from logs-aws.cloudtrail*
// create time window buckets of 10 seconds
| eval Esql.time_window_date_trunc = date_trunc(10 seconds, @timestamp)
| where
event.dataset == "aws.cloudtrail"
// filter on CloudTrail audit logs for IAM, EC2, S3, etc.
and event.provider in (
"iam.amazonaws.com",
"ec2.amazonaws.com",
"s3.amazonaws.com",
"rds.amazonaws.com",
"lambda.amazonaws.com",
"dynamodb.amazonaws.com",
"kms.amazonaws.com",
"cloudfront.amazonaws.com",
"elasticloadbalancing.amazonaws.com"
)
// ignore AWS service actions
and aws.cloudtrail.user_identity.type != "AWSService"
// filter for aws-cli specifically
and user_agent.name == "aws-cli"
// exclude DescribeCapacityReservations events related to AWS Config
and not event.action in ("DescribeCapacityReservations")
// filter for Describe, Get, List, and Generate API calls
| where true in (
starts_with(event.action, "Describe"),
starts_with(event.action, "Get"),
starts_with(event.action, "List"),
starts_with(event.action, "Generate")
)
// extract owner, identity type, and actor from the ARN
| dissect aws.cloudtrail.user_identity.arn "%{}::%{Esql_priv.aws_cloudtrail_user_identity_arn_owner}:%{Esql.aws_cloudtrail_user_identity_arn_type}/%{Esql.aws_cloudtrail_user_identity_arn_roles}"
| where starts_with(Esql.aws_cloudtrail_user_identity_arn_roles, "AWSServiceRoleForConfig") != true
// keep relevant fields (preserving ECS fields and computed time window)
| keep @timestamp, Esql.time_window_date_trunc, event.action, aws.cloudtrail.user_identity.arn
// count the number of unique API calls per time window and actor
| stats
Esql.event_action_count_distinct = count_distinct(event.action)
by Esql.time_window_date_trunc, aws.cloudtrail.user_identity.arn
// filter for more than 5 unique API calls per 10s window
| where Esql.event_action_count_distinct > 5
// sort the results by the number of unique API calls in descending order
| sort Esql.event_action_count_distinct desc
Install detection rules in Elastic Security
Detect AWS Discovery API Calls via CLI from a Single Resource 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).