Elastic Security Detection Rules

AWS CloudTrail Log Created

Last updated 10 days ago on 2025-11-07
Created 5 years ago on 2020-06-10

About

Detects creation of a new AWS CloudTrail trail via CreateTrail API. While legitimate during onboarding or auditing improvements, adversaries can create trails that write to attacker-controlled destinations, limit regions, or otherwise subvert monitoring objectives. New trails should be validated for destination ownership, encryption, multi-region coverage, and organizational scope.
Tags
Domain: CloudData Source: AWSData Source: Amazon Web ServicesData Source: AWS CloudtrailUse Case: Log AuditingTactic: CollectionLanguage: kuery
Severity
low
Risk Score
21
MITRE ATT&CK™

Collection (TA0009)(opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Data from Cloud Storage (T1530)(opens in a new tab or window)

False Positive Examples
Trail creations may be made by a system or network administrator. Verify whether the user identity, user agent, and/or hostname should be making changes in your environment. Trail creations by 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: "cloudtrail.amazonaws.com" 
    and event.action: "CreateTrail" 
    and event.outcome: "success"

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect AWS CloudTrail Log Created 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).