AWS Credentials Searched For Inside A Container

Last updated 2 months ago on 2025-12-17

Created a year ago on 2025-03-12

About

This rule detects the use of system search utilities like grep and find to search for AWS credentials inside a container. Unauthorized access to these sensitive files could lead to further compromise of the container environment or facilitate a container breakout to the underlying cloud environment.

Tags

Domain: ContainerOS: LinuxUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Credential AccessData Source: Elastic DefendLanguage: eql

Severity

high

Risk Score

MITRE ATT&CK™

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

↳ Unsecured Credentials (T1552)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

License

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

Definition

Rule Type: Event Correlation Rule
Integration Pack: Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Index Patterns: logs-endpoint.events.process*
Related Integrations: endpoint(external, opens in a new tab or window)
Query

✄𐘗text code block:
✄𐘗process where host.os.type == "linux" and event.type == "start" and event.action == "exec" and
process.entry_leader.entry_meta.type == "container" and
process.name in ("grep", "egrep", "fgrep", "find", "locate", "mlocate", "cat", "sed", "awk") and
process.command_line like~ (
  "*aws_access_key_id*", "*aws_secret_access_key*", "*aws_session_token*", "*accesskeyid*", "*secretaccesskey*",
  "*access_key*", "*.aws/credentials*"
)

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect AWS Credentials Searched For Inside A Container 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).