ID | Technique | Tactic |
---|---|---|
T1201 | Password Policy Discovery | Discovery |
Detection: AWS High Number Of Failed Authentications For User
Description
The following analytic detects an AWS account experiencing more than 20 failed authentication attempts within a 5-minute window. It leverages AWS CloudTrail logs to identify multiple failed ConsoleLogin events. This behavior is significant as it may indicate a brute force attack targeting the account. If confirmed malicious, the attacker could potentially gain unauthorized access, leading to data breaches or further exploitation of the AWS environment. Security teams should consider adjusting the threshold based on their specific environment to reduce false positives.
Search
1`cloudtrail` eventName=ConsoleLogin action=failure
2| bucket span=10m _time
3| stats dc(_raw) AS failed_attempts values(src_ip) as src_ip values(user_agent) by _time, user_name, eventName, eventSource aws_account_id
4| where failed_attempts > 20
5| `aws_high_number_of_failed_authentications_for_user_filter`
Data Source
Name | Platform | Sourcetype | Source | Supported App |
---|---|---|---|---|
AWS CloudTrail ConsoleLogin | AWS | 'aws:cloudtrail' |
'aws_cloudtrail' |
N/A |
Macros Used
Name | Value |
---|---|
cloudtrail | sourcetype=aws:cloudtrail |
aws_high_number_of_failed_authentications_for_user_filter | search * |
aws_high_number_of_failed_authentications_for_user_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 | True |
Implementation
You must install Splunk AWS Add on and Splunk App for AWS. This search works with AWS CloudTrail logs.
Known False Positives
A user with more than 20 failed authentication attempts in the span of 5 minutes may also be triggered by a broken application.
Associated Analytic Story
Risk Based Analytics (RBA)
Risk Message | Risk Score | Impact | Confidence |
---|---|---|---|
User $user_name$ failed to authenticate more than 20 times in the span of 5 minutes for AWS Account $aws_account_id$ | 35 | 50 | 70 |
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: 2