AWS IAM Privilege Escalation Methods
#Access Control#IAM
OpenIAM offers a unified identity governance platform featuring CIAM, MFA, and PAM integration.
Understanding IAM Policy Version Creation by Attackers
An attacker with the CreatePolicyVersion permission can create a new version of an IAM policy to which they have access.
This allows them to define their own custom permissions effectively
This enables users to establish their own custom permissions. When a new policy version is created, it must be designated as the default version for it to take effect. You might assume that this would require the iam:SetDefaultPolicyVersion permission. However, when creating a new policy version, there is an option to include a flag (--set-as-default) that will automatically set it as the new default version. Importantly, using this flag does not require the iam:SetDefaultPolicyVersion permission.
This privilege escalation method could enable unauthorized access
This privilege escalation method could enable a user to obtain full administrator access to the AWS account.
