AWS SES Full Access Policy Attached to IAM Entity by Unusual User
Detects the first occurrence in 7 days of an AWS identity attaching the managed policy AmazonSESFullAccess to an IAM user, role, or group. AmazonSESFullAccess grants unrestricted permission to send email, manage…
Description
Detects the first occurrence in 7 days of an AWS identity attaching the managed policy AmazonSESFullAccess to an IAM user, role, or group. AmazonSESFullAccess grants unrestricted permission to send email, manage identities and templates, manage suppression lists, and access SES account-level settings. Granting this policy to an unexpected IAM entity, particularly a newly created user or a role not previously associated with email operations, is a documented technique used by threat actors to establish phishing infrastructure on compromised AWS accounts, enabling them to send email on behalf of the victim organization's trusted sending domain. Using new terms on the calling identity suppresses recurring attachments by known email automation while surfacing identities performing this action for the first time.
Detection logic
Its licence does not clear it for publishing here
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Detection requirements
- Platform
- ContainersESXiIaaSIdentity ProviderLinuxmacOSNetwork DevicesOffice SuitePRESaaSWindows
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
- Legitimate email service automation may attach AmazonSESFullAccess to a service account. Validate the target IAM entity against known email automation roles and CI/CD pipeline identities. Because this is a new terms rule keyed on the calling identity, recurring attachments by the same automation will not re-alert within the 7-day history window; first-time attachments by administrators performing legitimate setup may still trigger and should be validated against change management records.
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/ses/latest/dg/control-user-access.html | Only this detection cites it |
From the source
- At source
- Open at source
- Upstream identifier
- d2e3f4a5-b6c7-8901-bcde-f23456789012
- Tagged by the source as
- Data Source: Amazon Web ServicesData Source: AWSData Source: AWS CloudTrailDomain: CloudPlatform: AWSResources: Investigation GuideRule Type: New TermsService: AWS IAMService: AWS SESTactic: PersistenceTactic: Resource Development
Licence
- Published under
- Elastic License 2.0Read the licence
- Attribution
- Required
Authorship
- Written by
- Published
- Sep 20, 2026
- Version
- 2