Detection: AWS CreateLoginProfile

Updated Date: 2024-05-16 ID: 2a9b80d3-6340-4345-11ad-212bf444d111 Author: Bhavin Patel, Splunk Type: TTP Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

The following analytic identifies the creation of a login profile for one AWS user by another, followed by a console login from the same source IP. It uses AWS CloudTrail logs to correlate the CreateLoginProfile and ConsoleLogin events based on the source IP and user identity. This activity is significant as it may indicate privilege escalation, where an attacker creates a new login profile to gain unauthorized access. If confirmed malicious, this could allow the attacker to escalate privileges and maintain persistent access to the AWS environment.

Search

 1`cloudtrail` eventName = CreateLoginProfile 
 2| rename requestParameters.userName as new_login_profile 
 3| table src_ip eventName new_login_profile userIdentity.userName  
 4| join new_login_profile src_ip [
 5| search `cloudtrail` eventName = ConsoleLogin 
 6| rename userIdentity.userName  as new_login_profile 
 7| stats count values(eventName) min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime by eventSource aws_account_id errorCode userAgent eventID awsRegion userIdentity.principalId user_arn new_login_profile src_ip 
 8| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
 9| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`] 
10| `aws_createloginprofile_filter`

Data Source

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

Macros Used

Name	Value
cloudtrail	`sourcetype=aws:cloudtrail`
aws_createloginprofile_filter	`search *`

aws_createloginprofile_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
T1136.003	Cloud Account	Persistence
T1136	Create Account	Persistence

KillChainPhase.INSTALLATION

NistCategory.DE_CM

Cis18Value.CIS_13

APT29

LAPSUS$

Indrik Spider

Scattered Spider

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, it is possible that an AWS admin has legitimately created a login profile for another user.

Associated Analytic Story

AWS IAM Privilege Escalation

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message	Risk Score	Impact	Confidence
User $user_arn$ is attempting to create a login profile for $new_login_profile$ and did a console login from this IP $src_ip$	72	90	80

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