AWS KMS Key Policy Updated via PutKeyPolicy

Last updated a month ago on 2026-08-05

Created 5 months ago on 2026-04-08

About

Identifies successful PutKeyPolicy calls on AWS KMS keys. The key policy is a resource-based policy that controls which principals can use the key for cryptographic operations and administration. Adversaries with "kms:PutKeyPolicy" may add or broaden principals (including external accounts) to decrypt or exfiltrate data protected by the key, or to preserve access after other credentials are rotated. This is distinct from disabling or scheduling deletion of the key.

Tags

Domain: CloudPlatform: AWSData Source: AWS CloudTrailService: AWS KMSTactic: Defense EvasionTactic: Privilege EscalationRule Type: Custom Query (KQL)Language: kuery

Severity

medium

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)

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

↳ Impair Defenses (T1562)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

False Positive Examples

Security, platform, and encryption teams legitimately update KMS key policies during onboarding, key rotation, or cross-account access design. Review the policy document diff, ticketing, and whether new principals are in-org.

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: "kms.amazonaws.com"
    and event.action: "PutKeyPolicy"
    and event.outcome: "success"
    and not aws.cloudtrail.user_identity.type: "AWSService"
    and not user_agent.original: (*Terraform* or *Pulumi*)

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect AWS KMS Key Policy Updated via PutKeyPolicy 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).