Insecure AWS EC2 VPC Security Group Ingress Rule Added

Last updated a month ago on 2026-08-05

Created 2 years ago on 2024-04-16

About

Identifies when a specified inbound (ingress) rule is added or adjusted for a VPC security group in AWS EC2. This rule detects when a security group rule is added that allows traffic from any IP address or from a specific IP address to common remote access ports, such as 22 (SSH) or 3389 (RDP). Adversaries may add these rules to allow remote access to VPC instances from any location, increasing the attack surface and potentially exposing the instances to unauthorized access.

Tags

Domain: CloudPlatform: AWSData Source: AWS CloudTrailService: AWS EC2Tactic: Defense EvasionRule Type: Custom Query (KQL)Language: kuery

Severity

medium

Risk Score

MITRE ATT&CK™

Defense Evasion (TA0005)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Impair Defenses (T1562)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Initial Access (TA0001)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

↳ External Remote Services (T1133)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

False Positive Examples

Administrators may legitimately add security group rules to allow traffic from any IP address or from specific IP addresses to common remote access ports.

License

Elastic License v2(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Definition

Rule Type: Query (Kibana Query Language)
Integration Pack: Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Index Patterns: filebeat-*logs-aws.cloudtrail-*
Related Integrations: aws(external, opens in a new tab or window)
Query

✄𐘗text code block:
✄𐘗data_stream.dataset: "aws.cloudtrail"
    and event.provider: ec2.amazonaws.com
    and event.action: AuthorizeSecurityGroupIngress
    and event.outcome: success
    and aws.cloudtrail.flattened.request_parameters.ipPermissions.items.ipRanges.items.cidrIp: ("0.0.0.0/0" or "::/0")
    and aws.cloudtrail.flattened.request_parameters.ipPermissions.items.fromPort: (
        21 or 22 or 23 or 445 or 3389 or 5985 or 5986)
    and not user_agent.original: (*packer-plugin-amazon* or *Terraform* or *Pulumi*)

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Insecure AWS EC2 VPC Security Group Ingress Rule Added in the Elastic Security detection engine by installing this rule into your Elastic Stack.

To setup this rule, check out the installation guide for Prebuilt Security Detection Rules(external, opens in a new tab or window).