Elastic Security Detection Rules

AWS EC2 Unauthorized Admin Credential Fetch via Assumed Role

Last updated 20 days ago on 2025-06-04
Created a year ago on 2024-04-10

About

Identifies the first occurrence of an unauthorized attempt by an AWS role to use `GetPassword` to access the administrator password of an EC2 instance. Adversaries may use this API call to escalate privileges or move laterally within EC2 instances.
Tags
Domain: CloudData Source: AWSData Source: Amazon Web ServicesData Source: AWS EC2Use Case: Identity and Access AuditTactic: Credential AccessLanguage: kuery
Severity
medium
Risk Score
47
MITRE ATT&CK™

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

↳ Unsecured Credentials (T1552)(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:"ec2.amazonaws.com" and event.action:"GetPasswordData"
    and aws.cloudtrail.user_identity.type:"AssumedRole" and aws.cloudtrail.error_code:"Client.UnauthorizedOperation"

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect AWS EC2 Unauthorized Admin Credential Fetch via Assumed Role 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).