is a signature for Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) attacks targeting AWS EC2 Instance Metadata Service (IMDS) to steal temporary IAM credentials. Mitigation involves enforcing IMDSv2, validating input to block internal IP access, and applying least-privilege IAM roles. For details on mitigating this threat, see the AWS Security Blog Hacking The Cloud
What is Azure Active Directory? A Complete Overview - Varonis is a signature for Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)
The primary purpose of this URL is to allow an EC2 instance to retrieve temporary security credentials for the IAM role it's been launched with. These credentials can then be used to access other AWS services without needing to configure and embed long-term access keys within the instance. A Complete Overview - Varonis The primary purpose
Configure local firewall rules (such as iptables or Windows Firewall) on the cloud instance to restrict which system users or processes can communicate with 169.254.169.254 . For instance, you can block the web server user (like www-data or nginx ) from reaching the metadata IP address while allowing root or specific administrative daemons access. 4. Practice the Principle of Least Privilege For instance, you can block the web server
The attacker then requests the specific path for that role: http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/iam/security-credentials/MyAppInstanceRole . The response is a JSON object containing the AccessKeyId , SecretAccessKey , and Token .