Detection: AWS IAM Failure Group Deletion

Updated Date: 2024-10-22 ID: 723b861a-92eb-11eb-93b8-acde48001122 Author: Michael Haag, Splunk Type: Anomaly Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

The following analytic identifies failed attempts to delete AWS IAM groups. It leverages AWS CloudTrail logs to detect events where the DeleteGroup action fails due to errors like NoSuchEntityException, DeleteConflictException, or AccessDenied. This activity is significant as it may indicate unauthorized attempts to modify IAM group configurations, which could be a precursor to privilege escalation or other malicious actions. If confirmed malicious, this could allow an attacker to disrupt IAM policies, potentially leading to unauthorized access or denial of service within the AWS environment.

Search

1`cloudtrail` eventSource=iam.amazonaws.com eventName=DeleteGroup errorCode IN (NoSuchEntityException,DeleteConflictException, AccessDenied) (userAgent!=*.amazonaws.com) 
2| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime values(requestParameters.groupName) as group_name by src eventName eventSource aws_account_id errorCode errorMessage userAgent eventID awsRegion userIdentity.principalId user_arn 
3| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
4| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
5| `aws_iam_failure_group_deletion_filter`

Data Source

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

Macros Used

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

aws_iam_failure_group_deletion_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
T1098	Account Manipulation	Persistence

KillChainPhase.EXPLOITAITON

KillChainPhase.INSTALLATION

NistCategory.DE_AE

Cis18Value.CIS_10

HAFNIUM

Lazarus Group

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 Risk Event	True

This configuration file applies to all detections of type anomaly. These detections will use Risk Based Alerting.

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

This detection will require tuning to provide high fidelity detection capabilties. Tune based on src addresses (corporate offices, VPN terminations) or by groups of users. Not every user with AWS access should have permission to delete groups (least privilege).

Associated Analytic Story

AWS IAM Privilege Escalation

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message	Risk Score	Impact	Confidence
User $user_arn$ has had mulitple failures while attempting to delete groups from $src$	5	10	50

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: 5