AWS CloudTrail Least Privilege Access

Severity: medium
Tags: AWS, Configuration Required, IAM, Panther, Defense Evasion:Impair Defenses
Reference: https://amzn.to/2ZEUrKm
Source: github.com/panther-labs/panther-analysis

Users with permissions to disable or reconfigure CloudTrail should be limited.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Stealth	`T1562` Impair Defenses

Rule body yaml

AnalysisType: policy
Filename: aws_cloudtrail_least_privilege.py
PolicyID: "AWS.CloudTrail.LeastPrivilege"
DisplayName: "AWS CloudTrail Least Privilege Access"
Enabled: false
ResourceTypes:
  - AWS.IAM.Group
Tags:
  - AWS
  - Configuration Required
  - IAM
  - Panther
  - Defense Evasion:Impair Defenses
Reports:
  MITRE ATT&CK:
    - TA0005:T1562
Severity: Medium
Description: >
  Users with permissions to disable or reconfigure CloudTrail should be limited.
Runbook: >
  Remove the AWSCloudTrailFullAccess managed IAM policy from all but one user in the account.
Reference: https://amzn.to/2ZEUrKm
Tests:
  - Name: Limited Membership to IAM Group with CloudTrail FullAccess Policy
    ExpectedResult: true
    Resource:
      {
        "Arn": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:group/CloudTrailAdmins",
        "CreateDate": "2019-01-01T00:00:00Z",
        "GroupId": "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP",
        "GroupName": "CloudTrailAdmins",
        "Path": "/",
        "InlinePolicies": [],
        "ManagedPolicyARNs":
          [
            "arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AWSCloudTrailFullAccess",
            "arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/Readonly",
          ],
        "Users":
          [
            {
              "Arn": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:user/Bobert",
              "CreateDate": "2019-01-1T00:00:00Z",
              "PasswordLastUsed": null,
              "Path": "/",
              "PermissionsBoundary": null,
              "Tags": null,
              "UserId": "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP",
              "UserName": "Bobert",
            },
          ],
      }
  - Name: More Than 2 Users in IAM Group with CloudTrail FullAccess Policy
    ExpectedResult: false
    Resource:
      {
        "Arn": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:group/CloudTrailAdmins",
        "CreateDate": "2019-01-01T00:00:00Z",
        "GroupId": "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP",
        "GroupName": "CloudTrailAdmins",
        "Path": "/",
        "InlinePolicies": [],
        "ManagedPolicyARNs":
          [
            "arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AWSCloudTrailFullAccess",
            "arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/ReadOnly",
          ],
        "Users":
          [
            {
              "Arn": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:user/Bobert",
              "CreateDate": "2019-01-1T00:00:00Z",
              "PasswordLastUsed": null,
              "Path": "/",
              "PermissionsBoundary": null,
              "Tags": null,
              "UserId": "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP",
              "UserName": "Bobert",
            },
            {
              "Arn": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:user/Bobert2",
              "CreateDate": "2019-01-1T00:00:00Z",
              "PasswordLastUsed": null,
              "Path": "/",
              "PermissionsBoundary": null,
              "Tags": null,
              "UserId": "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP",
              "UserName": "Bobert2",
            },
            {
              "Arn": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:user/Bobert3",
              "CreateDate": "2019-01-1T00:00:00Z",
              "PasswordLastUsed": null,
              "Path": "/",
              "PermissionsBoundary": null,
              "Tags": null,
              "UserId": "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP",
              "UserName": "Bobert3",
            },
          ],
      }

Detection logic

Condition

not (ManagedPolicyARNs contains "arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AWSCloudTrailFullAccess" and Users length_compare "2")

Exclusions

Top-level NOT(...) conjuncts: predicates this rule actively suppresses.

Field	Kind	Excluded values
`ManagedPolicyARNs`	contains	`arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AWSCloudTrailFullAccess`
`Users`	length_compare	`2`

`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)

AWS CloudTrail Least Privilege Access

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Rule body yaml

Detection logic

Condition

Exclusions

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