Experts Uncover Severe AWS Flaws Leading to RCE, Data Theft, and Full-Service Takeovers

Experts Uncover Severe AWS Flaws Leading to RCE, Data Theft, and Full-Service Takeovers

August 9, 2024 at 06:39PM

Cloud security researchers discovered critical flaws in Amazon Web Services (AWS) that could lead to remote code execution, user takeover, data exposure, and denial of service. The “Bucket Monopoly” issue allows attackers to create covert access to S3 buckets, potentially enabling data theft, privilege escalation, and malicious code execution. AWS addressed the vulnerabilities post responsible disclosure in February 2024.

Based on the meeting notes, here are the key takeaways:

– Multiple critical flaws have been discovered in Amazon Web Services (AWS) offerings, posing severe consequences if successfully exploited.
– The vulnerabilities range from remote code execution, full-service user takeover, manipulation of AI modules, exposing sensitive data, data exfiltration, and denial of service.
– The main issue, referred to as “Bucket Monopoly,” involves an attack vector called Shadow Resource, which allows for the automatic creation of an AWS S3 bucket when using services like CloudFormation, Glue, EMR, SageMaker, ServiceCatalog, and CodeStar.
– Attackers can take advantage of this behavior to set up buckets in unused AWS regions and gain covert access to the contents of the S3 bucket, potentially leading to the execution of malicious code and gaining full control over the victim account without the user’s knowledge.
– The attack vector affects not only AWS services but also many open-source projects used by organizations to deploy resources in their AWS environments.
– Aqua recommends generating a unique hash or a random identifier for each region and account and incorporating this value into the S3 bucket name to protect against premature bucket claiming by attackers.

Please let me know if you need any further information or if there’s anything else you’d like to discuss.

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