The Global Namespace Risk: Universal Bucket Hijacking Technique for Cloud Data Exfiltration

Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 research details a 'bucket hijacking' technique where an attacker with permissions to delete a cloud storage bucket can recreate the same globally unique bucket name under their control to intercept and exfiltrate data streams (logs, Pub/Sub, Storage Transfer, S3 replication, etc.). The report includes simulated attacks across Google Cloud, AWS, and Azure, explains impacted services and permissions, outlines detection and mitigation strategies (least privilege, perimeter controls, monitoring), and notes no confirmed real-world exploitation at the time of disclosure.