SSRF to AWS Metadata Exposure: How Attackers Steal Cloud Credentials
Resecurity, Wednesday, August 6th, 2025
In modern cloud environments, misconfigurations and insecure coding practices can open dangerous doors to attackers. One critical example is Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF), a vulnerability that allows attackers to manipulate a server into making unintended requests.
When SSRF is exploited against cloud infrastructure like AWS, it can lead to the exposure of sensitive instance metadata, including temporary IAM credentials.
This blog post explores how SSRF vulnerabilities in EC2-hosted applications can be leveraged to access the AWS Instance Metadata Service (IMDS), and how that can lead to the compromise of cloud resources. We'll walk through the attack surface, demonstrate exploitation, and discuss how to defend your AWS environment against these threats.