Detection: Abnormally High AWS Instances Launched by User

DEPRECATED DETECTION

This detection has been marked as deprecated by the Splunk Threat Research team. This means that it will no longer be maintained or supported. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to us at research@splunk.com.

Updated Date: 2024-08-15 ID: 2a9b80d3-6340-4345-b5ad-290bf5d0dac4 Author: Bhavin Patel, Splunk Type: Anomaly Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

This search looks for AWS CloudTrail events where a user successfully launches an abnormally high number of instances. This search is deprecated and have been translated to use the latest Change Datamodel

 1`cloudtrail` eventName=RunInstances errorCode=success 
 2| bucket span=10m _time 
 3| stats count AS instances_launched by _time userName 
 4| eventstats avg(instances_launched) as total_launched_avg, stdev(instances_launched) as total_launched_stdev 
 5| eval threshold_value = 4 
 6| eval isOutlier=if(instances_launched > total_launched_avg+(total_launched_stdev * threshold_value), 1, 0) 
 7| search isOutlier=1 AND _time >= relative_time(now(), "-10m@m") 
 8| eval num_standard_deviations_away = round(abs(instances_launched - total_launched_avg) / total_launched_stdev, 2) 
 9| table _time, userName, instances_launched, num_standard_deviations_away, total_launched_avg, total_launched_stdev 
10| `abnormally_high_aws_instances_launched_by_user_filter`

Data Source

Name Platform Sourcetype Source Supported App
N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A

Macros Used

Name Value
cloudtrail sourcetype=aws:cloudtrail
abnormally_high_aws_instances_launched_by_user_filter search *
abnormally_high_aws_instances_launched_by_user_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
T1078.004 Cloud Accounts Defense Evasion
KillChainPhase.DELIVERY
KillChainPhase.EXPLOITAITON
KillChainPhase.INSTALLATION
NistCategory.DE_AE
Cis18Value.CIS_13
APT28
APT29
APT33
APT5
Ke3chang
LAPSUS$

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 the AWS App for Splunk (version 5.1.0 or later) and Splunk Add-on for AWS (version 4.4.0 or later), then configure your AWS CloudTrail inputs. The threshold value should be tuned to your environment.

Known False Positives

Many service accounts configured within an AWS infrastructure are known to exhibit this behavior. Please adjust the threshold values and filter out service accounts from the output. Always verify if this search alerted on a human user.

Associated Analytic Story

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message Risk Score Impact Confidence
tbd 25 50 50
The Risk Score is calculated by the following formula: Risk Score = (Impact * Confidence/100). Initial Confidence and Impact is set by the analytic author.

Detection Testing

Test Type Status Dataset Source Sourcetype
Validation Not Applicable N/A N/A N/A
Unit ❌ Failing N/A N/A N/A
Integration ❌ Failing N/A N/A N/A

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