CVE-2026-86830 in Iam Identity Center Team
Summary
by MITRE • 09/14/2026
Incorrect privilege assignment in Temporary Elevated Access Management (TEAM) for AWS IAM Identity Center solution before version 1.5.1 might allow an authenticated remote user with application-level access to read, approve, modify, or revoke arbitrary access requests, thereby obtaining unintended temporary elevated access to the AWS accounts accessed using the TEAM deployment.
This issue has been addressed in TEAM version 1.5.1 or later. We recommend upgrading to the latest version and ensuring any forked or derivative code is patched to incorporate the new fixes.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/14/2026
The vulnerability identified as an incorrect privilege assignment within the Temporary Elevated Access Management solution for AWS IAM Identity Center, specifically in versions prior to 1.5.1, represents a critical flaw in access control logic that undermines the principle of least privilege. This security issue allows authenticated remote users who possess application-level access to manipulate arbitrary access requests without proper authorization checks. The core technical failure lies in the insufficient validation of user permissions when processing administrative actions related to temporary elevated access. Instead of restricting operations such as reading, approving, modifying, or revoking access requests solely to authorized administrators with specific high-privilege roles, the system erroneously grants these capabilities to users who should only have limited application-level interaction rights. This misconfiguration effectively bypasses intended security boundaries, enabling a lower-privileged actor to escalate their privileges by controlling the lifecycle of elevated access sessions for other users or themselves.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability poses severe risks to cloud infrastructure integrity and data confidentiality. An attacker exploiting this flaw could approve requests that grant temporary administrative rights over AWS accounts managed through IAM Identity Center. Once these elevated permissions are active, the compromised account can be used to exfiltrate sensitive data, modify critical configurations, deploy malicious resources, or further pivot within the environment by leveraging the newly acquired privileges. The ability to revoke access requests also introduces a denial-of-service risk, potentially locking out legitimate administrators from managing their own accounts during critical operations. This scenario aligns closely with CWE-269, which classifies improper privilege assignment as a category of vulnerabilities where software does not properly assign privileged functions to actors based on those actors' authorized privileges. The exploitation path typically involves authenticating to the TEAM application and then issuing API calls or interacting with the user interface to manipulate access request records that are outside the scope of their assigned role, thereby achieving unauthorized privilege escalation.
In terms of threat modeling and attack classification, this vulnerability maps directly to MITRE ATT&CK technique T1078, specifically Valid Accounts, as it relies on legitimate authentication credentials being abused due to flawed authorization logic. Furthermore, the act of approving or modifying access requests corresponds to T1499, Endpoint Optimization, in a broader sense of maintaining persistence and control over cloud resources, although more accurately it falls under privilege escalation vectors where an actor leverages misconfigured roles to gain higher-level permissions than intended. The impact extends beyond individual account compromise as AWS IAM Identity Center often serves as the central identity provider for multiple accounts within an organization. A successful exploitation could lead to lateral movement across the entire cloud estate, allowing an attacker to establish a foothold that persists until the temporary elevated access expires or is manually revoked by a legitimate administrator who may not be aware of the unauthorized approval.
To mitigate this vulnerability and restore secure operations, organizations must immediately upgrade their Temporary Elevated Access Management solution for AWS IAM Identity Center to version 1.5.1 or later. This update contains the necessary code corrections that enforce strict role-based access control checks on all administrative endpoints and actions within the application. It is imperative not only to update the primary deployment but also to audit any forked, customized, or derivative versions of the software in use, ensuring they incorporate these specific security patches. Additionally, organizations should review their IAM Identity Center permission sets to ensure that no overly broad policies are assigned to users who interact with the TEAM application, adhering strictly to the principle of least privilege. Regular auditing of access request logs and approval workflows can help detect any potential exploitation attempts or misconfigurations in real-time, providing an additional layer of defense against unauthorized privilege escalation within cloud environments.