AWS Name Confusion Attack: When Your Virtual Machine Turns Evil
Cybersecurity researchers have revealed a new name confusion attack called whoAMI, targeting Amazon Machine Images on AWS. This attack lets miscreants execute code within AWS accounts by exploiting a simple naming oversight. Think of it as a virtual doppelgänger attack—only this time, the evil twin isn’t just stealing your thunder, but your cloud too!
Hot Take:
Here’s a fresh new way to say “Who am I?”, but with a twist that could have you questioning your digital existence! This “whoAMI” attack is like a digital doppelgänger prank, except the punchline is remote code execution on your AWS account. Yikes! A name confusion attack that has developers scrambling to double-check their AMIs and make sure they aren’t inviting any uninvited guests to their cloud party!
Key Points:
– The whoAMI attack is a new name confusion attack targeting Amazon Machine Images (AMI).
– It allows attackers to execute code in AWS accounts by exploiting misconfigurations.
– The attack hinges on omitting the “–owners” attribute when using the ec2:DescribeImages API.
– Roughly 1% of organizations monitored by Datadog were vulnerable to this attack.
– AWS has introduced “Allowed AMIs” to mitigate the risk of such attacks.