Detection: Abnormally High AWS Instances Launched by User - MLTK

REMOVED DETECTION

This detection has been removed from the Splunk Threat Research content library and is no longer maintained or supported.

Reason: Detection deprecated as it no longer effectively identifies the intended malicious activity

Removed in version: 5.2.0

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to us at research@splunk.com.

Updated Date: 2026-05-13 ID: dec41ad5-d579-42cb-b4c6-f5dbb778bbe5 Author: Jason Brewer, Splunk Type: Anomaly Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

This search looks for AWS CloudTrail events where a user successfully launches an abnormally high number of instances. This search is deprecated and have been translated to use the latest Change Datamodel.

Search

1`cloudtrail` eventName=RunInstances errorCode=success `abnormally_high_aws_instances_launched_by_user___mltk_filter` 
2| bucket span=10m _time  
3| stats count as instances_launched by _time src_user  
4| apply ec2_excessive_runinstances_v1  
5| rename "IsOutlier(instances_launched)" as isOutlier  
6| where isOutlier=1

Data Source

No data sources specified for this detection.

Macros Used

Name	Value
cloudtrail	`sourcetype=aws:cloudtrail`
abnormally_high_aws_instances_launched_by_user___mltk_filter	``

abnormally_high_aws_instances_launched_by_user___mltk_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
T1078.004	Cloud Accounts	Initial Access

Default Configuration

This detection is configured by default in Splunk Enterprise Security to run with the following settings:

Setting	Value
Disabled	true
Cron Schedule	`N/A`
Earliest Time	`N/A`
Latest Time	`N/A`
Schedule Window	`N/A`
Creates Finding (Notable)	No
Creates Intermediate Finding (Risk Event)	No

Anomaly detections generate Intermediate Findings (Risk Events). They do not generate a Finding (Notable) directly.

Implementation

You must install the AWS App for Splunk (version 5.1.0 or later) and Splunk Add-on for AWS (version 4.4.0 or later), then configure your AWS CloudTrail inputs. The threshold value should be tuned to your environment.

Known False Positives

Many service accounts configured within an AWS infrastructure are known to exhibit this behavior. Please adjust the threshold values and filter out service accounts from the output. Always verify if this search alerted on a human user.

Associated Analytic Story

Detection Testing

Test Type	Status	Dataset	Source	Sourcetype
Validation	Not Applicable	N/A	N/A	N/A
Unit	Not Applicable	N/A	`N/A`	`N/A`
Integration	Not Applicable	N/A	`N/A`	`N/A`

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