AWS pwn vs Cognito Scanner: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.
AWS pwn is a free penetration testing tool. Cognito Scanner is a free penetration testing tool. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best penetration testing fit for your security stack.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of available product data, here is our conclusion:
Red teamers and AWS security auditors running isolated penetration tests will find AWS pwn valuable for its script library that automates common attack paths against IAM, S3, and EC2 without requiring commercial tool licenses. The 1,207 GitHub stars and active community contributions validate its tactics, though this is fundamentally a tactical toolkit rather than a full assessment platform. Skip this if you need compliance reporting, continuous monitoring, or remediation workflows; AWS pwn is a manual engagement tool for practitioners who know what they're looking for.
AWS security teams testing Cognito deployments should use Cognito Scanner because it catches account enumeration and privilege escalation flaws that managed AWS security tools routinely miss. At 109 GitHub stars with zero cost, it's the only tool built specifically to attack Cognito's auth mechanics rather than treating identity as a checkbox in a broader AWS scanner. Skip this if your threat model doesn't include internal or compromised-credential scenarios; Cognito Scanner assumes attackers already have network access and focuses on what they can do once inside.
