diff --git a/docs/changelog/102230.yaml b/docs/changelog/102230.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..20e8d8d1f10a6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/changelog/102230.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+pr: 102230
+summary: Set region for the STS client via privileged calls in AWS SDK
+area: Snapshot/Restore
+type: bug
+issues:
+ - 102173
diff --git a/modules/repository-s3/build.gradle b/modules/repository-s3/build.gradle
index 87dda19368d5a..3fb236e1d867f 100644
--- a/modules/repository-s3/build.gradle
+++ b/modules/repository-s3/build.gradle
@@ -322,6 +322,41 @@ if (useFixture) {
   }
 }
 
+// Sanity test for STS Regional Endpoints
+if (useFixture) {
+  tasks.register("yamlRestTestRegionalSTS", RestIntegTestTask.class) {
+    description = "Runs tests with the Regional STS Endpoint"
+    SourceSetContainer sourceSets = project.getExtensions().getByType(SourceSetContainer.class);
+    SourceSet yamlRestTestSourceSet = sourceSets.getByName(LegacyYamlRestTestPlugin.SOURCE_SET_NAME)
+    setTestClassesDirs(yamlRestTestSourceSet.getOutput().getClassesDirs())
+    setClasspath(yamlRestTestSourceSet.getRuntimeClasspath())
+    // Run just the basic sanity test to make sure ES starts up and loads the S3 repository with
+    // a regional endpoint without an error. It would be great to make actual requests against
+    // a test fixture, but setting the region means using a production endpoint
+    systemProperty 'tests.rest.blacklist', [
+      'repository_s3/20_repository_permanent_credentials/*',
+      'repository_s3/30_repository_temporary_credentials/*',
+      'repository_s3/40_repository_ec2_credentials/*',
+      'repository_s3/50_repository_ecs_credentials/*',
+      'repository_s3/60_repository_sts_credentials/*'
+    ].join(",")
+  }
+  tasks.named("check").configure { dependsOn("yamlRestTestRegionalSTS") }
+
+  testClusters.matching { it.name == "yamlRestTestRegionalSTS" }.configureEach {
+    module tasks.named("explodedBundlePlugin")
+
+    File awsWebIdentityTokenExternalLocation = file('src/test/resources/aws-web-identity-token-file')
+    extraConfigFile 'repository-s3/aws-web-identity-token-file', awsWebIdentityTokenExternalLocation
+    environment 'AWS_WEB_IDENTITY_TOKEN_FILE', "$awsWebIdentityTokenExternalLocation"
+    environment 'AWS_ROLE_ARN', 'arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/FederatedWebIdentityRole'
+    environment 'AWS_ROLE_SESSION_NAME', 'sts-fixture-test'
+    // Force the repository to set a regional production endpoint
+    environment 'AWS_STS_REGIONAL_ENDPOINTS', 'regional'
+    environment 'AWS_REGION', 'ap-southeast-2'
+  }
+}
+
 // 3rd Party Tests
 TaskProvider s3ThirdPartyTest = tasks.register("s3ThirdPartyTest", Test) {
   SourceSetContainer sourceSets = project.getExtensions().getByType(SourceSetContainer.class);
diff --git a/modules/repository-s3/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/repositories/s3/S3RepositoryPlugin.java b/modules/repository-s3/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/repositories/s3/S3RepositoryPlugin.java
index ff8261f65e664..16de2284511ca 100644
--- a/modules/repository-s3/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/repositories/s3/S3RepositoryPlugin.java
+++ b/modules/repository-s3/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/repositories/s3/S3RepositoryPlugin.java
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 
 package org.elasticsearch.repositories.s3;
 
+import com.amazonaws.regions.RegionUtils;
 import com.amazonaws.util.json.Jackson;
 
 import org.apache.lucene.util.SetOnce;
@@ -60,6 +61,8 @@ public class S3RepositoryPlugin extends Plugin implements RepositoryPlugin, Relo
                 // ClientConfiguration clinit has some classloader problems
                 // TODO: fix that
                 Class.forName("com.amazonaws.ClientConfiguration");
+                // Pre-load region metadata to avoid looking them up dynamically without privileges enabled
+                RegionUtils.initialize();
             } catch (final ClassNotFoundException e) {
                 throw new RuntimeException(e);
             }
diff --git a/modules/repository-s3/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/repositories/s3/S3Service.java b/modules/repository-s3/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/repositories/s3/S3Service.java
index 25bba12db6952..e33bfbff141b2 100644
--- a/modules/repository-s3/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/repositories/s3/S3Service.java
+++ b/modules/repository-s3/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/repositories/s3/S3Service.java
@@ -370,7 +370,7 @@ static class CustomWebIdentityTokenCredentialsProvider implements AWSCredentials
                 // https://github.com/aws/amazon-eks-pod-identity-webhook/pull/41
                 stsRegion = systemEnvironment.getEnv(SDKGlobalConfiguration.AWS_REGION_ENV_VAR);
                 if (stsRegion != null) {
-                    stsClientBuilder.withRegion(stsRegion);
+                    SocketAccess.doPrivilegedVoid(() -> stsClientBuilder.withRegion(stsRegion));
                 } else {
                     LOGGER.warn("Unable to use regional STS endpoints because the AWS_REGION environment variable is not set");
                 }