AWS IAM Privilege Escalation Methods

Documentation of an AWS IAM privilege escalation technique that exploits the iam:CreatePolicyVersion permission to gain elevated access through policy manipulation.

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AWS IAM Privilege Escalation Methods

Documentation of an AWS IAM privilege escalation technique that exploits the iam:CreatePolicyVersion permission to gain elevated access through policy manipulation.

Security Operations•Offensive Security

Free

Red Team Iam Cloud Security

921stars

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25 Jul

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Updated 12 Oct 25

AWS IAM Privilege Escalation Methods Description

AWS IAM Privilege Escalation Methods documents a specific technique for escalating privileges within Amazon Web Services environments through IAM policy manipulation. The method exploits the iam:CreatePolicyVersion permission to create new versions of existing IAM policies with custom permissions. The technique leverages the --set-as-default flag during policy version creation, which automatically sets the new version as the default without requiring the iam:SetDefaultPolicyVersion permission. This escalation vector can potentially grant an attacker full administrator access to an AWS account by allowing them to define their own permissions through policy version manipulation. The documentation serves as a reference for understanding this specific privilege escalation pathway in AWS IAM configurations.