IAM Hacking: Understanding the Risks

Misconfigured Permissions:

• Risk: Overly permissive permissions.
• Attack Vector: Exploiting misconfigured IAM policies.
• Mitigation: Regularly review and restrict permissions to the principle of least privilege.

Privilege Escalation:

• Risk: Unauthorized elevation of privileges.
• Attack Vector: Abusing trust relationships or weakly protected credentials.
• Mitigation: Monitor IAM roles and enforce strong authentication.

Access Key Exposure:

• Risk: Leaked AWS access keys.
• Attack Vector: Access keys stored in code repositories or exposed in logs.
• Mitigation: Rotate keys, use temporary credentials, and avoid hardcoding keys.

Broken Trust Relationships:

• Risk: Trusting external accounts without proper validation.
• Attack Vector: Exploiting cross-account trust.
• Mitigation: Validate trust relationships and limit external access.

Credential Theft:

Risk: Stolen IAM credentials.

Attack Vector: Phishing, keylogging, or social engineering.

Mitigation: Educate users, enable MFA, and monitor for suspicious activity.

Conclusion: IAM Best Practices

• Regularly audit IAM configurations.
• Implement strong authentication mechanisms.
• Educate users on security hygiene.

References:

1. HackerOne: Hackers Love Poor IAM Strategies
2. AWS IAM Documentation
3. Have I Been Pwned: Check if your email has been compromised
4. Hacker Typer: Fake Coding & Hacker Simulator
5. FTC: How to Recover Your Hacked Email or Social Media Account