AWS Pentesting

Performing penetration testing on Amazon Web Services (AWS) requires a strong understanding of the platform and its security features. Here are some key steps and commands to keep in mind when performing AWS pentesting:

1. Reconnaissance:

• Use the AWS CLI to enumerate instances and gather information about them: aws ec2 describe-instances
• Use the AWS console to gather information about the target’s VPC, subnets, security groups, and IAM roles

1. Enumeration:

• Enumerate AWS API keys: aws iam list-access-keys
• Enumerate S3 buckets: aws s3 ls
• Enumerate EC2 instances with sensitive data: aws ec2 describe-instances --filters "Name=tag-key,Values=sensitive-data" --query 'Reservations[].Instances[].InstanceId'
• Enumerate security groups: aws ec2 describe-security-groups

1. Exploitation:

• Exploit misconfigured S3 buckets by downloading or uploading data: aws s3 cp s3://bucket-name/filename .
• Exploit EC2 instance metadata service: curl http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/
• Exploit EC2 instance user data: curl http://169.254.169.254/latest/user-data/

1. Privilege escalation:

• Use IAM privilege escalation techniques such as modifying policies, adding new users or groups, or leveraging existing IAM roles
• Use OS-level privilege escalation techniques to elevate privileges on an EC2 instance

1. Covering tracks:

• Delete or modify logs to cover up tracks: aws cloudtrail delete-trail --name trail-name
• Stop the instance to avoid detection: aws ec2 stop-instances --instance-ids instance-id

It is important to note that penetration testing on AWS requires proper authorization and should be done within the confines of the legal and ethical boundaries.