AWSCloudTrail - CloudFormation policy created then used for privilege escalation
Identifies creation of IAM policies that grant CloudFormation and IAM permissions commonly used for privilege escalation, followed by attachment activity to a user, role, or group. Review whether the new policy and…
Description
Identifies creation of IAM policies that grant CloudFormation and IAM permissions commonly used for privilege escalation, followed by attachment activity to a user, role, or group. Review whether the new policy and any subsequent attachment were authorized because this pattern can enable an attacker to create or elevate access.
Detection logic
Detection requirements
- Platform
- IaaSIdentity ProviderOffice SuiteSaaSWindows
The rule states no platform. This is derived from the 2 ATT&CK techniques it maps to.
- Log source product
- aws
- Log source service
- awscloudtrail
MITRE ATT&CK mappings
0 exclusive techniques.This is coverage no other published rule has; it is not this rule's total technique count.
No references are available for this detection.
From the source
- At source
- Open at source
- Upstream identifier
- efdc3cff-f006-426f-97fd-4657862f7b9a
- Tagged by the source as
- DefenseEvasionPersistencePrivilegeEscalation
Licence
- Published under
- MIT LicenseRead the licence
- Attribution
- Required
- Obtained under
- MITRead the origin licence
Authorship
- Published
- Aug 29, 2026
- Version
- 1