ID | Technique | Tactic |
---|---|---|
T1535 | Unused/Unsupported Cloud Regions | Defense Evasion |
Detection: Cloud Compute Instance Created In Previously Unused Region
EXPERIMENTAL DETECTION
This detection status is set to experimental. The Splunk Threat Research team has not yet fully tested, simulated, or built comprehensive datasets for this detection. As such, this analytic is not officially supported. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to us at research@splunk.com.
Description
The following analytic detects the creation of a cloud compute instance in a region that has not been previously used within the last hour. It leverages cloud infrastructure logs and compares the regions of newly created instances against a lookup file of historically used regions. This activity is significant because the creation of instances in new regions can indicate unauthorized or suspicious activity, such as an attacker attempting to evade detection or establish a foothold in a less monitored area. If confirmed malicious, this could lead to unauthorized resource usage, data exfiltration, or further compromise of the cloud environment.
Search
1
2| tstats earliest(_time) as firstTime latest(_time) as lastTime values(All_Changes.object_id) as dest, count from datamodel=Change where All_Changes.action=created by All_Changes.vendor_region, All_Changes.user
3| `drop_dm_object_name("All_Changes")`
4| lookup previously_seen_cloud_regions vendor_region as vendor_region OUTPUTNEW firstTimeSeen, enough_data
5| eventstats max(enough_data) as enough_data
6| where enough_data=1
7| eval firstTimeSeenRegion=min(firstTimeSeen)
8| where isnull(firstTimeSeenRegion) OR firstTimeSeenRegion > relative_time(now(), "-24h@h")
9| table firstTime, user, dest, count , vendor_region
10| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
11| `cloud_compute_instance_created_in_previously_unused_region_filter`
Data Source
Name | Platform | Sourcetype | Source |
---|---|---|---|
AWS CloudTrail | AWS | 'aws:cloudtrail' |
'aws_cloudtrail' |
Macros Used
Name | Value |
---|---|
security_content_ctime | convert timeformat="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S" ctime($field$) |
cloud_compute_instance_created_in_previously_unused_region_filter | search * |
cloud_compute_instance_created_in_previously_unused_region_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 be ingesting your cloud infrastructure logs from your cloud provider. You should run the baseline search Previously Seen Cloud Regions - Initial
to build the initial table of images observed and times. You must also enable the second baseline search Previously Seen Cloud Regions - Update
to keep this table up to date and to age out old data. You can also provide additional filtering for this search by customizing the cloud_compute_instance_created_in_previously_unused_region_filter
macro.
Known False Positives
It's possible that a user has unknowingly started an instance in a new region. Please verify that this activity is legitimate.
Associated Analytic Story
Risk Based Analytics (RBA)
Risk Message | Risk Score | Impact | Confidence |
---|---|---|---|
User $user$ is creating an instance $dest$ in a new region for the first time | 42 | 70 | 60 |
Detection Testing
Test Type | Status | Dataset | Source | Sourcetype |
---|---|---|---|---|
Validation | Not Applicable | 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