AWS EKS Forbidden Creation Request

Last updated 2 days ago on 2026-10-21

Created 3 months ago on 2026-08-03

About

This rule detects attempts to create resources in Kubernetes clusters that are forbidden by the authorization policy. It specifically looks for creation requests that are denied with a "forbid" decision, indicating that the user or service account does not have the necessary permissions to perform the action. This activity is commonly associated with adversaries attempting to create resources in a Kubernetes environment without proper authorization, which can lead to unauthorized access, manipulation of cluster resources, lateral movement and/or privilege escalation.

Tags

Domain: CloudDomain: ContainersPlatform: AWSPlatform: KubernetesData Source: AWSData Source: Amazon Web ServicesData Source: Kubernetes API Server Audit LogsService: AWS EKSUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: ExecutionRule Type: Event Correlation (EQL)Profile: BetaLanguage: eql

Severity

medium

Risk Score

MITRE ATT&CK™

Execution (TA0002)(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-aws.eks_audit-*
Related Integrations: aws(external, opens in a new tab or window)
Query

✄𐘗text code block:
✄𐘗any where data_stream.dataset == "aws.eks_audit" and aws.eks.audit.verb == "create" and
aws.eks.audit.stage == "ResponseComplete" and `aws.eks.audit.annotations.authorization_k8s_io/decision` == "forbid" and
user.name != null and not user.name in ("system:kube-scheduler", "system:kube-controller-manager")

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect AWS EKS Forbidden Creation Request 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).