Detection: Detect New Open S3 Buckets over AWS CLI

Updated Date: 2024-09-30 ID: 39c61d09-8b30-4154-922b-2d0a694ecc22 Author: Patrick Bareiss, Splunk Type: TTP Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

The following analytic detects the creation of open/public S3 buckets via the AWS CLI. It leverages AWS CloudTrail logs to identify events where a user has set bucket permissions to allow access to "AuthenticatedUsers" or "AllUsers." This activity is significant because open S3 buckets can expose sensitive data to unauthorized users, leading to data breaches. If confirmed malicious, an attacker could gain unauthorized access to potentially sensitive information stored in the S3 bucket, posing a significant security risk.

Search

1`cloudtrail` eventSource="s3.amazonaws.com" (userAgent="[aws-cli*" OR userAgent=aws-cli* ) eventName=PutBucketAcl OR requestParameters.accessControlList.x-amz-grant-read-acp IN ("*AuthenticatedUsers","*AllUsers") OR requestParameters.accessControlList.x-amz-grant-write IN ("*AuthenticatedUsers","*AllUsers") OR requestParameters.accessControlList.x-amz-grant-write-acp IN ("*AuthenticatedUsers","*AllUsers") OR requestParameters.accessControlList.x-amz-grant-full-control IN ("*AuthenticatedUsers","*AllUsers") 
2| rename requestParameters.bucketName AS bucketName 
3| fillnull 
4| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime by userIdentity.userName userIdentity.principalId userAgent bucketName requestParameters.accessControlList.x-amz-grant-read requestParameters.accessControlList.x-amz-grant-read-acp requestParameters.accessControlList.x-amz-grant-write requestParameters.accessControlList.x-amz-grant-write-acp requestParameters.accessControlList.x-amz-grant-full-control 
5| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
6| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
7| `detect_new_open_s3_buckets_over_aws_cli_filter`

Data Source

Name	Platform	Sourcetype	Source
AWS CloudTrail	AWS	`'aws:cloudtrail'`	`'aws_cloudtrail'`

Macros Used

Name	Value
cloudtrail	`sourcetype=aws:cloudtrail`
detect_new_open_s3_buckets_over_aws_cli_filter	`search *`

detect_new_open_s3_buckets_over_aws_cli_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
T1530	Data from Cloud Storage	Collection

KillChainPhase.EXPLOITAITON

NistCategory.DE_CM

Cis18Value.CIS_10

Fox Kitten

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

The Splunk AWS Add-on and Splunk App for AWS is required to utilize this data. The search requires 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 public bucket for a specific purpose. That said, AWS strongly advises against granting full control to the "All Users" group.

Associated Analytic Story

Suspicious AWS S3 Activities

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message	Risk Score	Impact	Confidence
User $userIdentity.userName$ has created an open/public bucket $bucketName$ using AWS CLI with the following permissions - $requestParameters.accessControlList.x-amz-grant-read$ $requestParameters.accessControlList.x-amz-grant-read-acp$ $requestParameters.accessControlList.x-amz-grant-write$ $requestParameters.accessControlList.x-amz-grant-write-acp$ $requestParameters.accessControlList.x-amz-grant-full-control$	48	60	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.

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