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العربيةAttach admin policy to role
Can attach the AdministratorAccess managed policy to a role.
Grants escalation on its own.
iam:AttachRolePolicyOn its own, iam:AttachRolePolicy can attach the AdministratorAccess managed policy to a role. On a wide resource scope that alone reaches administrator access.
Why it is dangerous
A principal can call iam:AttachRolePolicy to attach AdministratorAccess (or any managed policy) to the role. Once the principal can use the target role (assume it, or steal its credentials from compute), the target role is now an administrator; the attachment persists until removed.
In MITRE ATT&CK terms this maps to T1098.003, Account Manipulation: Additional Cloud Roles, under the privilege escalation tactic. AWS records it in CloudTrail as AttachRolePolicy. The call shows up in CloudTrail but blends into normal administration, so it needs a rule to stand out. It also gives an attacker a way to keep access after the first foothold is closed, so it is worth watching even when it looks like routine administration.
Detection
AttachRolePolicyPrerequisites
A path to use the target role afterwards (assume-role or cred-theft).
Tactic
Privilege Escalation
A control that would remove it: Remove iam:AttachRolePolicy from the principal.
Whether to apply it depends on how the permission is used in your environment, so it is a business decision rather than an automatic fix. The same permission can be load-bearing in one account and pure risk in another.
Pathbreak confirms whether this path resolves in your account, ranks it against the others by how much it opens up, and uses your threat model and business context to show which paths are worth cutting.
Questions
What does iam:AttachRolePolicy allow?
Can attach the AdministratorAccess managed policy to a role.
Can iam:AttachRolePolicy escalate privileges on its own?
Yes. Held on a broad enough resource it reaches administrator access with no other permission.
How is attach admin policy to role detected?
Watch for AttachRolePolicy in CloudTrail. The call shows up in CloudTrail but blends into normal administration, so it needs a rule to stand out.
How do you break this path?
A control that would remove it is: Remove iam:AttachRolePolicy from the principal. Whether to apply it depends on how the permission is used in your account, so it is a business decision rather than an automatic fix.
Which MITRE ATT&CK technique is this?
T1098.003, Account Manipulation: Additional Cloud Roles, under the privilege escalation tactic.
Related paths
References
Find this in your own account
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