Detection: Kubernetes Access Scanning

Description

The following analytic detects potential scanning activities within a Kubernetes environment. It identifies unauthorized access attempts, probing of public APIs, or attempts to exploit known vulnerabilities by monitoring Kubernetes audit logs for repeated failed access attempts or unusual API requests. This activity is significant for a SOC as it may indicate an attacker's preliminary reconnaissance to gather information about the system. If confirmed malicious, this activity could lead to unauthorized access to sensitive systems or data, posing a severe security risk.

1`kube_audit` "user.groups{}"="system:unauthenticated" "responseStatus.code"=403 
2| iplocation sourceIPs{} 
3| stats count values(userAgent) as userAgent values(user.username) as user.username values(user.groups{}) as user.groups{} values(verb) as verb values(requestURI) as requestURI values(responseStatus.code) as responseStatus.code values(responseStatus.message) as responseStatus.message values(responseStatus.reason) as responseStatus.reason values(responseStatus.status) as responseStatus.status by sourceIPs{} Country City 
4| where count > 5 
5| rename sourceIPs{} as src_ip, user.username as user 
6| `kubernetes_access_scanning_filter`

Data Source

Name Platform Sourcetype Source Supported App
Kubernetes Audit Kubernetes icon Kubernetes '_json' 'kubernetes' N/A

Macros Used

Name Value
kube_audit source="kubernetes"
kubernetes_access_scanning_filter search *
kubernetes_access_scanning_filter is an empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.

Annotations

- MITRE ATT&CK
+ Kill Chain Phases
+ NIST
+ CIS
- Threat Actors
ID Technique Tactic
T1046 Network Service Discovery Discovery
KillChainPhase.EXPLOITAITON
NistCategory.DE_AE
Cis18Value.CIS_13
APT32
APT39
APT41
BackdoorDiplomacy
BlackTech
Chimera
Cobalt Group
DarkVishnya
FIN13
FIN6
Fox Kitten
Lazarus Group
Leafminer
Magic Hound
Naikon
OilRig
Rocke
Suckfly
TeamTNT
Threat Group-3390
Tropic Trooper
menuPass

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 True
This configuration file applies to all detections of type anomaly. These detections will use Risk Based Alerting.

Implementation

The detection is based on data that originates from Kubernetes Audit logs. Ensure that audit logging is enabled in your Kubernetes cluster. Kubernetes audit logs provide a record of the requests made to the Kubernetes API server, which is crucial for monitoring and detecting suspicious activities. Configure the audit policy in Kubernetes to determine what kind of activities are logged. This is done by creating an Audit Policy and providing it to the API server. Use the Splunk OpenTelemetry Collector for Kubernetes to collect the logs. This doc will describe how to collect the audit log file https://github.com/signalfx/splunk-otel-collector-chart/blob/main/docs/migration-from-sck.md. When you want to use this detection with AWS EKS, you need to enable EKS control plane logging https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eks/latest/userguide/control-plane-logs.html. Then you can collect the logs from Cloudwatch using the AWS TA https://splunk.github.io/splunk-add-on-for-amazon-web-services/CloudWatchLogs/.

Known False Positives

unknown

Associated Analytic Story

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message Risk Score Impact Confidence
Kubernetes scanning from ip $src_ip$ 49 70 70
The Risk Score is calculated by the following formula: Risk Score = (Impact * Confidence/100). Initial Confidence and Impact is set by the analytic author.

References

Detection Testing

Test Type Status Dataset Source Sourcetype
Validation Passing N/A N/A N/A
Unit Passing Dataset kubernetes _json
Integration ✅ Passing Dataset kubernetes _json

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