The IP address 169.254.169.254 is a link-local address used by AWS to host the Instance Metadata Service. This service is accessible only from within the EC2 instance itself. It provides data about the instance, including its network configuration, instance ID, and, most importantly, temporary security credentials associated with the IAM role assigned to that instance. The Anatomy of the Attack
If your applications must fetch external web assets, never trust raw user input. Implement strict validation controls:
Are you investigating a specific or vulnerability scan alert ? The IP address 169
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The specific path /latest/meta-data/iam/security-credentials/ lists the names of the IAM roles attached to the instance. If an attacker appends the role name to that URL, the service returns: AccessKeyId SecretAccessKey Token (Session Token) Expiration date The Anatomy of the Attack If your applications
This can expose unintended or restricted resources which only the vulnerable system should have access to, inadvertently allowing ... Introduction to the Instance Metadata Service 20 Dec 2020 —
In every case, the root cause was .
Always validate and sanitize any user-provided URLs or parameters that your application uses to make outbound requests. Use "allow-lists" rather than "deny-lists" to ensure the application only communicates with trusted domains. Implement the Principle of Least Privilege
This service allows applications running on an EC2 instance to retrieve information about the instance itself (e.g., instance ID, public IP, security groups) without needing to configure AWS credentials explicitly. Within this kingdom, there lived a brave and
A request to http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/iam/security-credentials/ returns a list of IAM roles attached to the instance.