Red Teaming in the Age of Cloud: Using Leaked Secrets for Lateral Movement

In modern cloud environments, identity is the perimeter. A single leaked API key can provide the keys to the kingdom. For Red Teams, finding these secrets is often the fastest path to objective.

The Developer Laptop Vector

Developers often have high-privilege access to cloud environments. If their laptop is compromised by an info-stealer, attackers gain access to AWS keys, SSH keys, and kubeconfig files.

Lateral Movement

Once an attacker has a key, they can enumerate permissions and move laterally. A common path involves pivoting from a dev environment to production by exploiting over-privileged IAM roles or shared secrets.

Red Teams use DarkLake to simulate this threat vector. By identifying leaked secrets associated with the target organization, they can demonstrate the real-world impact of a compromised endpoint.