AWS EC2 ImportKeyPair Activity Monitoring (CloudTrail)

Flags CloudTrail EC2 ImportKeyPair events that may indicate newly imported SSH key access setup.

FreeReviewedSigma · Medium · v5

Product: aws
Service: cloudtrail
Author: Ivan Saakov (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published: 2024-12-19
Updated: 2026-07-31

ATT&CK techniques

Initial Access → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
- T1078Valid Accounts
Execution
Persistence
- T1078Valid Accounts
Priv Esc
- T1078Valid Accounts
Defense Evasion
- T1078Valid Accounts
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule flags CloudTrail events where AWS EC2 ImportKeyPair is called to import an SSH key pair. Importing keys can enable attackers to establish or expand access to EC2 instances, potentially supporting initial access, persistence, or privilege escalation. The detection relies on CloudTrail telemetry fields matching eventSource ec2.amazonaws.com and eventName ImportKeyPair.

Reporting behind it

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AWS EC2 ImportKeyPair Activity Monitoring (CloudTrail)

Pivot detection · T1078 · 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-ec2-importkeypair-cloudtrail-activity-92f84194

title: AWS EC2 ImportKeyPair Activity Monitoring (CloudTrail)
id: 041b85cd-0706-460d-ba25-4a42ab39fcae
status: experimental
description: This rule flags CloudTrail events where AWS EC2 ImportKeyPair is called to import an SSH key pair. Importing keys can enable attackers to establish or expand access to EC2 instances, potentially supporting initial access, persistence, or privilege escalation. The detection relies on CloudTrail telemetry fields matching eventSource ec2.amazonaws.com and eventName ImportKeyPair.
references:
  - https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/APIReference/API_ImportKeyPair.html
  - https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/master/rules/cloud/aws/cloudtrail/aws_ec2_import_key_pair_activity.yml
author: Ivan Saakov, Huntrule Team
date: 2024-12-19
tags:
  - attack.initial-access
  - attack.stealth
  - attack.t1078
  - attack.persistence
  - attack.privilege-escalation
logsource:
  product: aws
  service: cloudtrail
detection:
  selection:
    eventSource: ec2.amazonaws.com
    eventName: ImportKeyPair
  condition: selection
falsepositives:
  - Legitimate administrative actions by authorized users importing keys for valid purposes.
  - Automated processes for infrastructure setup may trigger this alert.
  - Verify the user identity, user agent, and source IP address to ensure they are expected.
level: medium
license: DRL-1.1
related:
  - id: 92f84194-8d9a-4ee0-8699-c30bfac59780
    type: derived

Convert

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

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