ID | Technique | Tactic |
---|---|---|
T1078 | Valid Accounts | Defense Evasion |
Detection: aws detect permanent key creation
EXPERIMENTAL DETECTION
This detection status is set to experimental. The Splunk Threat Research team has not yet fully tested, simulated, or built comprehensive datasets for this detection. As such, this analytic is not officially supported. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to us at research@splunk.com.
Description
The following analytic detects the creation of permanent access keys in AWS accounts. It leverages CloudWatch logs to identify events where the CreateAccessKey
action is performed by IAM users. Monitoring the creation of permanent keys is crucial as they are not created by default and are typically used for programmatic access. If confirmed malicious, this activity could allow attackers to gain persistent access to AWS resources, potentially leading to unauthorized actions and data exfiltration.
Search
1`aws_cloudwatchlogs_eks` CreateAccessKey
2| spath eventName
3| search eventName=CreateAccessKey "userIdentity.type"=IAMUser
4| table sourceIPAddress userName userIdentity.type userAgent action status responseElements.accessKey.createDate responseElements.accessKey.status responseElements.accessKey.accessKeyId
5|`aws_detect_permanent_key_creation_filter`
Data Source
No data sources specified for this detection.
Macros Used
Name | Value |
---|---|
aws_cloudwatchlogs_eks | sourcetype="aws:cloudwatchlogs:eks" |
aws_detect_permanent_key_creation_filter | search * |
aws_detect_permanent_key_creation_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 Risk Event | False |
Implementation
You must install splunk AWS add on and Splunk App for AWS. This search works with cloudwatch logs
Known False Positives
Not all permanent key creations are malicious. If there is a policy of rotating keys this search can be adjusted to provide better context.
Associated Analytic Story
Risk Based Analytics (RBA)
Risk Message | Risk Score | Impact | Confidence |
---|---|---|---|
tbd | 25 | 50 | 50 |
Detection Testing
Test Type | Status | Dataset | Source | Sourcetype |
---|---|---|---|---|
Validation | Not Applicable | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Unit | ❌ Failing | N/A | N/A |
N/A |
Integration | ❌ Failing | N/A | N/A |
N/A |
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