AWS First Occurrence of STS GetFederationToken Request by User

Last updated a month ago on 2025-08-25
Created a year ago on 2024-08-19

About

Identifies the first occurrence of an AWS Security Token Service (STS) GetFederationToken request made by a user. The GetFederationToken API call allows users to request temporary security credentials to access AWS resources. The maximum expiration period for these tokens is 36 hours and they can be used to create a console signin token even for identities that don't already have one. Adversaries may use this API to obtain temporary credentials for persistence and to bypass IAM API call limitations by gaining console access.
Tags
Domain: CloudData Source: Amazon Web ServicesData Source: AWSData Source: AWS STSUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Defense EvasionTactic: PersistenceLanguage: kuery
Severity
medium
Risk Score
47
MITRE ATT&CK™

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

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

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

Definition

Rule Type
New Terms Rule
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:sts.amazonaws.com
    and event.action:GetFederationToken
    and event.outcome:success

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect AWS First Occurrence of STS GetFederationToken Request by User 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).