AWS KMS Customer Managed Key Disabled or Scheduled for Deletion
Identifies attempts to disable or schedule the deletion of an AWS customer managed KMS Key. Disabling or scheduling a KMS key for deletion removes the ability to decrypt data encrypted under that key and can…
Description
Identifies attempts to disable or schedule the deletion of an AWS customer managed KMS Key. Disabling or scheduling a KMS key for deletion removes the ability to decrypt data encrypted under that key and can permanently destroy access to critical resources. Adversaries may use these operations to cause irreversible data loss, disrupt business operations, impede incident response, or hide evidence of prior activity. Because KMS keys often protect sensitive or regulated data, any modification to their lifecycle should be considered highly sensitive and investigated promptly.
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
- ContainersESXiIaaSLinuxmacOSWindows
The rule states no platform. This is derived from the ATT&CK technique it maps to.
- Log source category
- event_index
Known benign triggers
- A customer managed KMS key may be disabled or scheduled for deletion by a system administrator. Verify whether the user identity, user agent, and/or hostname should be making changes in your environment. Key deletions by unfamiliar users should be investigated. 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 |
|---|---|
| docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/kms/disable-key.html | Only this detection cites it |
| docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/kms/schedule-key-deletion.html | Only this detection cites it |
From the source
- At source
- Open at source
- Upstream identifier
- 6951f15e-533c-4a60-8014-a3c3ab851a1b
- Tagged by the source as
- Data Source: Amazon Web ServicesData Source: AWSData Source: AWS CloudTrailDomain: CloudNoise: MediumPerformance: NormalPlatform: AWSResources: Investigation GuideRule Type: Custom Query (KQL)Service: AWS KMSTactic: Impact
Licence
- Published under
- Elastic License 2.0Read the licence
- Attribution
- Required
Authorship
- Written by
- Published
- Sep 20, 2026
- Version
- 3