For a list of functions, their usage, and more, check out https://powerzure.readthedocs.io
PowerZure is a PowerShell project created to assess and exploit resources within Microsoft’s cloud platform, Azure. PowerZure was created out of the need for a framework that can both perform reconnaissance and exploitation of Azure, AzureAD, and the associated resources.
A common question is why use PowerZure or command line at all when you can just login to the Azure web portal?
This is a fair question and to be honest, you can accomplish 90% of the functionality in PowerZure through clicking around in the portal, however by using the Azure PowerShell modules, you can perform tasks programmatically that are tedious in the portal. E.g, listing the groups a user belongs to. In addition, the ability to programmatically upload exploits instead of tinkering around with the messy web UI. Finally, if you compromise a user who has used the PowerShell module for Azure before and are able to steal the accesstoken.json file, you can impersonate that user which effectively bypasses multi-factor authentication.
While the offensive security industry has seen a decline in PowerShell usage due to the advancements of defensive products and solutions, this project does not contain any malicious code. PowerZure does not exploit bugs within Azure, it exploits misconfigurations.
C# was also explored for creating this project but there were two main problems:
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There were at least four different APIs being used for the project. MSOL, Azure REST, Azure SDK, Graph.
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The documentation for these APIs simply was too poor to continue. Entire methods missing, namespaces typo’d, and other problems begged the question of what advantage did C# give over PowerShell (Answer: none)
Realistically, there is zero reason to ever run PowerZure on a victim’s machine. Authentication is done by using an existing accesstoken.json file or by logging in via prompt when logging into Azure CLI.
Azure has many different PowerShell modules, each using a different API. Some have been deprecated and some do not have nearly as much functionality as the others, despite all being Microsoft-made. PowerZure uses three Azure modules, each with a different purpose.
The Azure CLI is the primary module used in PowerZure as throughout my testing and building this project, it became clear the Azure CLI module had the most functionality and decent support on Github. Azure CLI uses the Azure REST API.
The Azure PS "Az" module is used to fill in gaps where Azure CLI functionality lacks. Specifically, Azure CLI has no cmdlets for interacting with Automation Accounts or Runbooks, hence the need for Azure PS. Azure PS is the successor to the AzureRM module uses the Graph API.
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The AzureAD module is used for the more mature cmdlets around interacting with (you guessed it) Azure Active Directory. While both Azure CLI and Azure PS have cmdlets for doing basic things, like listing users and groups, when it came to more advanced things such as adding an AAD role to a user, the AzureAD module is needed. AzureAD uses the Graph API.
These three modules are needed to fully use PowerZure. If you do not need to interact with AAD or Automation Accounts, then Azure CLI is the only module needed. With this being said, PowerZure should also be run from an elevated PowerShell window.
Author: Ryan Hausknecht (@haus3c)
License: BSD-3