Amazon EKS Kubernetes Pod scan detection

Status: experimental
Group by: "user.groups{}", "user.username", cluster_name, src_ip
Author: Rod Soto, Splunk
Source: github.com/splunk/security_content

The following analytic detects unauthenticated requests made against the Kubernetes Pods API, indicating potential unauthorized access attempts. It leverages the aws_cloudwatchlogs_eks data source, filtering for events where user.username is "system:anonymous", verb is "list", and objectRef.resource is "pods", with requestURI set to "/api/v1/pods". This activity is significant as it may signal attempts to access sensitive resources or execute unauthorized commands within the Kubernetes environment. If confirmed malicious, such access could lead to data compromise, unauthorized command execution, or lateral movement within the cluster.

Known false positives

Not all unauthenticated requests are malicious, but frequency, UA and source IPs and direct request to API provide context.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Discovery	`T1526` Cloud Service Discovery

Telemetry coverage

Platform	Record / event type
Kubernetes	list-pods: list pods

Rules detecting the same action

These rules filter on the same operation.

Direct Interactive Kubernetes API Request by Unusual Utilities (Elastic)
GKE Multi-Resource Discovery (Elastic)

Rule body

name: Amazon EKS Kubernetes Pod scan detection
id: dbfca1dd-b8e5-4ba4-be0e-e565e5d62002
version: 7
creation_date: '2020-04-29'
modification_date: '2026-05-13'
author: Rod Soto, Splunk
status: experimental
type: Hunting
description: The following analytic detects unauthenticated requests made against the Kubernetes Pods API, indicating potential unauthorized access attempts. It leverages the `aws_cloudwatchlogs_eks` data source, filtering for events where `user.username` is "system:anonymous", `verb` is "list", and `objectRef.resource` is "pods", with `requestURI` set to "/api/v1/pods". This activity is significant as it may signal attempts to access sensitive resources or execute unauthorized commands within the Kubernetes environment. If confirmed malicious, such access could lead to data compromise, unauthorized command execution, or lateral movement within the cluster.
data_source: []
search: |-
    `aws_cloudwatchlogs_eks` "user.username"="system:anonymous" verb=list objectRef.resource=pods requestURI="/api/v1/pods"
      | rename source as cluster_name sourceIPs{} as src_ip
      | stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime values(responseStatus.reason) values(responseStatus.code) values(userAgent) values(verb) values(requestURI)
        BY src_ip cluster_name user.username
           user.groups{}
      | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
      | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
      | `amazon_eks_kubernetes_pod_scan_detection_filter`
how_to_implement: You must install the AWS App for Splunk (version 5.1.0 or later) and Splunk Add-on forAWS (version 4.4.0 or later), then configure your AWS CloudWatch EKS Logs.Please also customize the `kubernetes_pods_aws_scan_fingerprint_detection` macro to filter out the false positives.
known_false_positives: Not all unauthenticated requests are malicious, but frequency, UA and source IPs and direct request to API provide context.
references: []
analytic_story:
    - Kubernetes Scanning Activity
asset_type: Amazon EKS Kubernetes cluster Pod
mitre_attack_id:
    - T1526
product:
    - Splunk Enterprise
    - Splunk Enterprise Security
    - Splunk Cloud
category: cloud
security_domain: threat

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: `search`

`aws_cloudwatchlogs_eks` "user.username"="system:anonymous" verb=list objectRef.resource=pods requestURI="/api/v1/pods"

Stage 2: `rename`

| rename source as cluster_name sourceIPs{} as src_ip

Stage 3: `stats`

| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime values(responseStatus.reason) values(responseStatus.code) values(userAgent) values(verb) values(requestURI)
    BY src_ip cluster_name user.username
       user.groups{}

Stage 4: `search`

| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`

Stage 5: `search`

| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`

Stage 6: `search`

| `amazon_eks_kubernetes_pod_scan_detection_filter`

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

Field	Kind	Values	Search
`objectRef.resource`	eq	`pods`	`field:"objectRef.resource" kind:eq value:"pods"`
`requestURI`	eq	`"/api/v1/pods"`	`field:"requestURI" kind:eq`
`sourcetype`	eq	`aws:cloudwatchlogs:eks`	`field:"sourcetype" kind:eq value:"aws:cloudwatchlogs:eks"`
`user.username`	eq	`"system:anonymous"`	`field:"user.username" kind:eq`
`verb`	eq	`list`	`field:"verb" kind:eq value:"list"`