AWS CloudTrail Successful ConsoleLogin Events Without MFA

Flags successful AWS console logins with MFAUsed explicitly set to NO in CloudTrail.

FreeReviewedSigma · Medium · v5

Product: aws
Service: cloudtrail
Author: Thuya@Hacktilizer, Ivan Saakov (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published: 2025-10-18
Updated: 2026-07-31

ATT&CK techniques

Initial Access → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
- T1078.004Cloud Accounts
Execution
Persistence
- T1078.004Cloud Accounts
Priv Esc
- T1078.004Cloud Accounts
Defense Evasion
- T1078.004Cloud Accounts
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule flags successful AWS ConsoleLogin events where MFAUsed is explicitly set to NO. Attackers may attempt console access using stolen or reused credentials, and successful login without MFA can indicate weakened account protections or compromised access. Telemetry is based on AWS CloudTrail eventName=ConsoleLogin, responseElements.ConsoleLogin=Success, and additionalEventData.MFAUsed=NO.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1078.004 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious Okta SSO Access to Many Applications in Short Window

Suspicious Microsoft Entra Device Code Authentication Flow

Suspicious M365 Password Spraying via Azure PowerShell AppId from Quad7 Botnet

Suspicious AWS Instance Access or Export via SSH Key or Export Task

Suspicious Azure OpenAI Model Enumeration and Deployment Creation (via azure)

Suspicious Azure Cognitive Services Account Key Enumeration via ListKeys (via azure)

Malicious Business Email Compromise OAuth Application Sign-In via Entra ID Service Principal (via azure)

Suspicious AWS API Call from TruffleHog Credential Scanner User Agent

Suspicious Compute Instance Metadata Modification in GCP

AWS CloudTrail Successful ConsoleLogin Events Without MFA

Pivot detection · T1078.004 · 9 related

Changelog

v5
Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
v4
Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
v3
Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
v2
Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
v1
No changelog recorded for this version.2026-07-30

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.

aws-cloudtrail-consolelogin-success-events-where-mfaused-is-no-77caf516

title: AWS CloudTrail Successful ConsoleLogin Events Without MFA
id: c0d8e4b3-4408-445c-8257-9b29510789ed
status: experimental
description: This rule flags successful AWS ConsoleLogin events where MFAUsed is explicitly set to NO. Attackers may attempt console access using stolen or reused credentials, and successful login without MFA can indicate weakened account protections or compromised access. Telemetry is based on AWS CloudTrail eventName=ConsoleLogin, responseElements.ConsoleLogin=Success, and additionalEventData.MFAUsed=NO.
references:
  - https://securitylabs.datadoghq.com/cloud-security-atlas/vulnerabilities/iam-user-without-mfa/
  - https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awscloudtrail/latest/userguide/cloudtrail-event-reference-aws-console-sign-in-events.html
  - https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/master/rules/cloud/aws/cloudtrail/aws_cloudtrail_console_login_success_without_mfa.yml
author: Thuya@Hacktilizer, Ivan Saakov, Huntrule Team
date: 2025-10-18
modified: 2025-10-21
tags:
  - attack.initial-access
  - attack.persistence
  - attack.privilege-escalation
  - attack.stealth
  - attack.t1078.004
logsource:
  product: aws
  service: cloudtrail
detection:
  selection:
    eventName: ConsoleLogin
    additionalEventData.MFAUsed: NO
    responseElements.ConsoleLogin: Success
  condition: selection
falsepositives:
  - Unlikely
level: medium
license: DRL-1.1
related:
  - id: 77caf516-34e5-4df9-b4db-20744fea0a60
    type: derived

Convert

This rule as a query you can run. Uses no unlock credit.

SplunkSPL