Suspicious Cloud Instance Metadata Access from Workload via curl
- Product
- linux
- Category
- process_creation
- Author
- HuntRule
- Published
- 2026-11-04
- Updated
- 2026-11-04
ATT&CK techniques
Cred AccessRecon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact
What it detects
This rule detects command line requests to the cloud instance metadata service at 169.254.169.254 using curl or wget. Wiz Research observed a malicious model triggering reverse shells that reached the IMDS to steal node IAM credentials, so metadata queries from application workloads can indicate credential theft.
Reporting behind it
Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.
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