Detection: AWS UpdateLoginProfile

Updated Date: 2024-05-17 ID: 2a9b80d3-6a40-4115-11ad-212bf3d0d111 Author: Bhavin Patel, Splunk Type: TTP Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

The following analytic detects an AWS CloudTrail event where a user with permissions updates the login profile of another user. It leverages CloudTrail logs to identify instances where the user making the change is different from the user whose profile is being updated. This activity is significant because it can indicate privilege escalation attempts, where an attacker uses a compromised account to gain higher privileges. If confirmed malicious, this could allow the attacker to escalate their privileges, potentially leading to unauthorized access and control over sensitive resources within the AWS environment.

Search

1 `cloudtrail` eventName = UpdateLoginProfile userAgent !=console.amazonaws.com errorCode = success 
2| eval match=if(match(userIdentity.userName,requestParameters.userName), 1,0) 
3| search match=0 
4| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime by requestParameters.userName src eventName eventSource aws_account_id errorCode userAgent eventID awsRegion userIdentity.userName user_arn 
5| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
6| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
7| `aws_updateloginprofile_filter`

Data Source

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

Macros Used

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

aws_updateloginprofile_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_10

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 keys for another user.

Associated Analytic Story

AWS IAM Privilege Escalation

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message	Risk Score	Impact	Confidence
From IP address $src$, user agent $userAgent$ has trigged an event $eventName$ for updating the existing login profile, potentially giving user $user_arn$ more access privilleges	30	50	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: 4