Detection rules › Sigma
Attempt To Get Federation Token
Returns a set of temporary security credentials (consisting of an access key ID, a secret access key, and a security token) for a user. Ex: aws sts get-federation-token --name TrailName --policy PolicyName
MITRE ATT&CK coverage
| Tactic | Techniques |
|---|---|
| Initial Access | T1078.004 Valid Accounts: Cloud Accounts |
| Persistence | T1078.004 Valid Accounts: Cloud Accounts |
| Privilege Escalation | T1078.004 Valid Accounts: Cloud Accounts |
| Stealth | T1078.004 Valid Accounts: Cloud Accounts |
Rules detecting the same action
Other rules on this platform that filter on the same API call or operation.
- Get Federation Token (Sigma)
Rule body yaml
title: Attempt To Get Federation Token
id: c7c08505-e4ed-49e0-bb61-292f445060d5
status: experimental
description: |
Returns a set of temporary security credentials (consisting of an access key ID, a secret access key, and a security token) for a user.
Ex: aws sts get-federation-token --name TrailName --policy PolicyName
references:
- https://www.crowdstrike.com/blog/how-adversaries-persist-with-aws-user-federation/
- https://reinforce.awsevents.com/content/dam/reinforce/2024/slides/TDR432_New-tactics-and-techniques-for-proactive-threat-detection.pdf
- https://fwdcloudsec.org/assets/presentations/2024/europe/sebastian-walla-cloud-conscious-tactics-techniques-and-procedures-an-overview.pdf
- https://securitylabs.datadoghq.com/articles/tales-from-the-cloud-trenches-unwanted-visitor/
- https://hackingthe.cloud/aws/post_exploitation/create_a_console_session_from_iam_credentials/
- https://hackingthe.cloud/aws/post_exploitation/survive_access_key_deletion_with_sts_getfederationtoken/
- https://traildiscover.cloud/#STS-GetFederationToken
author: Zach Mathis (@yamatosecurity)
date: 2025-04-23
modified: 2025-04-23
tags:
- attack.credential-access
- attack.t1078.004 # Valid Accounts: Cloud Accounts
logsource:
product: aws
service: cloudtrail
detection:
selection:
eventName: 'GetFederationToken'
errorCode: 'AccessDenied'
condition: selection
falsepositives:
level: medium
Stages and Predicates
Stage 0: condition
selectionStage 1: selection
selection:
eventName: 'GetFederationToken'
errorCode: 'AccessDenied'
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.