AWS Suspicious User Agent Fingerprint

Description

Identifies successful AWS API calls where the CloudTrail user agent indicates offensive tooling or automated credential verification. This includes the AWS CLI or Boto3 reporting a Kali Linux distribution fingerprint (`distrib#kali`), and clients that identify as TruffleHog, which is commonly used to validate leaked secrets against live AWS APIs. These patterns are uncommon for routine production workloads and may indicate compromised credentials, unauthorized access, or security tooling operating outside approved scope.

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: Containers ESXi IaaS Identity Provider Linux macOS Network Devices Office Suite SaaS Windows
The rule states no platform. This is derived from the ATT&CK technique it maps to.
Log source category: event_index

Known benign triggers

Authorized penetration tests, red team exercises, or research activity may originate from Kali Linux. Internal secret scanning pipelines may run TruffleHog with permission to reach AWS for verification. Validate the IAM principal, source network, change records, and whether the activity matches documented security or DevSecOps workflows.

References

Links the source published beside this detection. Reference is the link the source wrote, unmodified. Class is decided by this catalogue from the host and path, not stated by the source. Cited by counts published detections citing the same resource, including this one, and the sources beneath it count the repositories this catalogue ingests, which is not the same as independent research.
Reference	Class	Cited by
docs.aws.amazon.com/awscloudtrail/latest/userguide/cloudtrail-event-reference-user-identity.html	Product documentation	Only this detection cites it
kudelskisecurity.com/research/investigating-two-variants-of-the-trivy-supply-chain-compromise	Unclassified	6
trufflesecurity.com/blog/trufflehog-in-your-log	Unclassified	Only this detection cites it
www.sygnia.co/blog/sygnia-investigation-bybit-hack/	Security research	5

Detection rules

AWS Suspicious User Agent Fingerprint

Description

Detection logic

Detection requirements

Known benign triggers

MITRE ATT&CK mappings

References

From the source

Licence

Authorship

Detection rules