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# Hacking MSSQL on Cloud. All of them. How I became sysadmin on Azure, AWS, GCP and Alibaba.


- **Date:** Friday, Jul 10, 2026
- **Time:** 15:40–16:10 (30 min)
- **Room:** Stage 9
- **Event:** World Congress 2026 Europe

## Recording

[Watch recording](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100339-hacking-mssql-on-cloud-all-of-them-how-i-became-sysadmin-on-azure-aws-gcp-and-alibaba)

## Description

It started as a simple security research project on a local SQL Server instance. A single vulnerability led me down a rabbit hole — from compromising Azure SQL Database to successfully escalating privileges on GCP CloudSQL for SQL Server, Amazon RDS, and Alibaba ApsaraDB.

In this session, I’ll walk you through the techniques I used to escalate from a limited user to sysadmin on managed SQL Server platforms offered by the four biggest cloud providers. I’ll also demonstrate post-exploitation techniques, including how I retrieved plaintext [sa] passwords from internal logs and accessed highly sensitive internal metadata.

More importantly, I’ll share lessons on how these vulnerabilities were possible in the first place — and what you, as a developer, DBA, or security professional, can do to secure your applications against similar attack vectors.

Finally, I’ll share how each cloud provider responded to the vulnerabilities I disclosed, the remediation timelines, and the broader lessons this experience teaches us about cloud security.

## Speaker

### [Fabiano Amorim](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/@fabiano-amorim)

Principal Consultant at Pythian


## Related talks at this congress

- [Checkmate: 5 Real Incidents That Can End a Software Company](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe/sessions/1442-checkmate-5-real) — Jasmin Azemović
- [From Build to Breach: Hacking Kubernetes Through the Supply Chain](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe/sessions/1210-from-build-to-breach) — Ali Alp
- [The Developer Workstation Blind Spot: Why Your Security Stack Can't See What Matters Most](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe/sessions/1280-the-developer) — Marcus Wermuth
- [Agent Smith Gets Hardware: Autonomous IoT Hacking From Debug Port to Cloud API](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe/sessions/1299-agent-smith-gets) — Marc Plogas