AWS Common Misconfigurations & Associated Threats

Introduction

Though Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides a robust and flexible cloud computing environment, the security of these resources and your environment heavily relies on proper configuration of the AWS services.

Misconfigurations can inadvertently expose sensitive data and lead to security threats. Let’s explore some common AWS misconfigurations and the real-life security incidents that highlight the risks associated with them.

S3 Bucket Permissions:
1. Misconfiguration: Unrestricted public access to Amazon S3 buckets.
  1. Amazon S3 is a scalable object storage service.
  2. S3 bucket permissions are managed through Access Control Lists (ACLs) and bucket policies. Misconfiguration occurs when ACLs or policies grant excessive permissions, allowing unauthorized users or entities to perform actions like list, read, or write operations on the S3 bucket.
2. Threats:
  1. Unauthorized data access: Attackers may gain unauthorized access to sensitive data stored in the misconfigured S3 bucket.
  2. Data tampering: Malicious actors can modify or delete data within the bucket, leading to data integrity issues.
3. Real-Life Incident: The Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) in 2017 revealed that misconfigured S3 buckets were a major cause of data breaches. Companies like Verizon and WWE exposed sensitive data due to misconfigured S3 buckets.
IAM Entity Permissions:
1. Misconfiguration: Overly permissive Identity and Access Management (IAM) Entity.
  1. IAM entity define the permissions granted to AWS resources through user/role policies.
  2. Overly permissive policy provide broader access than necessary. This misconfiguration might involve attaching policies with more privileges than required, leading to potential security vulnerabilities and unauthorized.
2. Threats:
  1. Privilege escalation: Attackers could exploit the misconfigured IAM entities to escalate their privileges, gaining unauthorized access to critical resources.
  2. Unauthorized actions: Malicious actors may perform unauthorized actions using the compromised IAM entities, potentially causing data loss or service disruptions.
3. Real-Life Incident: Capital One suffered a data breach in 2019 due to a misconfigured IAM role, leading to the exposure of personal information of over 100 million customers.
Security Group Settings:
1. Misconfiguration: Inadequate security group settings for EC2 instances.
  1. Security groups act as virtual firewalls, controlling inbound and outbound traffic for EC2 instances.
  2. Misconfiguration occurs when rules in the security group don’t adequately restrict or permit traffic. This could expose services to unauthorized access or disrupt legitimate traffic
2. Threats:
  1. Unauthorized network access: Attackers can exploit the misconfigured security groups to gain unauthorized access to EC2 instances, potentially leading to data theft or service compromise.
  2. Denial of service (DoS): Malicious actors may disrupt services by exploiting the misconfigured security groups to overwhelm the targeted instances with excessive traffic.
3. Real-Life Incident: In 2018, an AWS customer fell victim to a crypto-mining attack through a misconfigured security group that allowed inbound SSH traffic.
Lambda Function Role Permissions:
1. Misconfiguration: Excessive permissions granted to AWS Lambda functions.
  1. Lambda enables serverless computing.
  2. Lambda functions assume roles with specific permissions. Excessive permissions occur when the associated IAM role has a policy granting more access than required. This can lead to unintended data access, resource abuse, or even security breaches.
2. Threats:
  1. Resource abuse: Malicious actors could abuse the excessive permissions to consume excessive resources, leading to service degradation or disruption.
  2. Unauthorized data access: Attackers may exploit the misconfigured Lambda function permissions to access or manipulate sensitive data.
3. Real-Life Incident: A misconfigured Lambda function was exploited to mine cryptocurrency in a well-known incident, highlighting the importance of securing serverless functions.
EC2 Instance Key Pair Exposure:
1. Misconfiguration: Unauthorized exposure of EC2 instance key pairs. i. EC2 instances use key pairs for secure SSH or RDP access. Misconfiguration occurs when private key files associated with EC2 instances are inadvertently exposed or shared with unauthorized users. This could happen through insecure storage, improper access controls, or unintentional disclosure.
2. Threats:
  1. Unauthorized instance access: Exposed key pairs could be used by unauthorized individuals to gain access to EC2 instances, leading to potential data breaches or unauthorized system modifications.
  2. Compromised instance integrity: If the private key is exposed, an attacker might gain full control over the EC2 instance, allowing for malicious activities such as installing backdoors or unauthorized software.
3. Real-Life Incident : While specific incidents may vary, there have been cases where private key files associated with EC2 instances were accidentally exposed on public repositories or shared insecurely, leading to unauthorized access.
EBS Volume/Snapshot Public & Unencrypted:
1. Misconfiguration: Lack of encryption on Elastic Block Store (EBS) volumes/snapshots and Public EBS/Snapshots.
  1. EBS volumes store data for EC2 instances.
  2. Without encryption, the data on these volumes is stored in plain text, making it susceptible to unauthorized access. Encryption adds a layer of security by encoding the data, protecting it from unauthorized viewing or tampering.
2. Threats:
  1. Data exposure: Unencrypted EBS volumes may lead to unauthorized access and exposure of sensitive data.
  2. Compliance violations: Organizations may face compliance issues due to the absence of encryption on EBS volumes, potentially leading to legal consequences.
3. Real-Life Incident : A company inadvertently exposed sensitive data due to the lack of encryption on their Elastic Block Store (EBS) volumes. These volumes contained critical customer information, including personally identifiable information (PII) and financial records.
API Gateway Authorization:
1. Misconfiguration: Inadequate authorization settings on Amazon API Gateway. i. API Gateway manages APIs and their interactions. ii. API Gateway authorizations control who can access APIs and what actions they can perform. Inadequate settings mean that unauthorized users or entities might gain access to sensitive APIs, leading to potential data exposure or misuse of API functionalities.
2. Threats:
  1. Unauthorized API access: Attackers may exploit the misconfigured authorization settings to gain unauthorized access to APIs, potentially leading to data exposure or manipulation.
  2. Denial of service (DoS): Malicious actors could disrupt services by exploiting the misconfigured API Gateway authorization settings to overwhelm the system with excessive API requests.
3. Real-Life Incident : An organization faced a disruption in its services due to a misconfiguration in API Gateway’s authorization settings, leading to a denial of service (DoS) attack. The misconfiguration allowed malicious actors to overwhelm the API Gateway with excessive and unauthorized requests.

PreviousAWS & Services NextTools

Last updated 1 year ago