Detection rules › Splunk
AWS IAM Failure Group Deletion
The following analytic identifies failed attempts to delete AWS IAM groups. It leverages AWS CloudTrail logs to detect events where the DeleteGroup action fails due to errors like NoSuchEntityException, DeleteConflictException, or AccessDenied. This activity is significant as it may indicate unauthorized attempts to modify IAM group configurations, which could be a precursor to privilege escalation or other malicious actions. If confirmed malicious, this could allow an attacker to disrupt IAM policies, potentially leading to unauthorized access or denial of service within the AWS environment.
MITRE ATT&CK coverage
| Tactic | Techniques |
|---|---|
| Persistence | T1098 Account Manipulation |
| Privilege Escalation | T1098 Account Manipulation |
Event coverage
| Provider | Event |
|---|---|
| AWS-iam | DeleteGroup |
Rules detecting the same action
Other rules on this platform that filter on the same API call or operation.
- AWS IAM Group Deletion (Elastic)
- AWS IAM Successful Group Deletion (Splunk)
- High-Risk Cross-Cloud User Impersonation (Kusto)
Rule body splunk
name: AWS IAM Failure Group Deletion
id: 723b861a-92eb-11eb-93b8-acde48001122
version: 12
creation_date: '2021-04-06'
modification_date: '2026-05-13'
author: Michael Haag, Splunk
status: production
type: Anomaly
description: The following analytic identifies failed attempts to delete AWS IAM groups. It leverages AWS CloudTrail logs to detect events where the DeleteGroup action fails due to errors like NoSuchEntityException, DeleteConflictException, or AccessDenied. This activity is significant as it may indicate unauthorized attempts to modify IAM group configurations, which could be a precursor to privilege escalation or other malicious actions. If confirmed malicious, this could allow an attacker to disrupt IAM policies, potentially leading to unauthorized access or denial of service within the AWS environment.
data_source:
- AWS CloudTrail DeleteGroup
search: |-
`cloudtrail` eventSource=iam.amazonaws.com eventName=DeleteGroup errorCode IN (NoSuchEntityException,DeleteConflictException, AccessDenied) (userAgent!=*.amazonaws.com)
| 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
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
| `aws_iam_failure_group_deletion_filter`
how_to_implement: The Splunk AWS Add-on and Splunk App for AWS is required to utilize this data. The search requires AWS CloudTrail logs.
known_false_positives: This detection will require tuning to provide high fidelity detection capabilties. Tune based on src addresses (corporate offices, VPN terminations) or by groups of users. Not every user with AWS access should have permission to delete groups (least privilege).
references:
- https://awscli.amazonaws.com/v2/documentation/api/latest/reference/iam/delete-group.html
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/APIReference/API_DeleteGroup.html
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"
intermediate_findings:
entities:
- field: user
type: user
score: 20
message: User $user$ has had mulitple failures while attempting to delete groups from $src$
threat_objects:
- field: src
type: ip_address
analytic_story:
- AWS IAM Privilege Escalation
asset_type: AWS Account
mitre_attack_id:
- T1098
product:
- Splunk Enterprise
- Splunk Enterprise Security
- Splunk Cloud
category: cloud
security_domain: access
tests:
- name: True Positive Test
attack_data:
- data: https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/splunk/attack_data/master/datasets/attack_techniques/T1098/aws_iam_failure_group_deletion/aws_iam_failure_group_deletion.json
sourcetype: aws:cloudtrail
source: aws_cloudtrail
test_type: unit
Stages and Predicates
Stage 1: search
`cloudtrail` eventSource=iam.amazonaws.com eventName=DeleteGroup errorCode IN (NoSuchEntityException,DeleteConflictException, AccessDenied) (userAgent!=*.amazonaws.com)
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
Stage 4: search
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
Stage 5: search
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
Stage 6: search
| `aws_iam_failure_group_deletion_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 |
|---|---|---|
errorCode | in |
|
eventName | eq |
|
eventSource | eq |
|
sourcetype | eq |
|
userAgent | ne |
|