AWSGoat is a vulnerable-by-design infrastructure on AWS featuring the latest released OWASP Top 10 web application security risks (2021) and other misconfiguration based on services such as IAM, S3, API Gateway, Lambda, EC2, and ECS. It mimics real-world infrastructure with additional flaws and uses a black-box approach, including multiple escalation paths. 

The INE team developed the AWSGoat project and presented it at the recent Black Hat 2022 conference, and before the OWASP Singapore chapter. The team also developed AzureGoat targeted for Microsoft Azure. Both projects contain the following vulnerabilities and misconfigurations:

• SQL Injection
• Insecure Direct Object reference
• Server-Side Request Forgery on App Function Environment
• Sensitive Data Exposure and Password Reset
• Storage Account Misconfigurations
• Identity Misconfigurations

Pentester Academy stated in a tweet:

Written for the infosec community, AWSGoat is a realistic training ground for #AWS exploitation techniques.

To start with AWSGoat, a user needs an AWS account (like AzureGoat, an Azure account) and AWS Access Key with Administrative Privileges. To use the AWSGoat repo, users can fork it, add their AWS Account Credentials to GitHub secrets, and run the Terraform Apply Action. This workflow will deploy the entire infrastructure and output the URL of the hosted application. Alternatively, there is a manual process.

Once installed, users can leverage a module included in the project, which features a serverless blog application utilizing AWS Lambda, S3, API Gateway, and DynamoDB. The module comprises various web application flaws and allows for the exploitation of misconfigured AWS resources. Furthermore, there is a playlist available on YouTube.

Source: https://github.com/ine-labs/AWSGoat

Similarly, the AzureGoat also contains a module featuring a serverless blog application utilizing Azure App Functions, Storage Accounts, CosmosDB, and Azure Automation. Both projects will receive more modules in the future.

In an INE blog post on AWSGoat, Jeswin Mathai, INE’s chief architect (Lab Platform) and one of the contributors, said:

Although at its infancy, the team has ambitious plans for AWSGoat. The next (second) module is already under development and will feature an internal HR Payroll application utilizing the AWS ECS infrastructure. Future additions include defense/mitigation aspects, including Security Engineering, Secure Coding and Monitoring, and Detecting attacks.

In addition, he said:

This will be a massive project in years to come, and it’s open-source, so anyone can contribute too.