Suspicious AWS Console Login Without MFA

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 a successful AWS Management Console sign-in where additionalEventData.MFAUsed is No, indicating interactive access with only a password or root credentials and no second factor. Adversaries who compromise console credentials rely on non-MFA logins to gain hands-on-keyboard access, a pattern GuardDuty also flags as IAMUser ConsoleLoginSuccess. This is important because non-MFA console logins are a primary indicator of account takeover.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1078.004 — drag to rearrange

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Suspicious AWS Federated Console Login From Programmatic Credentials

Suspicious M365 Legacy Authentication via BAV2ROPC Client via m365

Suspicious STS AssumeRole With Exfil Session Name via CloudTrail (via cloudtrail)

Suspicious Cloud Sign-In From an Anonymizer or High-Risk Session (via signinlogs)

Suspicious Entra Sign-In to OfficeHome with axios User Agent

Suspicious AWS STS Session Token and Role Chaining Abuse via CloudTrail (via aws)

Suspicious AWS Console Login Without MFA

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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