IAM Privilege Escalation: The Cloud Access Key

A classified-aesthetic technical guide to understanding cloud identity exploitation

Dive deep into the architecture of modern cloud security through the lens of privilege escalation. This comprehensive guide documents real-world techniques for exploiting IAM misconfigurations across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.

What's Inside:

• 22+ AWS privilege escalation methods including CreateAccessKey, PassRole+Lambda, and metadata service exploitation
• Azure AD takeover chains covering service principal compromise and role manipulation
• GCP service account impersonation and organization-level escalation paths
• Automated enumeration scripts for discovering escalation vectors
• Complete attack chains from initial access to persistent backdoors
• Detection evasion techniques and counter-forensics
• Defensive strategies and mitigation controls

Format:

Single-page HTML document styled like a classified document from the darkweb underground. Terminal green aesthetic with scan lines, glitch effects, and retro BBS vibes. Fully self-contained - no external dependencies.

Use Cases:

• Red team operators conducting authorized cloud penetration tests
• Security researchers studying cloud attack vectors
• Blue teamers learning adversary techniques for better defense
• Cloud security engineers hardening IAM configurations
• Bug bounty hunters identifying privilege escalation vulnerabilities

Technical Depth:

This isn't surface-level theory. Every technique includes working commands, real exploitation paths, and actionable methodology. From metadata service credential theft to cross-account pivoting to self-healing backdoors.

⚠ For authorized security research and testing only. Knowledge is dual-use - wield responsibly.

"In the architecture of clouds, identity is the skeleton key."