Detection rules › Kusto

AWSCloudTrail - S3 bucket suspicious ransomware activity

Status
available
Severity
high
Time window
1h
Group by
bucketName, keyName
Source
github.com/Azure/Azure-Sentinel

Detects a ransomware-like sequence where objects are read from an S3 bucket and then overwritten using an external KMS key. This pattern can indicate malicious encryption and potential data denial in the bucket.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

TacticTechniques
Impact

Telemetry coverage

Rules detecting the same action

These rules filter on the same operation.

Rule body

id: b442b9e2-5cc4-4129-a85b-a5ef38a9e5f0
name: AWSCloudTrail - S3 bucket suspicious ransomware activity
description: |
  Detects a ransomware-like sequence where objects are read from an S3 bucket and then overwritten using an
  external KMS key. This pattern can indicate malicious encryption and potential data denial in the bucket.
severity: High
status: Available
requiredDataConnectors:
  - connectorId: AWS
    dataTypes:
      - AWSCloudTrail
queryFrequency: 1h
queryPeriod: 1h
triggerOperator: gt
triggerThreshold: 0
tactics:
  - Impact
relevantTechniques:
  - T1486
query: |
  let timeframe = 1h;
  let lookback = 2h;
  // The attacker downloads the object(s) from the compromised bucket
  let GetObject = AWSCloudTrail
  | where TimeGenerated >= ago(lookback)
  | where EventName == "GetObject" and isempty(ErrorCode) and isempty(ErrorMessage)
  | extend bucketName = tostring(parse_json(RequestParameters).bucketName), keyName = tostring(parse_json(RequestParameters).key)
  | project-rename StartTime = TimeGenerated;
  // Then, the attacker overwrites the same object(s) but encrypted with his own key
  let PutObject = AWSCloudTrail
  | where TimeGenerated >= ago(timeframe)
  | where EventName == "PutObject" and isempty(ErrorCode) and isempty(ErrorMessage)
  | extend bucketName = tostring(parse_json(RequestParameters).bucketName), keyName = tostring(parse_json(RequestParameters).key)
  | extend kmsId = tostring(parse_json(RequestParameters).["x-amz-server-side-encryption-aws-kms-key-id"])
  | where tostring(kmsId) !has tostring(RecipientAccountId) and kmsId <> "";
  PutObject
  | join kind=inner 
  (
     GetObject
  )
  on $left.bucketName == $right.bucketName, $left.keyName == $right.keyName
  | where TimeGenerated > StartTime
  | extend UserIdentityArn = iif(isempty(UserIdentityArn), tostring(parse_json(Resources)[0].ARN), UserIdentityArn)
  | extend UserName = tostring(split(UserIdentityArn, '/')[-1])
  | extend AccountName = case( UserIdentityPrincipalid == "Anonymous", "Anonymous", isempty(UserIdentityUserName), UserName, UserIdentityUserName)
  | extend AccountName = iif(AccountName contains "@", tostring(split(AccountName, '@', 0)[0]), AccountName),
    AccountUPNSuffix = iif(AccountName contains "@", tostring(split(AccountName, '@', 1)[0]), "")
entityMappings:
  - entityType: Account
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: Name
        columnName: AccountName
      - identifier: UPNSuffix
        columnName: AccountUPNSuffix
      - identifier: CloudAppAccountId
        columnName: RecipientAccountId
  - entityType: IP
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: Address
        columnName: SourceIpAddress
customDetails:
  bucketName: bucketName
  keyName: keyName
  kmsId: kmsId
  RecipientAccountId: RecipientAccountId
alertDetailsOverride:
  alertDisplayNameFormat: 'AWS S3 ransomware-like overwrite activity by {{AccountName}}'
  alertDescriptionFormat: 'Detected GetObject followed by encrypted PutObject activity in bucket {{bucketName}} from {{SourceIpAddress}} for account {{RecipientAccountId}}.'
version: 1.0.2
kind: Scheduled

Stages and Predicates

Parameters

let timeframe = 1h;
let lookback = 2h;

let PutObject is inlined into the numbered stages below.

Let binding: GetObject used in Stage 7

let GetObject = AWSCloudTrail
| where TimeGenerated >= ago(lookback)
| where EventName == "GetObject" and isempty(ErrorCode) and isempty(ErrorMessage)
| extend bucketName = tostring(parse_json(RequestParameters).bucketName), keyName = tostring(parse_json(RequestParameters).key)
| project-rename StartTime = TimeGenerated;

Stages 1 to 6 define let PutObject (the rule's main pipeline source); stages 7 to 9 run on it.

Stage 1: source

AWSCloudTrail

Stage 2: where

| where TimeGenerated >= ago(timeframe)

Stage 3: where

| where EventName == "PutObject" and isempty(ErrorCode) and isempty(ErrorMessage)

Stage 4: extend

| extend bucketName = tostring(parse_json(RequestParameters).bucketName), keyName = tostring(parse_json(RequestParameters).key)

Stage 5: extend

| extend kmsId = tostring(parse_json(RequestParameters).["x-amz-server-side-encryption-aws-kms-key-id"])

Stage 6: where

| where tostring(kmsId) !has tostring(RecipientAccountId) and kmsId <> ""

Stage 7: join

PutObject
| join kind=inner 
(
   GetObject
)
on $left.bucketName == $right.bucketName, $left.keyName == $right.keyName

Stage 8: where

| where TimeGenerated > StartTime

Stage 9: extend (4 consecutive steps)

| extend UserIdentityArn = iif(isempty(UserIdentityArn), tostring(parse_json(Resources)[0].ARN), UserIdentityArn)
| extend UserName = tostring(split(UserIdentityArn, '/')[-1])
| extend AccountName = case( UserIdentityPrincipalid == "Anonymous", "Anonymous", isempty(UserIdentityUserName), UserName, UserIdentityUserName)
| extend AccountName = iif(AccountName contains "@", tostring(split(AccountName, '@', 0)[0]), AccountName),
  AccountUPNSuffix = iif(AccountName contains "@", tostring(split(AccountName, '@', 1)[0]), "")

Exclusions

The rule actively suppresses these predicates.

FieldKindExcluded valuesSearch
kmsIdmatchRecipientAccountIdexcludes:kmsId field:"kmsId" value:"RecipientAccountId"

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

FieldKindValuesSearch
ErrorCodeis_null
  • (no value, null check)
field:"aws::errorCode" kind:is_null
ErrorMessageis_null
  • (no value, null check)
field:"aws::errorMessage" kind:is_null
EventNameeq
  • GetObject
  • PutObject
field:"aws::eventName" kind:eq
TimeGeneratedcross_field_compare
  • StartTime transforms: op:gt
field:"TimeGenerated" kind:cross_field_compare value:"StartTime"

Output fields

These fields are emitted when the rule matches.

FieldSource
bucketNameextend
keyNameextend
kmsIdextend
UserIdentityArnextend
UserNameextend
AccountNameextend
AccountUPNSuffixextend