• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

Law enforcement operations seized BlackSuit ransomware gang’s darknet sites

 | 

Arizona woman sentenced for aiding North Korea in U.S. IT job fraud scheme

 | 

Operation CargoTalon targets Russia’s aerospace with EAGLET malware,

 | 

Unpatched flaw in EoL LG LNV5110R cameras lets hackers gain Admin access

 | 

Koske, a new AI-Generated Linux malware appears in the threat landscape

 | 

Mitel patches critical MiVoice MX-ONE Auth bypass flaw

 | 

Coyote malware is first-ever malware abusing Windows UI Automation

 | 

SonicWall fixed critical flaw in SMA 100 devices exploited in Overstep malware attacks

 | 

DSPM & AI Are Booming: $17.87B and $4.8T Markets by 2033

 | 

Stealth backdoor found in WordPress mu-Plugins folder

 | 

U.S. CISA adds CrushFTP, Google Chromium, and SysAid flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

U.S. CISA urges FCEB agencies to fix two Microsoft SharePoint flaws immediately and added them to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

Sophos fixed two critical Sophos Firewall vulnerabilities

 | 

French Authorities confirm XSS.is admin arrested in Ukraine

 | 

Microsoft linked attacks on SharePoint flaws to China-nexus actors

 | 

Cisco confirms active exploitation of ISE and ISE-PIC flaws

 | 

SharePoint under fire: new ToolShell attacks target enterprises

 | 

CrushFTP zero-day actively exploited at least since July 18

 | 

Hardcoded credentials found in HPE Aruba Instant On Wi-Fi devices

 | 

MuddyWater deploys new DCHSpy variants amid Iran-Israel conflict

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • Breaking News
  • Hacking
  • Experts found a vulnerability in AWS AppSync

Experts found a vulnerability in AWS AppSync

Pierluigi Paganini November 28, 2022

Amazon Web Services (AWS) fixed a cross-tenant vulnerability that could have allowed attackers to gain unauthorized access to resources.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has addressed a cross-tenant confused deputy problem in its platform that could have allowed threat actors to gain unauthorized access to resources. The problem was reported to the company by researchers from Datadog on September 1, 2022, and the bug was solved on September 6.

A confused deputy problem occurs when an entity that doesn’t have permission to perform an action can coerce a more-privileged entity to perform the action. AWS provides tools to protect an account if the owner provides third parties (known as cross-account) or other AWS services (known as cross-service) access to resources in your account.

The issue is related to the AppSync service in AWS that allows developers to quickly create GraphQL and Pub/Sub APIs.

“We have identified a cross-tenant vulnerability in Amazon Web Services (AWS) that exploits AWS AppSync.” reads the report published by Datadog. “This attack abuses the AppSync service to assume IAM roles in other AWS accounts, which allows an attacker to pivot into a victim organization and access resources in those accounts.”

Amazon investigated the potential exploitation of the issue in attacks in the wild and determined that no customers were affected.

“A security researcher recently disclosed a case-sensitivity parsing issue within AWS AppSync, which could potentially be used to bypass the service’s cross-account role usage validations and take action as the service across customer accounts.” reads the advisory published by Amazon.

“No customers were affected by this issue, and no customer action is required. AWS moved immediately to correct this issue when it was reported. Analysis of logs going back to the launch of the service has been conducted and we have conclusively determined that the only activity associated with this issue was between accounts owned by the researcher. No other customer accounts were impacted.”

In the attack scenario, a less-privileged entity (the attacker) can force a privileged entity or service (AppSync) to perform some action on its behalf. 

The experts pointed out that to authorize the actions AppSync will perform, the developer creates a role (or AppSync can automatically create it on their behalf) with the required IAM permissions. The created role will have a trust policy that allows the AppSync service to assume the role.

Using the S3 example, if a developer was building that API, they would create a role with the S3 permissions they need and allow AppSync to assume that role. When that GraphQL API is called, AppSync will assume the role, perform the AWS API call, and interpret the results.

Amazon Web Services

The experts pointed out that AWS does have safeguards in place to prevent AppSync from assuming arbitrary roles by validating the role’s Amazon Resource Name (ARN). The check could be simply eluded by passing the “serviceRoleArn” parameter in a lower case.

An attacker can exploit the issue to provide the identifier of a role for a different AWS account.

“This vulnerability in AWS AppSync allowed attackers to cross account boundaries and execute AWS API calls in victim accounts via IAM roles that trusted the AppSync service. By using this method, attackers could breach organizations that used AppSync and gain access to resources associated with those roles.” concludes the report. “After finding this vulnerability, we contacted the AWS Security Team who swiftly remediated the issue.”

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

[adrotate banner=”9″][adrotate banner=”12″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Amazon Web Services)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]


facebook linkedin twitter

Amazon Web Services AWS Hacking hacking news information security news IT Information Security Pierluigi Paganini Security Affairs Security News

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini July 26, 2025
Law enforcement operations seized BlackSuit ransomware gang’s darknet sites
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini July 26, 2025
Arizona woman sentenced for aiding North Korea in U.S. IT job fraud scheme
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    Law enforcement operations seized BlackSuit ransomware gang’s darknet sites

    Cyber Crime / July 26, 2025

    Arizona woman sentenced for aiding North Korea in U.S. IT job fraud scheme

    Intelligence / July 26, 2025

    Operation CargoTalon targets Russia’s aerospace with EAGLET malware,

    Intelligence / July 25, 2025

    Unpatched flaw in EoL LG LNV5110R cameras lets hackers gain Admin access

    Security / July 25, 2025

    Koske, a new AI-Generated Linux malware appears in the threat landscape

    Malware / July 25, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT