Elastic Security Detection Rules

AWS IAM User Addition to Group

Last updated 2 months ago on 2025-10-30
Created 6 years ago on 2020-06-04

About

Identifies the addition of a user to a specified group in AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM). Any user added to a group automatically gains the permissions that are assigned to the group. If the target group carries elevated or admin privileges, this action can instantly grant high-risk permissions useful for credential misuse, lateral movement, or privilege escalation.
Tags
Domain: CloudData Source: AWSData Source: Amazon Web ServicesUse Case: Identity and Access AuditTactic: Credential AccessTactic: PersistenceLanguage: kuery
Severity
low
Risk Score
21
MITRE ATT&CK™

Credential Access (TA0006)(opens in a new tab or window)

Persistence (TA0003)(opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Account Manipulation (T1098)(opens in a new tab or window)

False Positive Examples
Legitimate operations such as new user onboarding, role changes, or service account updates may trigger this event. Verify whether the user identity, user agent, and/or hostname should be making changes in your environment. User additions from unfamiliar users or hosts should be investigated. If known behavior is causing false positives, it can be exempted from the rule.
License
Elastic License v2(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(opens in a new tab or window)

Query
event.dataset: aws.cloudtrail and 
    event.provider: iam.amazonaws.com and 
    event.action: AddUserToGroup and 
    event.outcome: success

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect AWS IAM User Addition to Group 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(opens in a new tab or window).