Elastic Security Detection Rules

AWS EKS Unusual Kubernetes Sensitive Workload Modification

Last updated 2 days ago on 2026-10-21
Created 3 months ago on 2026-08-03

About

Detects the creation or modification of several sensitive workloads, such as DaemonSets, Deployments, or CronJobs, by an unusual user agent, source IP and username, which may indicate privilege escalation or unauthorized access within the cluster.
Tags
Domain: CloudDomain: ContainersPlatform: AWSPlatform: KubernetesData Source: AWSData Source: Amazon Web ServicesData Source: Kubernetes API Server Audit LogsService: AWS EKSUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Privilege EscalationTactic: PersistenceRule Type: New TermsProfile: BetaLanguage: kuery
Severity
low
Risk Score
21
MITRE ATT&CK™

Privilege Escalation (TA0004)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Account Manipulation (T1098)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

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

↳ Account Manipulation (T1098)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

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

Definition

Rule Type
New Terms 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
text code block:
data_stream.dataset:"aws.eks_audit" and user_agent.original:* and
aws.eks.audit.annotations.authorization_k8s_io/decision:"allow" and
aws.eks.audit.objectRef.resource:("daemonsets" or "deployments" or "cronjobs") and
aws.eks.audit.verb:("create" or "patch") and
not aws.eks.audit.user.groups:"system:masters" and
not aws.eks.audit.annotations.authorization_k8s_io/reason:"AmazonEKSClusterAdminPolicy" and
not user.name:eks\:*

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect AWS EKS Unusual Kubernetes Sensitive Workload Modification 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).