Detection: AWS Excessive Security Scanning

Updated Date: 2024-05-08 ID: 1fdd164a-def8-4762-83a9-9ffe24e74d5a Author: Patrick Bareiss, Splunk Type: TTP Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

The following analytic identifies excessive security scanning activities in AWS by detecting a high number of Describe, List, or Get API calls from a single user. It leverages AWS CloudTrail logs to count distinct event names and flags users with more than 50 such events. This behavior is significant as it may indicate reconnaissance activities by an attacker attempting to map out your AWS environment. If confirmed malicious, this could lead to unauthorized access, data exfiltration, or further exploitation of your cloud infrastructure.

1`cloudtrail` eventName=Describe* OR eventName=List* OR eventName=Get*  
2| stats dc(eventName) as dc_events min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime values(eventName) as command values(src) as src values(userAgent) as userAgent by user userIdentity.arn 
3| where dc_events > 50 
4| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
5| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
6|`aws_excessive_security_scanning_filter`

Data Source

Name Platform Sourcetype Source Supported App
AWS CloudTrail AWS icon AWS 'aws:cloudtrail' 'aws_cloudtrail' N/A

Macros Used

Name Value
cloudtrail sourcetype=aws:cloudtrail

Annotations

- MITRE ATT&CK
+ Kill Chain Phases
+ NIST
+ CIS
- Threat Actors
ID Technique Tactic
T1526 Cloud Service Discovery Discovery
KillChainPhase.EXPLOITAITON
NistCategory.DE_CM
Cis18Value.CIS_13

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 Notable Yes
Rule Title %name%
Rule Description %description%
Notable Event Fields user, dest
Creates Risk Event True
This configuration file applies to all detections of type TTP. These detections will use Risk Based Alerting and generate Notable Events.

Implementation

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

Known False Positives

While this search has no known false positives.

Associated Analytic Story

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message Risk Score Impact Confidence
User $user$ has excessive number of api calls $dc_events$ from these IP addresses $src$, violating the threshold of 50, using the following commands $command$. 18 30 60
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: 2