:warning: THIS IS A EXPERIMENTAL DETECTION

This detection has been marked experimental by the Splunk Threat Research team. This means we have not been able to test, simulate, or build datasets for this detection. Use at your own risk. This analytic is NOT supported.

Try in Splunk Security Cloud

Description

The following analytic identifies the creation of new IAM roles by users in AWS. It leverages CloudWatch logs to detect events where the CreateRole action is performed, focusing on roles with specific trust policies. This activity is significant as unauthorized role creation can facilitate lateral movement and privilege escalation within the AWS environment. If confirmed malicious, attackers could gain elevated permissions, potentially compromising sensitive resources and data.

  • Type: Hunting

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

  • Last Updated: 2024-05-15
  • Author: Rod Soto, Splunk
  • ID: 5f04081e-ddee-4353-afe4-504f288de9ad

Annotations

ATT&CK

ATT&CK

ID Technique Tactic
T1078 Valid Accounts Defense Evasion, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, Initial Access
Kill Chain Phase
  • Exploitation
  • Installation
  • Delivery
NIST
  • DE.AE
CIS20
  • CIS 10
CVE 


1
2
3



`aws_cloudwatchlogs_eks` event_name=CreateRole action=created userIdentity.type=AssumedRole requestParameters.description=Allows* 
| table sourceIPAddress userIdentity.principalId userIdentity.arn action event_name awsRegion http_user_agent mfa_auth msg requestParameters.roleName requestParameters.description responseElements.role.arn responseElements.role.createDate 
| `aws_detect_role_creation_filter`

Macros

The SPL above uses the following Macros:

:information_source: aws_detect_role_creation_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
  • event_name
  • action
  • userIdentity.type
  • requestParameters.description
  • sourceIPAddress
  • userIdentity.principalId
  • userIdentity.arn
  • action
  • event_name
  • awsRegion
  • http_user_agent
  • mfa_auth
  • msg
  • requestParameters.roleName
  • requestParameters.description
  • responseElements.role.arn
  • responseElements.role.createDate

How To Implement

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

Known False Positives

CreateRole is not very common in common users. This search can be adjusted to provide specific values to identify cases of abuse. In general AWS provides plenty of trust policies that fit most use cases.

Associated Analytic Story

RBA

Risk Score Impact Confidence Message
25.0 50 50 tbd

: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