GCP - IAM Privesc

👉 Overview

👀 What ?

Google Cloud Platform's Identity and Access Management (IAM) privilege escalation (Privesc) is a security concern where a user with limited permissions can gain higher-level permissions illegitimately.

🧐 Why ?

Understanding GCP IAM Privesc is crucial because it's a potential security risk that can be exploited by malicious actors to gain unauthorized access to sensitive data and resources in the cloud. It's important for both security professionals who need to defend against such attacks and developers who want to build secure systems on GCP.

⛏️ How ?

To mitigate the risk of IAM Privesc, it's important to follow the principle of least privilege, meaning users should be given the minimum permissions necessary to perform their tasks. Regular audits of IAM roles and permissions can also help identify and rectify potential security gaps. Implementing multi-factor authentication and other security measures can add an extra layer of protection.

⏳ When ?

The issue of GCP IAM Privesc and its potential risks became more pronounced as organizations started migrating their systems and data to the cloud. As GCP services became more popular, the need for better understanding and management of IAM roles and permissions became evident.

⚙️ Technical Explanations

In GCP, IAM roles are used to determine what actions are allowed on which resources. If these roles are not managed properly, it can lead to privilege escalation. For example, a user with 'editor' role in a project can potentially escalate their privilege to 'owner' by creating a service account with 'owner' role and then impersonating that service account. This is possible because 'editor' role has the 'iam.serviceAccounts.create' and 'iam.serviceAccounts.actAs' permissions. To prevent such scenarios, it's important to restrict who can create and impersonate service accounts. Additionally, using Organization Policy Service to set fine-grained policies can also help limit the scope of certain actions and reduce the risk of privilege escalation.