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Cisco Isovalent - Access To Cloud Metadata Service

The following analytic detects workloads accessing the cloud instance metadata service at 169.254.169.254. This IP is used by AWS, GCP and Azure metadata endpoints and is frequently abused in SSRF or lateral movement…

Description

The following analytic detects workloads accessing the cloud instance metadata service at 169.254.169.254. This IP is used by AWS, GCP and Azure metadata endpoints and is frequently abused in SSRF or lateral movement scenarios to obtain credentials and sensitive environment details. Monitor unexpected access to this service from application pods or namespaces where such behavior is atypical.

Detection logic

Detection requirements

Platform
IaaS

The rule states no platform. This is derived from the ATT&CK technique it maps to.

Known benign triggers

  • Legitimate platform components and node agents may query the metadata service. Validate by namespace, labels and workload identity; suppress expected sources and alert on atypical pods or namespaces.

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