AWS CloudTrail: IAMUser STS GetSessionToken Use
Alerts on CloudTrail STS GetSessionToken calls made by IAM users, indicating potential temporary credential misuse.
FreeReviewedSigma · Low · v5
- Product
- aws
- Service
- cloudtrail
- Author
- Austin Songer @austinsonger (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
- Published
- 2021-07-24
- Updated
- 2026-07-31
ATT&CK techniques
Priv Esc → Lateral MovementRecon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Cred Access
Discovery
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact
What it detects
This rule flags CloudTrail events where an IAM user calls the STS GetSessionToken API. Attackers can use session tokens to obtain temporary credentials that may enable lateral movement or privilege escalation. It relies on telemetry from AWS CloudTrail, specifically matching eventSource sts.amazonaws.com, eventName GetSessionToken, and userIdentity.type equal to IAMUser.
Reporting behind it
Changelog
v5- v5Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
- v4Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
- v3Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
- v2Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
- v1No 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-iamuser-getsessiontoken-activity-b45ab1d2
title: "AWS CloudTrail: IAMUser STS GetSessionToken Use"
id: f3ebeae9-564a-42aa-a10d-0e5ba58efe2a
status: test
description: This rule flags CloudTrail events where an IAM user calls the STS GetSessionToken API. Attackers can use session tokens to obtain temporary credentials that may enable lateral movement or privilege escalation. It relies on telemetry from AWS CloudTrail, specifically matching eventSource sts.amazonaws.com, eventName GetSessionToken, and userIdentity.type equal to IAMUser.
references:
- https://github.com/elastic/detection-rules/pull/1213
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/STS/latest/APIReference/API_GetSessionToken.html
- https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/master/rules/cloud/aws/cloudtrail/aws_sts_getsessiontoken_misuse.yml
author: Austin Songer @austinsonger, Huntrule Team
date: 2021-07-24
modified: 2022-10-09
tags:
- attack.lateral-movement
- attack.privilege-escalation
- attack.t1548
- attack.t1550
- attack.t1550.001
logsource:
product: aws
service: cloudtrail
detection:
selection:
eventSource: sts.amazonaws.com
eventName: GetSessionToken
userIdentity.type: IAMUser
condition: selection
falsepositives:
- GetSessionToken may be done by a system or network administrator. Verify whether the user identity, user agent, and/or hostname should be making changes in your environment. GetSessionToken from unfamiliar users or hosts should be investigated. If known behavior is causing false positives, it can be exempted from the rule.
level: low
license: DRL-1.1
related:
- id: b45ab1d2-712f-4f01-a751-df3826969807
type: derived