Malicious AWS EC2 VM Export Failure (via cloudtrail)

title: Malicious AWS EC2 VM Export Failure (via cloudtrail)
id: 117b319b-8ce2-5baa-a5c9-eeadfdeaf9d3
status: stable
description: This rule detects an attempt to export an AWS EC2 instance has been detected. A VM Export might indicate an attempt to extract information from an instance.
references:
    - https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1537/
    - https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1005/
    - https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vm-import/latest/userguide/vmexport.html#export-instance
author: Huntrule Team
date: 2026-03-04
tags:
    - attack.collection
    - attack.t1005
    - attack.exfiltration
    - attack.t1537
logsource:
    product: aws
    service: cloudtrail
detection:
    selection:
        eventName: 'CreateInstanceExportTask'
        eventSource: 'ec2.amazonaws.com'
    filter1:
        errorMessage|contains: '*'
    filter2:
        errorCode|contains: '*'
    filter3:
        responseElements|contains: 'Failure'
    condition: selection and not 1 of filter*
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: low