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HighSigmaHQ jamesc-grafana

Malicious Usage Of IMDS Credentials Outside Of AWS Infrastructure

Detects when an instance identity has taken an action that isn't inside SSM. This can indicate that a compromised EC2 instance is being used as a pivot point.

Detection logic

Detection requirements

Platform: Containers ESXi IaaS Identity Provider Linux macOS Network Devices Office Suite SaaS Windows
The rule states no platform. This is derived from the ATT&CK technique it maps to.
Log source product: aws
Log source service: cloudtrail

Known benign triggers

A team has configured an EC2 instance to use instance profiles that grant the option for the EC2 instance to talk to other AWS Services

References

Links the source published beside this detection. Reference is the link the source wrote, unmodified. Class is decided by this catalogue from the host and path, not stated by the source. Cited by counts published detections citing the same resource, including this one, and the sources beneath it count the repositories this catalogue ingests, which is not the same as independent research.
Reference	Class	Cited by
docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/ec2-instance-identity-roles.html	Product documentation	Only this detection cites it
ermetic.com/blog/aws/aws-ec2-imds-what-you-need-to-know/	Unclassified	Only this detection cites it
www.packetmischief.ca/2023/07/31/amazon-ec2-credential-exfiltration-how-it-happens-and-how-to-mitigate-it/#lifting-credentials-from-imds-this-is-why-we-cant-have-nice-things	Unclassified	Only this detection cites it

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