Detection rules › Splunk
AWS Console Login Failed During MFA Challenge
The following analytic identifies failed authentication attempts to the AWS Console during the Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) challenge. It leverages AWS CloudTrail logs, specifically the additionalEventData field, to detect when MFA was used but the login attempt still failed. This activity is significant as it may indicate an adversary attempting to access an account with compromised credentials but being thwarted by MFA. If confirmed malicious, this could suggest an ongoing attempt to breach the account, potentially leading to unauthorized access and further attacks if MFA is bypassed.
MITRE ATT&CK coverage
| Tactic | Techniques |
|---|---|
| Resource Development | T1586.003 Compromise Accounts: Cloud Accounts |
| Credential Access | T1621 Multi-Factor Authentication Request Generation |
Rules detecting the same action
Other rules on this platform that filter on the same API call or operation.
- AWS Console Login (Panther)
- AWS ConsoleLogin Failed Authentication (Sigma)
- AWS CreateLoginProfile (Splunk)
- AWS Credential Access Failed Login (Splunk)
- AWS High Number Of Failed Authentications For User (Splunk)
- AWS High Number Of Failed Authentications From Ip (Splunk)
- AWS Multiple Failed MFA Requests For User (Splunk)
- AWS Multiple Users Failing To Authenticate From Ip (Splunk)
Rule body splunk
name: AWS Console Login Failed During MFA Challenge
id: 55349868-5583-466f-98ab-d3beb321961e
version: 11
creation_date: '2022-10-03'
modification_date: '2026-05-13'
author: Bhavin Patel, Splunk
status: production
type: TTP
description: The following analytic identifies failed authentication attempts to the AWS Console during the Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) challenge. It leverages AWS CloudTrail logs, specifically the `additionalEventData` field, to detect when MFA was used but the login attempt still failed. This activity is significant as it may indicate an adversary attempting to access an account with compromised credentials but being thwarted by MFA. If confirmed malicious, this could suggest an ongoing attempt to breach the account, potentially leading to unauthorized access and further attacks if MFA is bypassed.
data_source:
- AWS CloudTrail ConsoleLogin
search: |-
`cloudtrail` eventName= ConsoleLogin errorMessage="Failed authentication" additionalEventData.MFAUsed = "Yes"
| rename user_name as user
| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime
BY signature dest user
user_agent src vendor_account
vendor_region vendor_product additionalEventData.MFAUsed
errorMessage
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
| `aws_console_login_failed_during_mfa_challenge_filter`
how_to_implement: The Splunk AWS Add-on is required to utilize this data. The search requires AWS CloudTrail logs.
known_false_positives: Legitimate users may miss to reply the MFA challenge within the time window or deny it by mistake.
references:
- https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1621/
- https://aws.amazon.com/what-is/mfa/
drilldown_searches:
- name: View the detection results for - "$user$"
search: '%original_detection_search% | search user = "$user$"'
earliest_offset: $info_min_time$
latest_offset: $info_max_time$
- name: View risk events for the last 7 days for - "$user$"
search: '| from datamodel Risk.All_Risk | search normalized_risk_object IN ("$user$") | stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime values(search_name) as "Search Name" values(risk_message) as "Risk Message" values(analyticstories) as "Analytic Stories" values(annotations._all) as "Annotations" values(annotations.mitre_attack.mitre_tactic) as "ATT&CK Tactics" by normalized_risk_object | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`'
earliest_offset: 7d
latest_offset: "0"
finding:
title: User $user$ failed to pass MFA challenge while logging into console from $src$
entity:
field: user
type: user
score: 50
threat_objects:
- field: src
type: ip_address
analytic_story:
- AWS Identity and Access Management Account Takeover
- Compromised User Account
asset_type: AWS Account
mitre_attack_id:
- T1586.003
- T1621
product:
- Splunk Enterprise
- Splunk Enterprise Security
- Splunk Cloud
category: cloud
security_domain: threat
tests:
- name: True Positive Test
attack_data:
- data: https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/splunk/attack_data/master/datasets/attack_techniques/T1621/aws_failed_mfa/cloudtrail.json
sourcetype: aws:cloudtrail
source: aws_cloudtrail
test_type: unit
Stages and Predicates
Stage 1: search
`cloudtrail` eventName= ConsoleLogin errorMessage="Failed authentication" additionalEventData.MFAUsed = "Yes"
Stage 2: rename
| rename user_name as user
Stage 3: stats
| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime
BY signature dest user
user_agent src vendor_account
vendor_region vendor_product additionalEventData.MFAUsed
errorMessage
Stage 4: search
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
Stage 5: search
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
Stage 6: search
| `aws_console_login_failed_during_mfa_challenge_filter`
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 |
|---|---|---|
additionalEventData.MFAUsed | eq |
|
errorMessage | eq |
|
eventName | eq |
|
sourcetype | eq |
|