GCP - Public Buckets Privilege Escalation

👉 Overview

👀 What ?

Public buckets privilege escalation in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) refers to the security issue where an attacker gains unauthorized access to public storage buckets in GCP, and escalates their privileges to perform actions they are not authorized to do.

🧐 Why ?

This issue is important because GCP is widely used by many organizations to store and manage their data. If an attacker can gain unauthorized access to these buckets, they can potentially manipulate or steal sensitive data, disrupting the operations of the organization and causing serious damage. Therefore, understanding this issue and how to prevent it is crucial for maintaining the security of an organization's data.

⛏️ How ?

To prevent public buckets privilege escalation, ensure that your buckets are not publicly accessible unless necessary. Review and limit the permissions granted to different users and roles. Regularly monitor the activities in your buckets to detect any suspicious activities. Use tools such as Google Cloud's IAM Recommender to get recommendations on how to optimize your permissions.

⏳ When ?

Public buckets privilege escalation has been a known issue since the increasing adoption of cloud storage solutions. It has become more prevalent with the growing use of GCP for data storage and management.

⚙️ Technical Explanations

Public buckets privilege escalation in GCP happens when an attacker is able to access a public storage bucket, and then escalate their privileges to perform unauthorized actions. This is possible because of the way permissions are managed in GCP. By default, all users have the 'storage.objects.get' permission, which allows them to read objects in a bucket. However, if an object is public, any user can read it, even if they do not have this permission. If an attacker can find a way to escalate their privileges, they can potentially perform actions such as modifying or deleting objects in the bucket, which they are not authorized to do.