Detection rules › Splunk
AWS Successful Single-Factor Authentication
The following analytic identifies a successful Console Login authentication event for an AWS IAM user account without Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) enabled. It leverages AWS CloudTrail logs to detect instances where MFA was not used during login. This activity is significant as it may indicate a misconfiguration, policy violation, or potential account takeover attempt. If confirmed malicious, an attacker could gain unauthorized access to the AWS environment, potentially leading to data exfiltration, resource manipulation, or further privilege escalation.
MITRE ATT&CK coverage
| Tactic | Techniques |
|---|---|
| Resource Development | T1586.003 Compromise Accounts: Cloud Accounts |
| 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.
- AWS Console Login (Panther)
- AWS Console Login Failed During MFA Challenge (Splunk)
- 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)
Rule body splunk
name: AWS Successful Single-Factor Authentication
id: a520b1fe-cc9e-4f56-b762-18354594c52f
version: 11
creation_date: '2022-10-04'
modification_date: '2026-05-13'
author: Bhavin Patel, Splunk
status: production
type: TTP
description: The following analytic identifies a successful Console Login authentication event for an AWS IAM user account without Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) enabled. It leverages AWS CloudTrail logs to detect instances where MFA was not used during login. This activity is significant as it may indicate a misconfiguration, policy violation, or potential account takeover attempt. If confirmed malicious, an attacker could gain unauthorized access to the AWS environment, potentially leading to data exfiltration, resource manipulation, or further privilege escalation.
data_source:
- AWS CloudTrail ConsoleLogin
search: |-
`cloudtrail` eventName= ConsoleLogin errorCode=success "additionalEventData.MFAUsed"=No
| 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_successful_single_factor_authentication_filter`
how_to_implement: The Splunk AWS Add-on is required to utilize this data. The search requires AWS CloudTrail logs.
known_false_positives: It is possible that some accounts do not have MFA enabled for the AWS account however its agaisnt the best practices of securing AWS.
references:
- https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1621/
- https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1078/004/
- 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 $user$ has successfully logged into an AWS Console without Multi-Factor Authentication 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
asset_type: AWS Account
mitre_attack_id:
- T1078.004
- T1586.003
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/T1078.004/aws_login_sfa/cloudtrail.json
sourcetype: aws:cloudtrail
source: aws_cloudtrail
test_type: unit
Stages and Predicates
Stage 1: search
`cloudtrail` eventName= ConsoleLogin errorCode=success "additionalEventData.MFAUsed"=No
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_successful_single_factor_authentication_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 |
|
errorCode | eq |
|
eventName | eq |
|
sourcetype | eq |
|