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العربيةMint Redshift IAM DB credentials
Can mint a temporary IAM database login and read a Redshift cluster.
Grants escalation on its own.
redshift:GetClusterCredentialsOn its own, redshift:GetClusterCredentials can mint a temporary IAM database login and read a Redshift cluster. On a wide resource scope that alone reaches the data itself.
Why it is dangerous
A principal can call redshift:GetClusterCredentials on the cluster to have AWS mint a short-lived database username and password bound to the principal's IAM identity, then connect to the cluster and query it. This bridges an IAM-only foothold into the Redshift data plane with no stored DB password - control of the IAM principal becomes read access to whatever the warehouse holds.
In MITRE ATT&CK terms this maps to T1530, Data from Cloud Storage, under the collection tactic. AWS records it in CloudTrail as GetClusterCredentials, GetClusterCredentialsWithIAM. The call is quiet against normal activity, so it is easy to miss without a rule for it.
Detection
GetClusterCredentialsGetClusterCredentialsWithIAMPrerequisites
redshift:GetClusterCredentials on the cluster; the DB user is auto-created if AutoCreate is allowed. Network reachability to the cluster endpoint is assumed (publicly_accessible clusters need none).
MITRE ATT&CK
T1530 · Data from Cloud StorageTactic
Collection
A control that would remove it: Restrict redshift:GetClusterCredentials (and GetClusterCredentialsWithIAM); scope it to specific dbuser/dbname; prefer short-lived, audited DB roles.
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 redshift:GetClusterCredentials allow?
Can mint a temporary IAM database login and read a Redshift cluster.
Can redshift:GetClusterCredentials escalate privileges on its own?
Yes. Held on a broad enough resource it reaches the data itself with no other permission.
How is mint Redshift IAM DB credentials detected?
Watch for GetClusterCredentials, GetClusterCredentialsWithIAM in CloudTrail. The call is quiet against normal activity, so it is easy to miss without a rule for it.
How do you break this path?
A control that would remove it is: Restrict redshift:GetClusterCredentials (and GetClusterCredentialsWithIAM); scope it to specific dbuser/dbname; prefer short-lived, audited DB roles. 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
References
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.