SCARLETEEL: Operation leveraging Terraform, Kubernetes, and AWS for data theft

In the SCARLETEEL operation, a sophisticated cyberattack was discovered by the Sysdig Threat Research Team, targeting a cloud environment through a compromised Kubernetes container to escalate privileges in AWS and steal proprietary data. The attackers utilized advanced knowledge of AWS mechanics, including EC2 roles, Lambda functions, and Terraform, to execute the attack, which involved credential harvesting, disabling CloudTrail logs to evade detection, and attempting lateral movement across AWS accounts. The attack's complexity highlights vulnerabilities in cloud security, emphasizing the importance of best practices such as using IMDS v2, implementing the principle of least privilege, securing Terraform state files, and maintaining robust monitoring and alerting systems. The discovery led to measures like revoking compromised credentials and tightening security policies to prevent similar incidents, underscoring the necessity of proactive cloud security measures and the adoption of zero trust principles to mitigate risks.