AWS Lambda Function High-Frequency Invocation by a Single Principal
Identifies a single principal directly invoking AWS Lambda functions at a high volume within a one-hour window. Adversaries may drive excessive invocations to abuse functions for resource hijacking or cryptomining,…
Description
Identifies a single principal directly invoking AWS Lambda functions at a high volume within a one-hour window. Adversaries may drive excessive invocations to abuse functions for resource hijacking or cryptomining, to inflate costs in a denial-of-wallet attack, or to enumerate function behavior. This is a volumetric heuristic: the threshold is environment-dependent and high-throughput applications can exceed it, so tune it to the deployment. This rule relies on AWS Lambda data event logging, which is not enabled by default.
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
Known benign triggers
- Legitimate high-throughput applications, batch jobs, load tests, and automation can invoke functions at high volume and will exceed any fixed threshold. Validate the principal in `aws.cloudtrail.user_identity.arn` and the workload context, and tune the threshold to the environment.
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/lambda/latest/dg/lambda-concurrency.html | Only this detection cites it |
| docs.aws.amazon.com/lambda/latest/dg/logging-using-cloudtrail.html | 5 |
From the source
- At source
- Open at source
- Upstream identifier
- 55260656-76d6-427b-bd02-7acdde131b64
- Tagged by the source as
- Data Source: Amazon Web ServicesData Source: AWSData Source: AWS CloudTrailData Source: AWS LambdaDomain: CloudNoise: HighPerformance: FastPlatform: AWSProfile: AggressiveResources: Investigation GuideRule Type: ES|QLService: AWS LambdaTactic: ImpactUse Case: Threat Detection
Licence
- Published under
- Elastic License 2.0Read the licence
- Attribution
- Required
Authorship
- Written by
- Published
- Sep 20, 2026
- Version
- 3