misconfiguration, over 2.5x more than assets hosted by AWS (15 percent), while assets hosted by Azure ranked second with 27 percent.
  • Critical Vulnerabilities Present Across All Environments: Though uncommon, critical vulnerabilities (CVSS 9.0 or higher) were detected on assets hosted by all cloud providers, with assets hosted by Azure showing a slightly higher percentage (0.07 percent) compared to assets hosted by AWS and Google Cloud (0.04 percent). Assets hosted by other cloud providers showed approximately 10 times higher rates of critical vulnerabilities.
  • Easily Exploitable Vulnerabilities Most Common on Alternative Clouds: Over 13 percent of assets hosted on other clouds and 10 percent on other hosting providers had easily exploitable vulnerabilities, compared to 5 percent hosted on Google Cloud and just 2 percent on AWS and Azure.
  • Combined Risk Factors: Assets with both critical and easily exploitable issues were found across all providers, with AWS showing the lowest rate (0.02 percent) while alternative cloud and hosting providers showed rates ten times higher.
  • The research emphasizes the importance of comprehensive security testing beyond development environments. "Security teams must focus on testing applications after they're deployed, not just during development," added Zaballos. "Dynamic application security testing is crucial as it actively tests live assets, uncovering application vulnerabilities and misconfigurations that static tools miss."

The research comes as CyCognito announced a new partnership with Wiz to enhance protection of cloud environments. CyCognito enriches Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) coverage by identifying externally exposed cloud assets and identifying vulnerabilities and misconfigurations using more than 80,000 active and passive tests. By taking an outside-in attacker’s perspective, CyCognito fills visibility gaps across sanctioned and unsanctioned cloud assets and enables security teams to focus on the most

critical vulnerabilities.

For more information on the research, please see the blog post.

Featured

  • The Evolution of IP Camera Intelligence

    As the 30th anniversary of the IP camera approaches in 2026, it is worth reflecting on how far we have come. The first network camera, launched in 1996, delivered one frame every 17 seconds—not impressive by today’s standards, but groundbreaking at the time. It did something that no analog system could: transmit video over a standard IP network. Read Now

  • From Surveillance to Intelligence

    Years ago, it would have been significantly more expensive to run an analytic like that — requiring a custom-built solution with burdensome infrastructure demands — but modern edge devices have made it accessible to everyone. It also saves time, which is a critical factor if a missing child is involved. Video compression technology has played a critical role as well. Over the years, significant advancements have been made in video coding standards — including H.263, MPEG formats, and H.264—alongside compression optimization technologies developed by IP video manufacturers to improve efficiency without sacrificing quality. The open-source AV1 codec developed by the Alliance for Open Media—a consortium including Google, Netflix, Microsoft, Amazon and others — is already the preferred decoder for cloud-based applications, and is quickly becoming the standard for video compression of all types. Read Now

  • Cost: Reactive vs. Proactive Security

    Security breaches often happen despite the availability of tools to prevent them. To combat this problem, the industry is shifting from reactive correction to proactive protection. This article will examine why so many security leaders have realized they must “lead before the breach” – not after. Read Now

  • Achieving Clear Audio

    In today’s ever-changing world of security and risk management, effective communication via an intercom and door entry communication system is a critical communication tool to keep a facility’s staff, visitors and vendors safe. Read Now

  • Beyond Apps: Access Control for Today’s Residents

    The modern resident lives in an app-saturated world. From banking to grocery delivery, fitness tracking to ridesharing, nearly every service demands another download. But when it comes to accessing the place you live, most people do not want to clutter their phone with yet another app, especially if its only purpose is to open a door. Read Now

Most   Popular

New Products

  • PE80 Series

    PE80 Series by SARGENT / ED4000/PED5000 Series by Corbin Russwin

    ASSA ABLOY, a global leader in access solutions, has announced the launch of two next generation exit devices from long-standing leaders in the premium exit device market: the PE80 Series by SARGENT and the PED4000/PED5000 Series by Corbin Russwin. These new exit devices boast industry-first features that are specifically designed to provide enhanced safety, security and convenience, setting new standards for exit solutions. The SARGENT PE80 and Corbin Russwin PED4000/PED5000 Series exit devices are engineered to meet the ever-evolving needs of modern buildings. Featuring the high strength, security and durability that ASSA ABLOY is known for, the new exit devices deliver several innovative, industry-first features in addition to elegant design finishes for every opening.

  • AC Nio

    AC Nio

    Aiphone, a leading international manufacturer of intercom, access control, and emergency communication products, has introduced the AC Nio, its access control management software, an important addition to its new line of access control solutions.

  • Luma x20

    Luma x20

    Snap One has announced its popular Luma x20 family of surveillance products now offers even greater security and privacy for home and business owners across the globe by giving them full control over integrators’ system access to view live and recorded video. According to Snap One Product Manager Derek Webb, the new “customer handoff” feature provides enhanced user control after initial installation, allowing the owners to have total privacy while also making it easy to reinstate integrator access when maintenance or assistance is required. This new feature is now available to all Luma x20 users globally. “The Luma x20 family of surveillance solutions provides excellent image and audio capture, and with the new customer handoff feature, it now offers absolute privacy for camera feeds and recordings,” Webb said. “With notifications and integrator access controlled through the powerful OvrC remote system management platform, it’s easy for integrators to give their clients full control of their footage and then to get temporary access from the client for any troubleshooting needs.”