Elastic Security Detection Rules

AWS IAM Account Password Policy Deleted

Last updated 9 days ago on 2026-06-18
Created 9 days ago on 2026-06-18

About

Identifies deletion of the AWS account password policy via DeleteAccountPasswordPolicy. The account password policy enforces minimum password requirements (length, complexity, rotation, and reuse) for all IAM users in the account. Deleting it removes those requirements account-wide, weakening authentication and easing follow-on credential-based attacks. This is an account-level change that legitimately occurs only during deliberate administration, so its deletion by an unexpected principal warrants review.
Tags
Domain: CloudDomain: IdentityData Source: AWSData Source: Amazon Web ServicesData Source: AWS IAMUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Defense EvasionLanguage: kuery
Severity
medium
Risk Score
47
MITRE ATT&CK™

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

↳ Modify Authentication Process (T1556)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

False Positive Examples
Identity and platform teams or infrastructure-as-code may delete or replace the account password policy during governance changes. Verify the principal in `aws.cloudtrail.user_identity.arn` against approved change records, and confirm whether a replacement policy was applied shortly after. Known administration roles and automation can be excluded after validation.
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
logs-aws.cloudtrail-*
Related Integrations

aws(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Query
text code block:
data_stream.dataset: "aws.cloudtrail"
    and event.provider: "iam.amazonaws.com"
    and event.action: "DeleteAccountPasswordPolicy"
    and event.outcome: "success"
    and not aws.cloudtrail.user_identity.type: "AWSService"
    and not user_agent.original: (*terraform* or *pulumi* or *ansible*)
    and not aws.cloudtrail.user_identity.arn: (*terraform* or *pulumi* or *ansible*)
    and not source.address: ("cloudformation.amazonaws.com" or "servicecatalog.amazonaws.com")

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect AWS IAM Account Password Policy Deleted 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).