First Time Seen AWS Secret Value Accessed in Secrets Manager
An adversary with access to a compromised AWS service such as an EC2 instance, Lambda function, or other service may attempt to leverage the compromised service to access secrets in AWS Secrets Manager. This rule…
Description
An adversary with access to a compromised AWS service such as an EC2 instance, Lambda function, or other service may attempt to leverage the compromised service to access secrets in AWS Secrets Manager. This rule looks for the first time a specific user identity has programmatically retrieved a secret value from Secrets Manager using the GetSecretValue action. This rule assumes that AWS services such as Lambda functions and EC2 instances are setup with IAM role's assigned that have the necessary permissions to access the secrets in Secrets Manager. An adversary with access to a compromised AWS service would rely on its' attached role to access the secrets in Secrets Manager.
Detection logic
Its licence does not clear it for publishing here
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Detection requirements
- Platform
- IaaSLinuxmacOSWindows
The rule states no platform. This is derived from the ATT&CK technique it maps to.
- Log source category
- event_index
Known benign triggers
- Verify whether the user identity, user agent, and/or hostname should be using GetSecretString API for the specified SecretId. If known behavior is causing false positives, it can be exempted from the rule.
MITRE ATT&CK mappings
0 exclusive techniques.This is coverage no other published rule has; it is not this rule's total technique count.
References
| Reference | Cited by |
|---|---|
| cloud.hacktricks.xyz/pentesting-cloud/aws-security/aws-services/aws-secrets-manager-enum | 2 |
| detectioninthe.cloud/ttps/credential_access/access_secret_in_secrets_manager/ | 2 |
| docs.aws.amazon.com/secretsmanager/latest/apireference/API_BatchGetSecretValue.html | Only this detection cites it |
| docs.aws.amazon.com/secretsmanager/latest/apireference/API_GetSecretValue.html | 3 |
From the source
- At source
- Open at source
- Upstream identifier
- a00681e3-9ed6-447c-ab2c-be648821c622
- Tagged by the source as
- Data Source: Amazon Web ServicesData Source: AWSData Source: AWS CloudTrailDomain: CloudNoise: HighPerformance: NormalPlatform: AWSProfile: AggressiveResources: Investigation GuideRule Type: New TermsService: AWS Secrets ManagerTactic: Credential Access
Licence
- Published under
- Elastic License 2.0Read the licence
- Attribution
- Required
Authorship
- Written by
- Published
- Sep 20, 2026
- Version
- 3