During a black-box assessment, you exploit a server-side request forgery (SSRF) flaw in a containerized web service that is running on an Amazon EC2 instance. The container can send HTTP traffic to the link-local address 169.254.169.254. Which internal URL should you request through the SSRF to most likely obtain temporary AWS credentials that can be leveraged for further privilege escalation inside the victim's cloud account?
Amazon EC2 exposes the Instance Metadata Service (IMDS) at 169.254.169.254. The sub-resource /latest/meta-data/iam/security-credentials/ returns JSON documents that contain the access key ID, secret access key, and session token for the IAM role attached to the instance. Attackers often pivot by retrieving these credentials through SSRF or container escape paths and then using them with the AWS CLI or SDK to enumerate and manipulate other cloud resources. The user-data endpoint, network interface metadata, and instance-identity document do not provide valid AWS access keys, so they are far less valuable for privilege escalation.
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What is Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)?
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What is the Instance Metadata Service (IMDS) in AWS?
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Why is the /latest/meta-data/iam/security-credentials/ endpoint valuable to attackers?
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What is Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)?
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What is Amazon EC2's Instance Metadata Service (IMDS)?
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How are IAM credentials used for privilege escalation in AWS?
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