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Attack paths Compliance How it works Attack map Pricing Blog
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The Pathbreak Attack Map for AWS / OpenSearch
Resource exposure OpenSearch T1530

Publicly accessible OpenSearch domain

An OpenSearch domain access policy grants Principal:* (public)..

No IAM permission is needed. The exposure is in the resource's own configuration, so anyone the policy names, or everyone when it is public, can reach it.

Key takeaway

This is a configuration exposure, not a permission. An OpenSearch domain access policy grants Principal:* (public). Anyone the policy allows, or everyone when it is public, can reach it with no IAM access of their own.

exposure reachable 01 Attacker principal 02 Resource 03 Public internet
How an attacker moves from this permission.
Explore this in Pathbreak

Why it is dangerous

An OpenSearch domain admits anonymous access; an attacker can read the full search index, mirroring a live database read.

In MITRE ATT&CK terms this maps to T1530, Data from Cloud Storage, under the collection tactic.

Detection

See CloudTrail management events.

Prerequisites

None beyond holding the permission.

MITRE ATT&CK

T1530 · Data from Cloud Storage

Tactic

Collection

Breaking the path

A control that would remove it: Remove the Principal:* grant from the domain access policy or scope it (VPC / IP condition).

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 this configuration allow?

An OpenSearch domain access policy grants Principal:* (public).

Does this need any IAM permission?

No. It is a configuration exposure. Anyone the resource policy names, or everyone when it is public, can reach it without holding any permission of their own.

How is publicly accessible OpenSearch domain detected?

Watch for the related CloudTrail management events.

How do you break this path?

A control that would remove it is: Remove the Principal:* grant from the domain access policy or scope it (VPC / IP condition). 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?

T1530, Data from Cloud Storage, under the collection tactic.

Related paths

Same techniquePublicly accessible resource policyIAMSame techniqueGrant bucket read via ACLs3:PutBucketAclSame techniqueGrant object read via ACLs3:PutObjectAclSame techniqueRead a bucket granted to an external AWS accountS3Same techniqueDecrypt with a KMS key granted to an external AWS accountKMSSame techniqueRead a secret granted to an external AWS accountSecrets Manager

Find this in your own account

We run a read-only scan of one AWS account and show you which of these paths exist, ranked by blast radius, with the change that breaks each one. First validated paths within the hour.

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