AWS Anomalous Secrets Manager Batch Retrieval
The following analytic detects an AWS principal making more than 10 distinct successful Secrets Manager BatchGetSecretValue API calls within one hour. It groups calls by AWS account and user identity ARN and…
Description
The following analytic detects an AWS principal making more than 10 distinct successful Secrets Manager BatchGetSecretValue API calls within one hour. It groups calls by AWS account and user identity ARN and deduplicates CloudTrail events by event ID. Repeated batch retrieval may indicate bulk access to secrets using a compromised identity, although legitimate automation can produce similar activity.
Detection logic
Detection requirements
- Platform
- IaaS
The rule states no platform. This is derived from the ATT&CK technique it maps to.
- Log source category
- aws_cloudtrail
Known benign triggers
- Legitimate administrators, deployment systems, credential-rotation services, incident-response tooling, or newly deployed applications may use BatchGetSecretValue for the first time. A principal may trigger the detection again when it has not used the API during the preceding seven days. Review the principal, source IP address, user agent, account, region, requested secret identifiers, and surrounding CloudTrail activity to determine whether the request was authorized.
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 |
|---|---|
| attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1555/006/ | Only this detection cites it |
| docs.aws.amazon.com/secretsmanager/latest/apireference/API_BatchGetSecretValue.html | 2from 2 sources |
| docs.aws.amazon.com/secretsmanager/latest/userguide/cloudtrail_log_entries.html | Only this detection cites it |
| www.elastic.co/guide/en/security/8.19/aws-secrets-manager-rapid-secrets-retrieval.html | Only this detection cites it |
From the source
- At source
- Open at source
- Upstream identifier
- 93646bda-291b-4a59-a926-19f08e26f7cd
- Tagged by the source as
- AWS Identity and Access Management Account TakeoverAWS AccountcloudSplunk CloudSplunk EnterpriseSplunk Enterprise Securitythreat
Licence
- Published under
- Apache License 2.0Read the licence
- Attribution
- Required
- Obtained under
- Apache-2.0Read the origin licence
Authorship
- Written by
- Published
- Oct 19, 2026
- Version
- 1