Amazon Web Services (AWS) Breach Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (AMA1765965358)

In this Rankiteo incident briefing, we review the Amazon Web Services (AWS) breach identified under incident ID AMA1765965358.

The analysis begins with a detailed overview of Amazon Web Services (AWS)'s information like the linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/amazon-web-services, the number of followers: 10600547, the industry type: IT Services and IT Consulting and the number of employees: 153837 employees

After the initial compromise, the video explains how Rankiteo's incident engine converts technical details into a normalized incident score. The incident score before the incident was 747 and after the incident was 739 with a difference of -8 which is could be a good indicator of the severity and impact of the incident.

In the next step of the video, we will analyze in more details the incident and the impact it had on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and their customers.

On 02 November 2025, Amazon Web Services (AWS) customers disclosed Cryptocurrency Mining issues under the banner "Cryptocurrency Mining Campaign Targeting AWS Customers via Compromised IAM Credentials".

A cryptocurrency mining campaign exploits compromised AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) credentials to hijack AWS environments for unauthorized cryptocurrency mining.

The disruption is felt across the environment, affecting AWS environments, IAM configurations, plus an estimated financial loss of Potential resource costs from unauthorized AWS usage.

In response, moved swiftly to contain the threat with measures like Immediate rotation of IAM credentials, monitoring for unusual activity, and began remediation that includes Implementation of multifactor authentication (MFA), security audits, engagement with AWS support.

The case underscores how Ongoing, teams are taking away lessons such as Critical need for strong IAM protocols, regular security audits, and automated threat detection systems like GuardDuty to mitigate cloud-based threats, and recommending next steps like Rotate IAM credentials immediately to prevent unauthorized access, Enable multifactor authentication (MFA) for all AWS accounts and Monitor AWS accounts for unusual activity or configurations, with advisories going out to stakeholders covering AWS users advised to review security configurations and conduct regular audits to detect and address unauthorized activities.

Finally, we try to match the incident with the MITRE ATT&CK framework to see if there is any correlation between the incident and the MITRE ATT&CK framework.

The MITRE ATT&CK framework is a knowledge base of techniques and sub-techniques that are used to describe the tactics and procedures of cyber adversaries. It is a powerful tool for understanding the threat landscape and for developing effective defense strategies.

Rankiteo's analysis has identified several MITRE ATT&CK tactics and techniques associated with this incident, each with varying levels of confidence based on available evidence. Under the Initial Access tactic, the analysis identified Valid Accounts: Cloud Accounts (T1078.004) with high confidence (95%), with evidence including exploiting compromised AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) credentials, and attack vector such as Compromised IAM credentials. Under the Persistence tactic, the analysis identified Account Manipulation: Additional Cloud Credentials (T1098.003) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating novel persistence techniques... embedding themselves within AWS infrastructure and Create Account: Cloud Account (T1136.003) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating stolen IAM credentials to hijack cloud environments (implied account misuse). Under the Impact tactic, the analysis identified Resource Hijacking (T1496) with high confidence (95%), with evidence including hijack cloud environments for illicit cryptocurrency mining, and turning customer resources into cryptocurrency farms. Under the Defense Evasion tactic, the analysis identified Impair Defenses: Disable or Modify Tools (T1562.001) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating bypass standard security measures... making detection and removal difficult. Under the Credential Access tactic, the analysis identified Steal Application Access Token (T1528) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating compromised AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) credentials. These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.