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- “Control Plane Compromise: Attacks from Above”
“Control Plane Compromise: Attacks from Above”
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Cloud Control Panels Offer Global Access in One Click
A compromised admin console gives attackers root across regions and services. It’s the ultimate target for lateral movement. MFA alone doesn’t protect against session hijack or phishing.
Kubernetes Admin Access Enables Cluster-Wide Hijack
If attackers access kube-apiserver, they can spawn pods, exfiltrate secrets, or modify service mesh routing. Many clusters run with over-permissioned default roles. The control plane is often exposed to the public.
CI/CD Pipelines Inject Malicious Code Automatically
Access to GitHub Actions or GitLab runners means attackers can modify builds silently. Code passes all checks but includes backdoors. Downstream users become infected through legitimate updates.
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Terraform and IaC Tools Are Used to Rewire Infrastructure
Malicious commits to IaC repos create persistent misconfigurations. These changes survive reboots, redeploys, and incident responses. Code-driven infrastructure spreads attacker control at scale.
IAM Policies Are Abused to Escalate Privileges Quietly
Attackers modify identity roles or attach hidden policies that grant broad access. These changes often look legitimate in audit logs. Privilege escalation becomes persistent and stealthy.
Logging and Alerting Are Disabled First
Once control is achieved, attackers disable CloudTrail, logging agents, or SIEM ingestion. Visibility vanishes before any real damage is done. Security thinks everything is fine — until it’s not.
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