Infrastructure Security Testing Approaches

Calendar February 22, 2026
Security
Intermediate
Automated-Vulnerability-Scanning, Kubernetes-Security-Testing, Network-Reconnaissance, Credential-Testing, Security-Assessment-Planning
Penetration-Testing, Vulnerability-Scanning, Nessus, Openvas, Kube-Bench, Kube-Hunter, Nmap, Security-Testing, Compliance
Nessus, Openvas, Kube-Bench, Kube-Hunter, Nmap, Nikto, Kubescape, Trivy, Nuclei

Choosing the Right Testing Approach#

Infrastructure security testing is not one activity. It is a spectrum from fully automated scanning to manual adversarial testing. Each approach has different costs, coverage, and compliance implications. Choosing wrong wastes budget on low-value scans or leaves critical gaps unexamined.

The core decision is: what are you trying to learn, and what constraints do you operate under?

Decision Matrix#

Question Automated Scanning Kubernetes-Specific Testing Network Scanning Manual Penetration Testing
What does it find? Known CVEs, misconfigurations, missing patches K8s-specific misconfigurations, RBAC issues, pod security gaps Open ports, exposed services, protocol weaknesses Business logic flaws, chained exploits, privilege escalation paths
How often? Continuous or daily Every cluster change, weekly minimum Weekly to monthly Annually or after major architecture changes
Who runs it? Automated pipeline or security team Platform/SRE team Security team or automated Specialized pentest firm or red team
Cost Low (tooling cost only) Low (open-source tools) Low to medium High ($20k-$100k+ per engagement)
False positive rate Medium to high Low Medium Very low
Compliance fit PCI-DSS 11.2, SOC2 CC7.1 CIS Kubernetes Benchmark PCI-DSS 11.2, NIST 800-53 PCI-DSS 11.3, SOC2 CC4.1

When to Use Each Approach#

Use automated scanning when you need continuous visibility into known vulnerabilities across your infrastructure. This is the baseline. Every organization should run automated scans regardless of what other testing they do.

Security Compliance and Benchmarks

Calendar February 22, 2026
Security
Intermediate
Compliance-Scanning, Benchmark-Remediation, Security-Reporting
Cis-Benchmark, Compliance, Kube-Bench, Kubescape, Pci-Dss, Soc2, Scanning
Kube-Bench, Docker-Bench-Security, Kubescape, Polaris, Kube-Score, Trivy

Why Benchmarks Matter#

Security benchmarks translate “harden the cluster” into specific, testable checks. Run a scan, get a pass/fail report, fix what failed. CIS publishes the most widely adopted benchmarks for Kubernetes and Docker. NSA/CISA provide additional Kubernetes-specific threat guidance.

CIS Kubernetes Benchmark with kube-bench#

kube-bench runs CIS Kubernetes Benchmark checks against cluster nodes, testing API server flags, etcd configuration, kubelet settings, and control plane security:

# Run on a master node
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aquasecurity/kube-bench/main/job-master.yaml

# Run on worker nodes
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aquasecurity/kube-bench/main/job-node.yaml

# Read results
kubectl logs job/kube-bench

Or run directly on a node: