Exposed Cloud Training Apps Are a Hacker’s Dream—And a Fortune 500 Nightmare

In a shocking revelation that’s sending shockwaves through the cybersecurity world, researchers have uncovered a massive vulnerability that’s been hiding in plain sight for years. Thousands of intentionally vulnerable training applications, designed to help security professionals learn how to defend against attacks, have been left exposed on the public internet—creating an open invitation for cybercriminals to waltz right into some of the world’s most sensitive cloud environments.

The Hidden Danger in “Safe” Training Tools

Think of those intentionally vulnerable applications like OWASP Juice Shop, DVWA, Hackazon, and bWAPP as the cybersecurity equivalent of crash test dummies. They’re designed to be smashed, broken, and exploited—but only in controlled laboratory conditions. The problem? These digital crash test dummies aren’t staying in the lab.

Pentera Labs, a leading cybersecurity research firm, has discovered that these training applications are being deployed in real-world cloud environments with alarming frequency. What’s worse, they’re being left wide open to the public internet, often with more access and privileges than they should ever have in a production environment.

The Numbers Are Staggering

Here’s where it gets truly terrifying: Pentera Labs verified nearly 2,000 live, exposed training application instances scattered across customer-managed infrastructure on AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. That’s right—two thousand potential backdoors into corporate networks, all because someone forgot to close the digital front door.

But wait, it gets worse. Close to 60% of these exposed applications were found running inside active cloud accounts belonging to real companies. These aren’t just theoretical vulnerabilities—they’re live, breathing security holes that anyone with basic hacking skills could exploit.

Attackers Are Already Inside

The most chilling discovery? These exposed training environments aren’t just sitting there waiting to be found—they’re already being actively exploited. Pentera Labs found that approximately 20% of exposed instances contained clear evidence of malicious activity, including:

• Cryptocurrency mining operations siphoning computing power
• Webshells allowing remote command execution
• Persistence mechanisms ensuring attackers could maintain access

This isn’t theoretical risk anymore. This is happening right now, in real-time, across thousands of organizations worldwide.

The Scope: From Startups to Fortune 500

Perhaps the most shocking aspect of this discovery is the breadth of organizations affected. We’re not talking about small businesses or amateur setups here. Pentera Labs observed this deployment pattern across cloud environments associated with Fortune 500 organizations and leading cybersecurity vendors, including industry giants like Palo Alto Networks, F5, and Cloudflare.

Yes, you read that correctly. Even companies that sell cybersecurity solutions to protect against exactly these kinds of vulnerabilities have been caught with their digital pants down.

How Did This Happen?

The root cause is surprisingly simple: these training and demo environments are frequently treated as low-risk or temporary assets. They’re often excluded from standard security monitoring, access reviews, and lifecycle management processes. Organizations deploy them for a specific purpose, forget about them, and leave them exposed long after their usefulness has expired.

The research shows that exploitation doesn’t require sophisticated zero-day vulnerabilities or advanced attack techniques. Attackers are using basic methods—default credentials, known weaknesses, and public exposure—to turn these training applications into gateways for broader cloud access.

The Real-World Impact

When an attacker gains access to one of these exposed training applications, they’re not just getting access to a single vulnerable system. These applications are often connected to privileged cloud identities and roles, allowing attackers to move far beyond the original application and potentially into the customer’s broader cloud infrastructure.

Think of it like finding a key under the doormat of a house that happens to be connected to an entire apartment complex. Once inside, the attacker can potentially access multiple units, steal valuable possessions, and cause widespread damage.

Why This Matters to Everyone

This vulnerability affects more than just the organizations directly impacted. When large corporations and cybersecurity vendors are compromised through these exposed training applications, it can have ripple effects throughout the entire digital ecosystem. Customer data can be stolen, intellectual property can be compromised, and the trust that underpins our digital economy can be eroded.

The Solution: Basic Security Hygiene

The good news is that fixing this problem doesn’t require cutting-edge technology or massive investment. It requires basic security hygiene:

• Regular inventory and audit of all cloud resources
• Proper isolation of training and demo environments
• Removal of default credentials and unnecessary privileges
• Regular security monitoring and lifecycle management
• Proper decommissioning of unused resources

What’s Next?

Pentera Labs is hosting a live webinar on February 12th to dive deeper into their methodology, discovery process, and the real-world exploitation they observed during this research. This is a must-attend event for anyone responsible for cloud security, DevOps, or IT infrastructure.

The Bottom Line

In the world of cybersecurity, there’s an old saying: “You’re only as strong as your weakest link.” These exposed training applications represent exactly that—a massive weak link that’s been hiding in plain sight for years. The fact that thousands of organizations, including some of the biggest names in tech, have fallen victim to this oversight is a wake-up call for the entire industry.

As we continue to move more of our critical infrastructure and sensitive data into the cloud, we can no longer afford to treat training and demo environments as second-class citizens in our security strategy. Every exposed application, no matter how seemingly insignificant, represents a potential entry point for attackers.

The question isn’t whether your organization has exposed training applications—the research suggests that’s almost inevitable. The real question is: how long have they been sitting there, waiting to be discovered by someone with malicious intent?

Your move, cybersecurity world.

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