AWS IAM Assume Role Policy Update
Identifies AWS CloudTrail events where an IAM role's trust policy has been updated by an IAM user or Assumed Role identity. The trust policy is a JSON document that defines which principals are allowed to assume the…
Description
Identifies AWS CloudTrail events where an IAM role's trust policy has been updated by an IAM user or Assumed Role identity. The trust policy is a JSON document that defines which principals are allowed to assume the role. An attacker may attempt to modify this policy to gain the privileges of the role. This is a New Terms rule, which means it will only trigger once for each unique combination of the "cloud.account.id", "user.name" and "entity.target.id" fields, that have not been seen making this API request.
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.
- Log source category
- event_index
Known benign triggers
- Verify whether the user identity should be making changes in your environment. Policy updates from 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 |
|---|---|
| labs.bishopfox.com/tech-blog/5-privesc-attack-vectors-in-aws | Only this detection cites it |
From the source
- At source
- Open at source
- Upstream identifier
- a60326d7-dca7-4fb7-93eb-1ca03a1febbd
- Tagged by the source as
- Data Source: AWS CloudTrailDomain: CloudNoise: MediumPerformance: NormalPlatform: AWSResources: Investigation GuideRule Type: New TermsService: AWS IAMTactic: Privilege Escalation
Licence
- Published under
- Elastic License 2.0Read the licence
- Attribution
- Required
Authorship
- Written by
- Published
- Sep 19, 2026
- Version
- 2