AWS EC2 NACL Entry Created or Replaced Allowing All Traffic by New Identity
Detects a principal account creating or replacing - or attempts to create or replace - an AWS Network Access Control List (NACL) entry using protocol -1 (all traffic). Both successful and failed outcomes are…
Description
Detects a principal account creating or replacing - or attempts to create or replace - an AWS Network Access Control List (NACL) entry using protocol -1 (all traffic). Both successful and failed outcomes are included. A NACL entry with protocol -1 passes all traffic regardless of port, which would disable network-layer controls for the affected subnets. Monitoring for new identities performing this change helps surface freshly compromised credentials or unauthorized principals removing a defense-in-depth layer to facilitate lateral movement or data exfiltration. This signal only flags if this behavior was not observed historically in a specific time window.
Detection logic
Its licence does not clear it for publishing here
Sunturai publishes a detection's own text where the licence it arrived under has been reviewed and permits it, and Elastic License 2.0 has not. The query as its source wrote it, its canonical form and the hash that pins this revision are in the workspace record.
Detection requirements
- Platform
- ContainersESXiIaaSIdentity ProviderLinuxmacOSNetwork DevicesOffice SuiteWindows
The rule states no platform. This is derived from the 2 ATT&CK techniques it maps to.
- Log source category
- event_index
Known benign triggers
- Some legitimate architectures use permissive NACLs as a passthrough layer while relying on security groups for access control. Validate that the modified NACL is associated with subnets where this design pattern is expected and that the change was authorized through a change management process.
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 |
|---|---|
| docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/APIReference/API_CreateNetworkAclEntry.html | 2 |
| docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/APIReference/API_ReplaceNetworkAclEntry.html | Only this detection cites it |
From the source
- At source
- Open at source
- Upstream identifier
- 5d9a3c71-2b84-4e58-f693-1c7f0a4e8b26
- Tagged by the source as
- Data Source: Amazon Web ServicesData Source: AWSData Source: AWS CloudTrailData Source: AWS EC2Domain: CloudNoise: UnknownPerformance: FastPlatform: AWSResources: Investigation GuideRule Type: New TermsService: AWS EC2Tactic: Defense EvasionUse Case: Threat Detection
Licence
- Published under
- Elastic License 2.0Read the licence
- Attribution
- Required
Authorship
- Written by
- Published
- Sep 20, 2026
- Version
- 3