AWSCloudTrail - User IAM Enumeration

Status: available
Severity: medium
Time window: 10m
Group by: UserIdentityAccountId, UserIdentityArn, UserIdentityPrincipalid
Source: github.com/Azure/Azure-Sentinel

Detects enumeration of IAM account configuration via repeated API calls to list roles, users, groups, and policies within a short time period. The threshold can be adjusted to reduce false positives from authorized cloud scanners such as Wiz.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Discovery	`T1580` Cloud Infrastructure Discovery

Rules detecting the same action

Other rules on this platform that filter on the same API call or operation.

AWS Lateral Movement from Kubernetes SA via AssumeRoleWithWebIdentity (Elastic)

Rule body kusto

id: cfaaf0bc-16d1-48df-ac8b-9d901bbd516a
name: AWSCloudTrail - User IAM Enumeration
description: |
  Detects enumeration of IAM account configuration via repeated API calls to list roles, users, groups, and policies within a short time period. The threshold can be adjusted to reduce false positives from authorized cloud scanners such as Wiz.
severity: Medium
status: Available
requiredDataConnectors:
  - connectorId: AWS
    dataTypes:
      - AWSCloudTrail
queryFrequency: 10m
queryPeriod: 10m
triggerOperator: gt
triggerThreshold: 0
tactics:
  - Discovery
relevantTechniques:
  - T1580
query: |
 let threshold = 50; 
 AWSCloudTrail
 | where EventName in ("ListAttachedRolePolicies","ListRoles","ListGroupsForUser","ListAttachedUserPolicies","ListAccessKeys","ListUsers")
 | summarize
     count(),
     make_set(AWSRegion),
     make_set(UserAgent),
     make_set(SourceIpAddress),
     make_set(ErrorCode),
     make_set(ErrorMessage),
     make_set(EventName)
     by bin(TimeGenerated, 10m), UserIdentityPrincipalid, UserIdentityArn, UserIdentityAccountId
 | where count_ > threshold
 | mv-expand set_SourceIpAddress
 | extend UserName = substring(UserIdentityPrincipalid, indexof_regex(UserIdentityPrincipalid, ":") + 1)
 | extend Name = split(UserName,'@')[0],UpnSuffix = split(UserName,'@')[1]
entityMappings:
  - entityType: Account
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: Name
        columnName: Name
      - identifier: UPNSuffix
        columnName: UpnSuffix
  - entityType: IP
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: Address
        columnName: set_SourceIpAddress
customDetails:
  EventCount: count_
  AWSAccountId: UserIdentityAccountId
  PrincipalId: UserIdentityPrincipalid
alertDetailsOverride:
  alertDisplayNameFormat: IAM enumeration detected - {{count_}} API calls by {{UserIdentityPrincipalid}}
  alertDescriptionFormat: User {{UserIdentityPrincipalid}} performed {{count_}} IAM enumeration API calls within a 10-minute window from account {{UserIdentityAccountId}}.
version: 1.0.1
kind: Scheduled

Stages and Predicates

Parameters

let threshold = 50;

Stage 1: `source`

AWSCloudTrail

Stage 2: `where`

| where EventName in ("ListAttachedRolePolicies","ListRoles","ListGroupsForUser","ListAttachedUserPolicies","ListAccessKeys","ListUsers")

Stage 3: `summarize`

| summarize
    count(),
    make_set(AWSRegion),
    make_set(UserAgent),
    make_set(SourceIpAddress),
    make_set(ErrorCode),
    make_set(ErrorMessage),
    make_set(EventName)
    by bin(TimeGenerated, 10m), UserIdentityPrincipalid, UserIdentityArn, UserIdentityAccountId

Stage 4: `where`

| where count_ > threshold

Stage 5: `mv-expand`

| mv-expand set_SourceIpAddress

Stage 6: `extend`

| extend UserName = substring(UserIdentityPrincipalid, indexof_regex(UserIdentityPrincipalid, ":") + 1)

Stage 7: `extend`

| extend Name = split(UserName,'@')[0],UpnSuffix = split(UserName,'@')[1]

Indicators

Each row is a field, operator, and value that the rule matches. The corpus column counts how many other rules in the catalog look for the same combination: high numbers point to widely-used, community-vetted indicators. Blank or 1 shows that the indicator is specific to this rule.

Field	Kind	Values
`EventName`	in	`ListAccessKeys` transforms: `cased` `ListAttachedRolePolicies` transforms: `cased` `ListAttachedUserPolicies` transforms: `cased` `ListGroupsForUser` transforms: `cased` `ListRoles` transforms: `cased` `ListUsers` transforms: `cased`
`count_`	gt	`50` transforms: `cased`

Output fields

Fields the rule emits when it matches. Chronicle authors list these in the outcome block; they appear on the detection and $risk_score drives alerting. Sentinel / Defender XDR rules build them up through project / summarize / extend stages. Sentinel maps these into alert fields via entityMappings and customDetails; Defender XDR custom detections surface them as alert fields directly.

Field	Source
`UserIdentityAccountId`	`summarize`
`UserIdentityArn`	`summarize`
`UserIdentityPrincipalid`	`summarize`
`UserName`	`extend`
`Name`	`extend`
`UpnSuffix`	`extend`

`j` / `k`	Scroll down / up
`d` / `u`	Half-page down / up
`gg` / `G`	Top / bottom
`h` / `l`	History back / forward
`f`	Follow link (`Shift` = new tab)
`/`	Focus search
`?`	Toggle this help
`↑` / `↓`	Navigate search results
`Enter`	Open highlighted result
`Esc`	Close results / dialog

`type:`	`events` / `rules` / `providers`
`vendor:`	`sigma` / `elastic` / `splunk` / `kusto` / `chronicle` (vendor name alone also works: `sigma:`, `kql:`, `secops:`…)
`tactic:`	TA-id, slug, or name: `credential_access`, `TA0006`
`technique:`	technique or sub-technique ID: `T1003`, `T1003.001` (alias `tech:`)
`severity:`	`critical` / `high` / `medium` / `low` / `informational` (alias `sev:`)
`risk_score`	Numeric comparison on the Elastic risk score (0 to 100): `risk_score>50`, `risk_score<=20`, `risk_score=99` (alias `risk`; Elastic rules only)
`stages:`	Rules with exactly N pipeline stages
`correlation:`	`single_event` / `sequence` / `alternatives` / `alternatives_cross_log` / `all_required` / `correlated`
`with:`	Co-occurrence event-id; stacks (`with:4624 with:4769`) to require all, while a comma list in one occurrence (`with:4624,4769`) is an either-or group. Implies multi-event
`like:`	Structural neighbors of a rule slug (equivalents + subsumption stricter / broader): `like:comsvcs_lsass_memory_dump-splunk-sysmon`
`groupby:`	Entity-grouping substring match against `group_by_keys`: `groupby:user`, `groupby:host`
`uses:`	Rules whose predicate tree touches the field (any kind, any value): `uses:CommandLine`
`excludes:`	Rules with top-level `not()` clauses on the field (FP whitelists): `excludes:ParentImage`
`field:` / `value:`	Predicate search; narrows rule cards to those with a matching leaf and drives the indicator tier. Unquoted = substring, wildcards allowed (`value:mimikatz`)
`indicator:`	Shorthand for `field:F value:V`: `indicator:Image=*\powershell.exe`
`kind:`	Filter by predicate kind. Narrows rule cards to those carrying a matching predicate leaf (`vendor:elastic kind:cidr_match`) and drives the indicator tier: `contains` / `starts_with` / `ends_with` / `regex` / `cidr` / `eq` / `in` … (operator aliases `op:`/`match:`)
`has:` / `no:`	`sample`, `field`, `notes`, `refs`, `trace`, `thirdparty`, `rule`, `pattern`, `timewindow`, `threshold`, `newterms`, `sigma`/`elastic`/`splunk`/`kusto`/`chronicle`
`-op:val`	Exclude matches; works on most operators but not `type:`/`like:`/`has:`/`no:` (use `no:<flag>` to exclude a rule flag): `tactic:execution -vendor:splunk`. Standalone `-kind:`/`-field:`/`-value:` drop every rule carrying a matching predicate leaf (`type:rules -kind:is_null`)
`field:"…"` / `value:"…"`	Quoted value = anchored exact match (also allows spaces): `value:"net user"`
`a,b`	Comma = OR inside one operator (`vendor:sigma,elastic`, `severity:high,critical`); repeating a facet merges the same way. `field:`/`value:` never split (literal commas)
`vendors:` / `stage:`	Singular and plural spellings fold to the canonical operator and value: `tactics:` = `tactic:`, `type:event` = `type:events`, `correlation:sequences` = `correlation:sequence`, `has:thresholds` = `has:threshold`
`"quoted phrase"`	Exact-match a multi-word phrase (free text)

AWSCloudTrail - User IAM Enumeration

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Rules detecting the same action

Rule body kusto

Stages and Predicates

Parameters

Stage 1: `source`

Stage 2: `where`

Stage 3: `summarize`

Stage 4: `where`

Stage 5: `mv-expand`

Stage 6: `extend`

Stage 7: `extend`

Indicators

Output fields

Keyboard shortcuts

Search operators

AWSCloudTrail - User IAM Enumeration

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Rules detecting the same action

Rule body kusto

Stages and Predicates

Parameters

Stage 1: source

Stage 2: where

Stage 3: summarize

Stage 4: where

Stage 5: mv-expand

Stage 6: extend

Stage 7: extend

Indicators

Output fields

Stage 1: `source`

Stage 2: `where`

Stage 3: `summarize`

Stage 4: `where`

Stage 5: `mv-expand`

Stage 6: `extend`

Stage 7: `extend`