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AWS IAM User Console Login from Multiple Geolocations

Identifies an IAM user that successfully signs in to the AWS Management Console from two or more distinct countries within a short window. A single user authenticating from multiple geographic locations in a brief…

Description

Identifies an IAM user that successfully signs in to the AWS Management Console from two or more distinct countries within a short window. A single user authenticating from multiple geographic locations in a brief period is physically implausible and indicates that the account's credentials or console session are being used from more than one place at once. This is a hallmark of adversary-in-the-middle (AiTM) phishing and session theft, where the legitimate user signs in from their location while the attacker replays the captured session or credentials from their own infrastructure. Because the attacker logs in from a different network, the divergent sign-in geolocations are the detectable signal even when MFA appears satisfied (AiTM relays the live MFA challenge). This is the CloudTrail-native analog of identity-provider impossible-travel sign-in detections.

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 SuiteSaaSWindows

The rule states no platform. This is derived from the 2 ATT&CK techniques it maps to.

Known benign triggers

  • Legitimate users may appear in multiple countries within the window when using VPNs or proxies with exit nodes in different countries, when traveling near borders, or when mobile networks geolocate to different countries. Verify the source IPs and ASNs in "Esql.source_ip_values", confirm whether the locations are consistent with the user's expected activity, and exclude known VPN egress patterns after validation. Shared IAM users (an anti-pattern) used by multiple people will also match.

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