Try in Splunk Security Cloud

Description

The following analytic detects the creation of an AWS DataSync task, which could indicate potential data exfiltration. It leverages AWS CloudTrail logs to identify the CreateTask event from the DataSync service. This activity is significant because attackers can misuse DataSync to transfer sensitive data from a private AWS location to a public one, leading to data compromise. If confirmed malicious, this could result in unauthorized access to sensitive information, causing severe data breaches and compliance violations.

  • Type: TTP

  • Product: Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Enterprise Security, Splunk Cloud

  • Last Updated: 2024-05-28
  • Author: Bhavin Patel, Splunk
  • ID: 05c4b09f-ea28-4c7c-a7aa-a246f665c8a2

Annotations

ATT&CK

ATT&CK

ID Technique Tactic
T1119 Automated Collection Collection
Kill Chain Phase
  • Exploitation
NIST
  • DE.CM
CIS20
  • CIS 10
CVE 


1
2
3
4
5
6



`cloudtrail` eventName = CreateTask eventSource="datasync.amazonaws.com" 
| rename  requestParameters.*  as *  
| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime by src_ip aws_account_id awsRegion eventName destinationLocationArn sourceLocationArn userAgent user_arn userIdentity.principalId  errorCode 
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
| `aws_exfiltration_via_datasync_task_filter`

Macros

The SPL above uses the following Macros:

:information_source: aws_exfiltration_via_datasync_task_filter is a empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.

Required fields

List of fields required to use this analytic.

  • _time
  • eventName
  • user_arn
  • src_ip
  • aws_account_id
  • destinationLocationArn
  • sourceLocationArn
  • userAgent
  • userIdentity.principalId

How To Implement

You must install splunk AWS add on and Splunk App for AWS. This search works with AWS CloudTrail logs.

Known False Positives

It is possible that an AWS Administrator has legitimately created this task for creating backup. Please check the sourceLocationArn and destinationLocationArn of this task

Associated Analytic Story

RBA

Risk Score Impact Confidence Message
64.0 80 80 DataSync task created on account id - $aws_account_id$ by user $user_arn$ from src_ip $src_ip$

:information_source: The Risk Score is calculated by the following formula: Risk Score = (Impact * Confidence/100). Initial Confidence and Impact is set by the analytic author.

Reference

Test Dataset

Replay any dataset to Splunk Enterprise by using our replay.py tool or the UI. Alternatively you can replay a dataset into a Splunk Attack Range

source | version: 2