ID | Technique | Tactic |
---|---|---|
T1562.008 | Disable or Modify Cloud Logs | Defense Evasion |
T1562 | Impair Defenses | Defense Evasion |
Detection: ASL AWS Defense Evasion Stop Logging Cloudtrail
Description
The following analytic detects StopLogging
events within AWS CloudTrail logs, a critical action that adversaries may use to evade detection. By halting the logging of their malicious activities, attackers aim to operate undetected within a compromised AWS environment. This detection is achieved by monitoring for specific CloudTrail log entries that indicate the cessation of logging activities. Identifying such behavior is crucial for a Security Operations Center (SOC), as it signals an attempt to undermine the integrity of logging mechanisms, potentially allowing malicious activities to proceed without observation. The impact of this evasion tactic is significant, as it can severely hamper incident response and forensic investigations by obscuring the attacker's actions.
Search
1`amazon_security_lake` api.operation=StopLogging
2| fillnull
3| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime by api.operation actor.user.account_uid actor.user.uid http_request.user_agent src_endpoint.ip cloud.region
4| rename actor.user.uid as user, src_endpoint.ip as src_ip, cloud.region as region, http_request.user_agent as user_agent, actor.user.account_uid as aws_account_id
5| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
6| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
7| `asl_aws_defense_evasion_stop_logging_cloudtrail_filter`
Data Source
Name | Platform | Sourcetype | Source | Supported App |
---|---|---|---|---|
N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Macros Used
Name | Value |
---|---|
amazon_security_lake | sourcetype=aws:cloudtrail:lake |
asl_aws_defense_evasion_stop_logging_cloudtrail_filter | search * |
asl_aws_defense_evasion_stop_logging_cloudtrail_filter
is an empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.
Annotations
Default Configuration
This detection is configured by default in Splunk Enterprise Security to run with the following settings:
Setting | Value |
---|---|
Disabled | true |
Cron Schedule | 0 * * * * |
Earliest Time | -70m@m |
Latest Time | -10m@m |
Schedule Window | auto |
Creates Notable | Yes |
Rule Title | %name% |
Rule Description | %description% |
Notable Event Fields | user, dest |
Creates Risk Event | True |
Implementation
The detection is based on Amazon Security Lake events from Amazon Web Services (AWS), which is a centralized data lake that provides security-related data from AWS services. To use this detection, you must ingest CloudTrail logs from Amazon Security Lake into Splunk. To run this search, ensure that you ingest events using the latest version of Splunk Add-on for Amazon Web Services (https://splunkbase.splunk.com/app/1876) or the Federated Analytics App.
Known False Positives
While this search has no known false positives, it is possible that an AWS admin has stopped cloudtrail logging. Please investigate this activity.
Associated Analytic Story
Risk Based Analytics (RBA)
Risk Message | Risk Score | Impact | Confidence |
---|---|---|---|
User $user$ has stopped Cloudtrail logging for account id $aws_account_id$ from IP $src_ip$ | 90 | 100 | 90 |
References
Detection Testing
Test Type | Status | Dataset | Source | Sourcetype |
---|---|---|---|---|
Validation | ✅ Passing | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Unit | ✅ Passing | Dataset | aws_asl |
aws:cloudtrail:lake |
Integration | ✅ Passing | Dataset | aws_asl |
aws:cloudtrail:lake |
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: GitHub | Version: 2