Attempt To Get Federation Token

Status: experimental
Severity: medium
Log source: product aws, service cloudtrail
Author: Zach Mathis (@yamatosecurity)
Source: github.com/Yamato-Security/suzaku-rules

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

These rules filter on the same operation.

Get Federation Token (Sigma)

Rule body

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`

selection

Stage 1: `selection`

selection:
    eventName: 'GetFederationToken'
    errorCode: 'AccessDenied'

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

Field	Kind	Values	Search
`errorCode`	eq	`AccessDenied`	`field:"aws::errorCode" kind:eq value:"AccessDenied"`
`eventName`	eq	`GetFederationToken`	`field:"aws::eventName" kind:eq value:"GetFederationToken"`