// For flags

CVE-2023-35165

AWS CDK EKS overly permissive trust policies

Severity Score

8.8
*CVSS v3.1

Exploit Likelihood

*EPSS

Affected Versions

*CPE

Public Exploits

1
*Multiple Sources

Exploited in Wild

-
*KEV

Decision

-
*SSVC
Descriptions

AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK) is an open-source software development framework to define cloud infrastructure in code and provision it through AWS CloudFormation. In the packages `aws-cdk-lib` 2.0.0 until 2.80.0 and `@aws-cdk/aws-eks` 1.57.0 until 1.202.0, `eks.Cluster` and `eks.FargateCluster` constructs create two roles, `CreationRole` and `default MastersRole`, that have an overly permissive trust policy.

The first, referred to as the `CreationRole`, is used by lambda handlers to create the cluster and deploy Kubernetes resources (e.g `KubernetesManifest`, `HelmChart`, ...) onto it. Users with CDK version higher or equal to 1.62.0 (including v2 users) may be affected.

The second, referred to as the `default MastersRole`, is provisioned only if the `mastersRole` property isn't provided and has permissions to execute `kubectl` commands on the cluster. Users with CDK version higher or equal to 1.57.0 (including v2 users) may be affected.

The issue has been fixed in `@aws-cdk/aws-eks` v1.202.0 and `aws-cdk-lib` v2.80.0. These versions no longer use the account root principal. Instead, they restrict the trust policy to the specific roles of lambda handlers that need it. There is no workaround available for CreationRole. To avoid creating the `default MastersRole`, use the `mastersRole` property to explicitly provide a role.

*Credits: N/A
CVSS Scores
Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High
Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
High
Privileges Required
High
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High
* Common Vulnerability Scoring System
SSVC
  • Decision:-
Exploitation
-
Automatable
-
Tech. Impact
-
* Organization's Worst-case Scenario
Timeline
  • 2023-06-14 CVE Reserved
  • 2023-06-23 CVE Published
  • 2024-06-29 EPSS Updated
  • 2024-08-02 CVE Updated
  • 2024-08-02 First Exploit
  • ---------- Exploited in Wild
  • ---------- KEV Due Date
CWE
  • CWE-863: Incorrect Authorization
CAPEC
Affected Vendors, Products, and Versions
Vendor Product Version Other Status
Vendor Product Version Other Status <-- --> Vendor Product Version Other Status
Amazon
Search vendor "Amazon"
Aws Cloud Development Kit
Search vendor "Amazon" for product "Aws Cloud Development Kit"
>= 1.57.0 < 1.202.0
Search vendor "Amazon" for product "Aws Cloud Development Kit" and version " >= 1.57.0 < 1.202.0"
-
Affected
Amazon
Search vendor "Amazon"
Aws Cloud Development Kit
Search vendor "Amazon" for product "Aws Cloud Development Kit"
>= 2.0.0 < 2.80.0
Search vendor "Amazon" for product "Aws Cloud Development Kit" and version " >= 2.0.0 < 2.80.0"
-
Affected