Suspicious AWS EC2 Serial Console Access Enabled via Scattered Spider Technique
- Product
- aws
- Service
- cloudtrail
- Author
- HuntRule
- Published
- 2026-10-25
- Updated
- 2026-10-25
ATT&CK techniques
Defense EvasionRecon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact
What it detects
This rule detects the AWS API call EnableSerialConsoleAccess which turns on account wide EC2 serial console access. Scattered Spider style intruders enable this to obtain out of band shell access to instances and bypass network and SSH controls. Because enabling serial console access is rare in normal operations it is a strong signal of hands on keyboard abuse.
Reporting behind it
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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