AWS SNS Secrets: From Misconfiguration to Exploitation - A CloudGoat Walkthrough
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Summary
This post walks through a CloudGoat scenario involving AWS SNS misconfiguration and secrets exploitation.
CloudGoat is an AWS security learning and practice tool from Rhino Security Labs.
The scenario starts with low-privileged IAM user access and the objective of exploiting misconfigured SNS topics to retrieve secrets stored in AWS Secrets Manager.
The IAM user is examined for permissions and vulnerabilities using AWS CLI and Pacu (a Rhino Labs AWS exploitation framework).
Vulnerabilities in the SNS topic permissions lead to privilege escalation, allowing the attacker to retrieve sensitive information from other AWS services.
The attacker can then create an API gateway URL and extract the final flag, simulating the extraction of sensitive information from the compromised AWS environment.
This walkthrough demonstrates the potential dangers of improperly configured messaging services and the importance of following best practices for AWS cloud security.