CVE-2025-14503
📋 TL;DR
This vulnerability in the Harmonix on AWS framework allows IAM principals within the same AWS account to assume an administrative role due to an overly permissive trust policy. Attackers with sts:AssumeRole permissions can escalate privileges to gain administrative access. Organizations using Harmonix on AWS versions v0.3.0 through v0.4.1 are affected.
💻 Affected Systems
- Harmonix on AWS
📦 What is this software?
Harmonix by Amazon
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Full administrative compromise of AWS account resources, allowing data exfiltration, resource destruction, and lateral movement across cloud infrastructure.
Likely Case
Privilege escalation leading to unauthorized access to sensitive resources, configuration changes, and potential data exposure.
If Mitigated
Limited impact with proper IAM controls, monitoring, and least privilege principles in place.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires existing IAM permissions (sts:AssumeRole) within the same AWS account.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: v0.4.2 or later
Vendor Advisory: https://github.com/awslabs/harmonix/security/advisories/GHSA-qm86-gqrq-mqcw
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Upgrade Harmonix on AWS to version v0.4.2 or later. 2. Review and update IAM trust policies for EKS provisioning roles. 3. Validate role assumptions are properly restricted.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Restrict IAM Trust Policy
allModify the EKS environment provisioning role's trust policy to remove account root principal and specify only required IAM principals.
aws iam update-assume-role-policy --role-name <ROLE_NAME> --policy-document file://trust-policy.json
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict IAM monitoring and alerting for role assumption events.
- Apply least privilege principles to limit sts:AssumeRole permissions across the account.
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check Harmonix deployment version and review IAM trust policies for EKS provisioning roles to see if they trust account root principal.Check Version:
Check Harmonix deployment configuration or version tags in deployment manifests.Verify Fix Applied:
Confirm Harmonix version is v0.4.2+ and verify EKS role trust policies no longer include overly permissive principals.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- CloudTrail events for sts:AssumeRole on EKS provisioning roles from unexpected principals
- IAM policy changes to trust relationships
Network Indicators:
- Not applicable for this IAM configuration vulnerability
SIEM Query:
source=cloudtrail eventName=AssumeRole AND requestParameters.roleArn=*eks-provisioning* AND userIdentity.arn!=authorized-principals