AWS SES Email Identity Verified Then Deleted

Last updated a day ago on 2026-08-31
Created a day ago on 2026-08-31

About

Detects an SES email identity being verified and subsequently deleted within a 30-minute window, performed by the same AWS identity. Amazon SES requires email addresses and domains to be verified before they can be used as senders. An adversary who obtains SES credentials may verify a domain or address they control, use it to send phishing or spam email, then delete the identity to remove evidence of the sending domain from the account's verified identity list. This verify-use-delete pattern is a recognized attacker technique for SES abuse.
Tags
Domain: CloudPlatform: AWSData Source: AWS CloudTrailService: AWS SESRule Type: ESQLTactic: Resource DevelopmentTactic: Defense EvasionLanguage: esql
Severity
medium
Risk Score
47
MITRE ATT&CK™

Resource Development (TA0042)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

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

False Positive Examples
Testing workflows that verify a sandbox email address and then clean it up may trigger this rule. Confirm that the email identity verified and deleted corresponds to a planned test rather than a production or attacker-controlled domain.
License
Elastic License v2(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Definition

Integration Pack
Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Related Integrations

aws(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Query
text code block:
from logs-aws.cloudtrail-* metadata _id, _version, _index | where data_stream.dataset == "aws.cloudtrail" and event.provider == "ses.amazonaws.com" and event.action in ("VerifyEmailIdentity", "VerifyDomainIdentity", "VerifyEmailAddress", "VerifyDomainDkim", "DeleteIdentity") and event.outcome == "success" and aws.cloudtrail.user_identity.arn is not null | eval Esql.ses_verify_flag = case(event.action != "DeleteIdentity", 1, 0), Esql.ses_delete_flag = case(event.action == "DeleteIdentity", 1, 0) | stats Esql.ses_verify_count = sum(Esql.ses_verify_flag), Esql.ses_delete_count = sum(Esql.ses_delete_flag), Esql.ses_verify_timestamp_min = min(case(Esql.ses_verify_flag == 1, @timestamp)), Esql.ses_delete_timestamp_max = max(case(Esql.ses_delete_flag == 1, @timestamp)), Esql.event_action_values = values(event.action), Esql_priv.user_name_values = values(user.name), Esql.cloud_account_id_values = values(cloud.account.id) by aws.cloudtrail.user_identity.arn | where Esql.ses_verify_count > 0 and Esql.ses_delete_count > 0 and Esql.ses_verify_timestamp_min < Esql.ses_delete_timestamp_max and date_diff("minutes", Esql.ses_verify_timestamp_min, Esql.ses_delete_timestamp_max) <= 30 | keep aws.cloudtrail.user_identity.arn, Esql.ses_verify_count, Esql.ses_delete_count, Esql.ses_verify_timestamp_min, Esql.ses_delete_timestamp_max, Esql.event_action_values, Esql_priv.user_name_values, Esql.cloud_account_id_values

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect AWS SES Email Identity Verified Then Deleted 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).