Malicious EC2 Instance Metadata Credential Theft via curl (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Initial Access → Cred Access

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
- T1190Exploit Public-Facing Application
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
- T1552.005Cloud Instance Metadata API
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects a command line that curls the EC2 Instance Metadata Service security-credentials path at 169.254.169.254 to steal the temporary IAM role credentials of a compromised instance. Attackers harvest these credentials for reconnaissance, lateral movement, and privilege escalation in the cloud account. Detecting IMDS credential retrieval on a host flags active cloud credential access.

Reporting behind it

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Malicious EC2 Instance Metadata Credential Theft via curl (via process_creation)

Pivot detection · T1190 · 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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