ID | Technique | Tactic |
---|---|---|
T1136.003 | Cloud Account | Persistence |
T1136 | Create Account | Persistence |
Detection: AWS CreateAccessKey
Description
The following analytic identifies the creation of AWS IAM access keys by a user for another user, which can indicate privilege escalation. It leverages AWS CloudTrail logs to detect instances where the user creating the access key is different from the user for whom the key is created. This activity is significant because unauthorized access key creation can allow attackers to establish persistence or exfiltrate data via AWS APIs. If confirmed malicious, this could lead to unauthorized access to AWS services, data exfiltration, and long-term persistence in the environment.
Search
1`cloudtrail` eventName = CreateAccessKey userAgent !=console.amazonaws.com errorCode = success
2| eval match=if(match(userIdentity.userName,requestParameters.userName),1,0)
3| search match=0
4| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime by requestParameters.userName src eventName eventSource aws_account_id errorCode userAgent eventID awsRegion userIdentity.principalId user_arn
5| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
6| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
7|`aws_createaccesskey_filter`
Data Source
Name | Platform | Sourcetype | Source | Supported App |
---|---|---|---|---|
AWS CloudTrail CreateAccessKey | AWS | 'aws:cloudtrail' |
'aws_cloudtrail' |
N/A |
Macros Used
Name | Value |
---|---|
cloudtrail | sourcetype=aws:cloudtrail |
aws_createaccesskey_filter | search * |
aws_createaccesskey_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 AWS CloudTrail logs.
Known False Positives
While this search has no known false positives, it is possible that an AWS admin has legitimately created keys for another user.
Associated Analytic Story
Risk Based Analytics (RBA)
Risk Message | Risk Score | Impact | Confidence |
---|---|---|---|
User $user_arn$ is attempting to create access keys for $requestParameters.userName$ from this IP $src$ | 63 | 70 | 90 |
References
Detection Testing
Test Type | Status | Dataset | Source | Sourcetype |
---|---|---|---|---|
Validation | ✅ Passing | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Unit | ✅ Passing | Dataset | aws_cloudtrail |
aws:cloudtrail |
Integration | ✅ Passing | Dataset | aws_cloudtrail |
aws:cloudtrail |
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: 4