Excessive AWS S3 Object Encryption with SSE-C
Identifies a high-volume of AWS S3 objects stored in a bucket using using Server-Side Encryption with Customer-Provided Keys (SSE-C). Adversaries with compromised AWS credentials can encrypt objects in an S3 bucket…
Description
Identifies a high-volume of AWS S3 objects stored in a bucket using using Server-Side Encryption with Customer-Provided Keys (SSE-C). Adversaries with compromised AWS credentials can encrypt objects in an S3 bucket using their own encryption keys, rendering the objects unreadable or recoverable without the key. This can be used as a form of ransomware to extort the bucket owner for the decryption key. This is a Threshold rule that triggers when this behavior is observed multiple times for a specific bucket in a short time-window.
Detection logic
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Detection requirements
Known benign triggers
- Legitimate use of Server-Side Encryption with Customer-Provided Keys (SSE-C) to encrypt objects in an S3 bucket.
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/AmazonS3/latest/userguide/ServerSideEncryptionCustomerKeys.html | 2 |
| www.halcyon.ai/blog/abusing-aws-native-services-ransomware-encrypting-s3-buckets-with-sse-c | 3 |
From the source
- At source
- Open at source
- Upstream identifier
- 909bf7c8-d371-11ef-bcc3-f661ea17fbcd
- Tagged by the source as
- Data Source: Amazon Web ServicesData Source: AWSData Source: AWS CloudTrailData Source: AWS S3Domain: CloudNoise: LowPerformance: NormalPlatform: AWSProfile: RecommendedResources: Investigation GuideRule Type: ThresholdService: AWS S3Tactic: ImpactThreat: RansomwareUse Case: Threat Detection
Licence
- Published under
- Elastic License 2.0Read the licence
- Attribution
- Required
Authorship
- Written by
- Published
- Sep 20, 2026
- Version
- 3