Detection: AWS High Number Of Failed Authentications From Ip

Description

The following analytic detects an IP address with 20 or more failed authentication attempts to the AWS Web Console within a 5-minute window. This detection leverages CloudTrail logs, aggregating failed login events by IP address and time span. This activity is significant as it may indicate a brute force attack aimed at gaining unauthorized access or escalating privileges within an AWS environment. If confirmed malicious, this could lead to unauthorized access, data breaches, or further exploitation of AWS resources.

1`cloudtrail` eventName=ConsoleLogin action=failure 
2| bucket span=5m _time 
3| stats dc(_raw) AS failed_attempts values(user_name) as tried_accounts values(user_agent) by _time, src_ip, eventName, eventSource aws_account_id 
4| where failed_attempts > 20 
5|  `aws_high_number_of_failed_authentications_from_ip_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_high_number_of_failed_authentications_from_ip_filter search *
aws_high_number_of_failed_authentications_from_ip_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 Brute Force Credential Access
T1110.003 Password Spraying Credential Access
T1110.004 Credential Stuffing Credential Access
KillChainPhase.EXPLOITAITON
NistCategory.DE_AE
Cis18Value.CIS_10
APT28
APT38
APT39
APT41
Agrius
DarkVishnya
Dragonfly
Ember Bear
FIN5
Fox Kitten
HEXANE
OilRig
Turla
APT28
APT29
APT33
Agrius
Chimera
Ember Bear
HEXANE
Lazarus Group
Leafminer
Silent Librarian
Chimera

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 Add-on for AWS in order to ingest Cloudtrail. We recommend the users to try different combinations of the bucket span time and the tried account threshold to tune this search according to their environment.

Known False Positives

An Ip address 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
Multiple failed console login attempts (Count: $failed_attempts$) against users from IP Address - $src_ip$ 54 60 90
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