Malicious AWS Cross-Account AssumeRole With Suspicious Session Names via CloudTrail (via aws)

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 detects AWS STS AssumeRole calls that use session names tied to an AI assisted intrusion which escalated to administrator access. The operators assumed the organization account access role with session names such as pwned escalation and claude-session while pivoting across accounts. Role session names of this kind indicate hands on keyboard privilege escalation.

Reporting behind it

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Malicious AWS Cross-Account AssumeRole With Suspicious Session Names via CloudTrail (via aws)

Pivot detection · T1078.004 · 9 related

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

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