AWS STS GetFederationToken with AdministratorAccess in Request

Last updated 25 days ago on 2026-04-08

Created 25 days ago on 2026-04-08

About

Identifies successful calls to AWS STS GetFederationToken where request parameters reference AdministratorAccess. This API returns temporary security credentials for a federated user with permissions bounded by the calling IAM user and any inline session policy passed in the request. Supplying or referencing the AWS managed AdministratorAccess policy (or an equivalent string in the policy payload) can grant broadly privileged temporary credentials and may indicate privilege abuse or dangerous automation.

Tags

Domain: CloudDomain: IdentityData Source: AWSData Source: Amazon Web ServicesData Source: AWS STSUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Privilege EscalationTactic: Lateral MovementLanguage: kuery

Severity

high

Risk Score

MITRE ATT&CK™

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

↳ Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism (T1548)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Lateral Movement (TA0008)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Use Alternate Authentication Material (T1550)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

False Positive Examples

Highly unusual for legitimate workflows to embed or reference full administrator access in GetFederationToken session policies; if found, it is often legacy or misconfigured tooling. Confirm with the owning team and replace with least-privilege session policies. Tune only after documented approval.

License

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

Definition

Rule Type: Query (Kibana Query Language)
Integration Pack: Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Index Patterns: filebeat-*logs-aws.cloudtrail-*
Related Integrations: aws(external, opens in a new tab or window)
Query

✄𐘗text code block:
✄𐘗event.dataset: "aws.cloudtrail"
    and event.provider: "sts.amazonaws.com"
    and event.action: "GetFederationToken"
    and event.outcome: "success"
    and aws.cloudtrail.request_parameters: *AdministratorAccess*

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect AWS STS GetFederationToken with AdministratorAccess in 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).