Detection: AWS Credential Access Failed Login

Updated Date: 2025-02-10 ID: a19b354d-0d7f-47f3-8ea6-1a7c36434968 Author: Gowthamaraj Rajendran, Bhavin Patel, Splunk Type: TTP Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

The following analytic identifies unsuccessful login attempts to the AWS Management Console using a specific user identity. It leverages AWS CloudTrail logs to detect failed authentication events associated with the AWS ConsoleLogin action. This activity is significant for a SOC because repeated failed login attempts may indicate a brute force attack or unauthorized access attempts. If confirmed malicious, an attacker could potentially gain access to AWS account services and resources, leading to data breaches, resource manipulation, or further exploitation within the AWS environment.

1`cloudtrail` eventName = ConsoleLogin errorMessage="Failed authentication" 
2| rename user_name as user 
3| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime by signature dest user user_agent src vendor_account vendor_region vendor_product 
4| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
5| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
6| `aws_credential_access_failed_login_filter`

Data Source

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

Macros Used

Name Value
cloudtrail sourcetype=aws:cloudtrail
aws_credential_access_failed_login_filter search *
aws_credential_access_failed_login_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
T1110.001 Password Guessing Credential Access
T1586.003 Cloud Accounts Resource Development
Exploitation
Weaponization
DE.CM
CIS 10

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 Notable Yes
Rule Title %name%
Rule Description %description%
Notable Event Fields user, dest
Creates Risk Event True
This configuration file applies to all detections of type TTP. These detections will use Risk Based Alerting and generate Notable Events.

Implementation

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

Known False Positives

Users may genuinely mistype or forget the password.

Associated Analytic Story

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message:

User $user$ has a login failure from IP $src$

Risk Object Risk Object Type Risk Score Threat Objects
user user 49 src

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: 6