:warning: THIS IS A EXPERIMENTAL DETECTION

This detection has been marked experimental by the Splunk Threat Research team. This means we have not been able to test, simulate, or build datasets for this detection. Use at your own risk. This analytic is NOT supported.

Try in Splunk Security Cloud

Description

This search provides detection of accounts creating permanent keys. Permanent keys are not created by default and they are only needed for programmatic calls. Creation of Permanent key is an important event to monitor.

  • Type: Hunting
  • Product: Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Enterprise Security, Splunk Cloud

  • Last Updated: 2020-07-27
  • Author: Rod Soto, Splunk
  • ID: 12d6d713-3cb4-4ffc-a064-1dca3d1cca01

Annotations

ATT&CK

ATT&CK

ID Technique Tactic
T1078 Valid Accounts Defense Evasion, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, Initial Access
Kill Chain Phase
  • Exploitation
  • Installation
  • Delivery
NIST
  • DE.AE
CIS20
  • CIS 10
CVE
1
2
3
4
5
`aws_cloudwatchlogs_eks` CreateAccessKey 
| spath eventName 
| search eventName=CreateAccessKey "userIdentity.type"=IAMUser 
| table sourceIPAddress userName userIdentity.type userAgent action status responseElements.accessKey.createDate responseElements.accessKey.status responseElements.accessKey.accessKeyId 
|`aws_detect_permanent_key_creation_filter`

Macros

The SPL above uses the following Macros:

:information_source: aws_detect_permanent_key_creation_filter is a empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.

Required fields

List of fields required to use this analytic.

  • _time
  • eventName
  • userIdentity.type
  • sourceIPAddress
  • userName userIdentity.type
  • userAgent
  • action
  • status
  • responseElements.accessKey.createDate
  • esponseElements.accessKey.status
  • responseElements.accessKey.accessKeyId

How To Implement

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

Known False Positives

Not all permanent key creations are malicious. If there is a policy of rotating keys this search can be adjusted to provide better context.

Associated Analytic Story

RBA

Risk Score Impact Confidence Message
25.0 50 50 tbd

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

Reference

Test Dataset

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 | version: 1