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Snapshot-based CMEK Bypass: Cross-Project Disk Replication

This follow-up demonstrates a snapshot-based bypass that complements the disk-cloning attack described earlier.

May 30, 2026 · 7 min · 1303 words · Alex Neviarouskaya

The Hidden Risk of GCP Viewer Role: Cross-Project Disk Replication

TL;DR: The legacy Basic roles/viewer is riskier than you think. It grants compute.disks.useReadOnly, which allows an attacker to clone disks (even CMEK encrypted ones) into an external project, effectively removing the CMEK encryption and bypassing specific KMS permissions you would expect to prevent this. While Google patched the direct disk cloning bypass following my disclosure, I have discovered a new workaround using snapshots that still allows attackers to strip CMEK encryption. ...

February 21, 2026 · 5 min · 1037 words · Alex Neviarouskaya