AWSCloudTrail - Privilege escalation with admin managed policy

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Id	49ce5322-60d7-4b02-ad79-99f650aa5790
Rulename	AWSCloudTrail - Privilege escalation with admin managed policy
Description	Detects successful attachment of admin-related managed IAM policies to users, roles, or groups, excluding the dedicated AdministratorAccess and FullAccess patterns handled by other detections. This behavior may indicate unauthorized privilege escalation and should be validated against approved administrative changes.
Severity	Medium
Tactics	PrivilegeEscalation Persistence
Techniques	T1098.003
Required data connectors	AWS
Kind	Scheduled
Query frequency	1d
Query period	1d
Trigger threshold	0
Trigger operator	gt
Source Uri	https://github.com/Azure/Azure-Sentinel/blob/master/Solutions/Amazon%20Web%20Services/Analytic%20Rules/AWS_PrivilegeEscalationAdminManagedPolicy.yaml
Version	1.0.2
Arm template	49ce5322-60d7-4b02-ad79-99f650aa5790.json

KQL

AWSCloudTrail
| where  EventName in ("AttachUserPolicy","AttachRolePolicy","AttachGroupPolicy") and isempty(ErrorCode) and isempty(ErrorMessage)
| where tostring(parse_json(RequestParameters).policyArn) contains "Admin" and tostring(parse_json(RequestParameters).policyArn) !contains "FullAccess" and tostring(parse_json(RequestParameters).policyArn) !startswith "arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AdministratorAccess"
| extend UserIdentityArn = iif(isempty(UserIdentityArn), tostring(parse_json(Resources)[0].ARN), UserIdentityArn)
| extend UserName = tostring(split(UserIdentityArn, '/')[-1])
| extend AccountName = case( UserIdentityPrincipalid == "Anonymous", "Anonymous", isempty(UserIdentityUserName), UserName, UserIdentityUserName)
| extend AccountName = iif(AccountName contains "@", tostring(split(AccountName, '@', 0)[0]), AccountName),
  AccountUPNSuffix = iif(AccountName contains "@", tostring(split(AccountName, '@', 1)[0]), "")
| project TimeGenerated, EventName, EventTypeName, UserIdentityAccountId, UserIdentityPrincipalid, UserAgent, RecipientAccountId, AccountName, AccountUPNSuffix, UserIdentityUserName, SessionMfaAuthenticated, SourceIpAddress, AWSRegion, EventSource, AdditionalEventData, RequestParameters, ResponseElements, UserIdentityArn

YAML

relevantTechniques:
- T1098.003
triggerThreshold: 0
id: 49ce5322-60d7-4b02-ad79-99f650aa5790
queryPeriod: 1d
triggerOperator: gt
alertDetailsOverride:
  alertDisplayNameFormat: AWS admin managed policy attachment by {{AccountName}}
  alertDescriptionFormat: Detected {{EventName}} from {{SourceIpAddress}} attaching admin-related managed policy in account {{RecipientAccountId}}.
status: Available
OriginalUri: https://github.com/Azure/Azure-Sentinel/blob/master/Solutions/Amazon%20Web%20Services/Analytic%20Rules/AWS_PrivilegeEscalationAdminManagedPolicy.yaml
queryFrequency: 1d
requiredDataConnectors:
- dataTypes:
  - AWSCloudTrail
  connectorId: AWS
version: 1.0.2
tactics:
- PrivilegeEscalation
- Persistence
query: |
  AWSCloudTrail
  | where  EventName in ("AttachUserPolicy","AttachRolePolicy","AttachGroupPolicy") and isempty(ErrorCode) and isempty(ErrorMessage)
  | where tostring(parse_json(RequestParameters).policyArn) contains "Admin" and tostring(parse_json(RequestParameters).policyArn) !contains "FullAccess" and tostring(parse_json(RequestParameters).policyArn) !startswith "arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AdministratorAccess"
  | extend UserIdentityArn = iif(isempty(UserIdentityArn), tostring(parse_json(Resources)[0].ARN), UserIdentityArn)
  | extend UserName = tostring(split(UserIdentityArn, '/')[-1])
  | extend AccountName = case( UserIdentityPrincipalid == "Anonymous", "Anonymous", isempty(UserIdentityUserName), UserName, UserIdentityUserName)
  | extend AccountName = iif(AccountName contains "@", tostring(split(AccountName, '@', 0)[0]), AccountName),
    AccountUPNSuffix = iif(AccountName contains "@", tostring(split(AccountName, '@', 1)[0]), "")
  | project TimeGenerated, EventName, EventTypeName, UserIdentityAccountId, UserIdentityPrincipalid, UserAgent, RecipientAccountId, AccountName, AccountUPNSuffix, UserIdentityUserName, SessionMfaAuthenticated, SourceIpAddress, AWSRegion, EventSource, AdditionalEventData, RequestParameters, ResponseElements, UserIdentityArn
name: AWSCloudTrail - Privilege escalation with admin managed policy
severity: Medium
entityMappings:
- entityType: Account
  fieldMappings:
  - identifier: Name
    columnName: AccountName
  - identifier: UPNSuffix
    columnName: AccountUPNSuffix
  - identifier: CloudAppAccountId
    columnName: RecipientAccountId
- entityType: IP
  fieldMappings:
  - identifier: Address
    columnName: SourceIpAddress
customDetails:
  EventName: EventName
  AWSRegion: AWSRegion
  UserIdentityArn: UserIdentityArn
  EventSource: EventSource
description: |
  Detects successful attachment of admin-related managed IAM policies to users, roles, or groups, excluding
  the dedicated AdministratorAccess and FullAccess patterns handled by other detections. This behavior may indicate
  unauthorized privilege escalation and should be validated against approved administrative changes.
kind: Scheduled

ARM

{
  "$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2019-04-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
  "contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
  "parameters": {
    "workspace": {
      "type": "String"
    }
  },
  "resources": [
    {
      "apiVersion": "2024-01-01-preview",
      "id": "[concat(resourceId('Microsoft.OperationalInsights/workspaces/providers', parameters('workspace'), 'Microsoft.SecurityInsights'),'/alertRules/49ce5322-60d7-4b02-ad79-99f650aa5790')]",
      "kind": "Scheduled",
      "name": "[concat(parameters('workspace'),'/Microsoft.SecurityInsights/49ce5322-60d7-4b02-ad79-99f650aa5790')]",
      "properties": {
        "alertDetailsOverride": {
          "alertDescriptionFormat": "Detected {{EventName}} from {{SourceIpAddress}} attaching admin-related managed policy in account {{RecipientAccountId}}.",
          "alertDisplayNameFormat": "AWS admin managed policy attachment by {{AccountName}}"
        },
        "alertRuleTemplateName": "49ce5322-60d7-4b02-ad79-99f650aa5790",
        "customDetails": {
          "AWSRegion": "AWSRegion",
          "EventName": "EventName",
          "EventSource": "EventSource",
          "UserIdentityArn": "UserIdentityArn"
        },
        "description": "Detects successful attachment of admin-related managed IAM policies to users, roles, or groups, excluding\nthe dedicated AdministratorAccess and FullAccess patterns handled by other detections. This behavior may indicate\nunauthorized privilege escalation and should be validated against approved administrative changes.\n",
        "displayName": "AWSCloudTrail - Privilege escalation with admin managed policy",
        "enabled": true,
        "entityMappings": [
          {
            "entityType": "Account",
            "fieldMappings": [
              {
                "columnName": "AccountName",
                "identifier": "Name"
              },
              {
                "columnName": "AccountUPNSuffix",
                "identifier": "UPNSuffix"
              },
              {
                "columnName": "RecipientAccountId",
                "identifier": "CloudAppAccountId"
              }
            ]
          },
          {
            "entityType": "IP",
            "fieldMappings": [
              {
                "columnName": "SourceIpAddress",
                "identifier": "Address"
              }
            ]
          }
        ],
        "OriginalUri": "https://github.com/Azure/Azure-Sentinel/blob/master/Solutions/Amazon%20Web%20Services/Analytic%20Rules/AWS_PrivilegeEscalationAdminManagedPolicy.yaml",
        "query": "AWSCloudTrail\n| where  EventName in (\"AttachUserPolicy\",\"AttachRolePolicy\",\"AttachGroupPolicy\") and isempty(ErrorCode) and isempty(ErrorMessage)\n| where tostring(parse_json(RequestParameters).policyArn) contains \"Admin\" and tostring(parse_json(RequestParameters).policyArn) !contains \"FullAccess\" and tostring(parse_json(RequestParameters).policyArn) !startswith \"arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AdministratorAccess\"\n| extend UserIdentityArn = iif(isempty(UserIdentityArn), tostring(parse_json(Resources)[0].ARN), UserIdentityArn)\n| extend UserName = tostring(split(UserIdentityArn, '/')[-1])\n| extend AccountName = case( UserIdentityPrincipalid == \"Anonymous\", \"Anonymous\", isempty(UserIdentityUserName), UserName, UserIdentityUserName)\n| extend AccountName = iif(AccountName contains \"@\", tostring(split(AccountName, '@', 0)[0]), AccountName),\n  AccountUPNSuffix = iif(AccountName contains \"@\", tostring(split(AccountName, '@', 1)[0]), \"\")\n| project TimeGenerated, EventName, EventTypeName, UserIdentityAccountId, UserIdentityPrincipalid, UserAgent, RecipientAccountId, AccountName, AccountUPNSuffix, UserIdentityUserName, SessionMfaAuthenticated, SourceIpAddress, AWSRegion, EventSource, AdditionalEventData, RequestParameters, ResponseElements, UserIdentityArn\n",
        "queryFrequency": "P1D",
        "queryPeriod": "P1D",
        "severity": "Medium",
        "status": "Available",
        "subTechniques": [
          "T1098.003"
        ],
        "suppressionDuration": "PT1H",
        "suppressionEnabled": false,
        "tactics": [
          "Persistence",
          "PrivilegeEscalation"
        ],
        "techniques": [
          "T1098"
        ],
        "templateVersion": "1.0.2",
        "triggerOperator": "GreaterThan",
        "triggerThreshold": 0
      },
      "type": "Microsoft.OperationalInsights/workspaces/providers/alertRules"
    }
  ]
}