Detection: AWS Disable Bucket Versioning

Description

The following analytic detects when AWS S3 bucket versioning is suspended by a user. It leverages AWS CloudTrail logs to identify PutBucketVersioning events with the VersioningConfiguration.Status set to Suspended. This activity is significant because disabling versioning can prevent recovery of deleted or modified data, which is a common tactic in ransomware attacks. If confirmed malicious, this action could lead to data loss and hinder recovery efforts, severely impacting data integrity and availability.

1`cloudtrail` eventName= PutBucketVersioning "requestParameters.VersioningConfiguration.Status"=Suspended 
2|  stats count values(requestParameters.bucketName) as bucket_name values(resources{}.ARN) as resource_arn by src_ip aws_account_id awsRegion eventName userAgent user_arn userIdentity.principalId  errorCode 
3| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
4| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
5| `aws_disable_bucket_versioning_filter`

Data Source

Name Platform Sourcetype Source
AWS CloudTrail PutBucketVersioning AWS icon AWS 'aws:cloudtrail' 'aws_cloudtrail'

Macros Used

Name Value
cloudtrail sourcetype=aws:cloudtrail
aws_disable_bucket_versioning_filter search *
aws_disable_bucket_versioning_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
T1490 Inhibit System Recovery Impact
KillChainPhase.ACTIONS_ON_OBJECTIVES
NistCategory.DE_AE
Cis18Value.CIS_10
Sandworm Team
Wizard Spider

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

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

Known False Positives

It is possible that an AWS Administrator has legitimately disabled versioning on certain buckets to avoid costs.

Associated Analytic Story

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message Risk Score Impact Confidence
Bucket Versioning is suspended for S3 buckets- $bucket_name$ by user $user_arn$ from IP address $src_ip$ 64 80 80
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 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: 3