Suspicious AWS Instance Access or Export via SSH Key or Export Task

PremiumReviewedSigma · Medium · v1
Product
aws
Service
cloudtrail
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-10-25
Updated
2026-10-25

ATT&CK techniques

Initial Access → Exfiltration
  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Execution

  4. Cred Access

  5. Discovery

  6. Lateral Movement

  7. Collection

  8. C2

  9. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects SendSSHPublicKey and CreateInstanceExportTask operations used to gain interactive access to or exfiltrate EC2 instances. Pushing a temporary SSH key via EC2 Instance Connect or exporting an instance image lets an attacker reach or copy workloads outside normal channels.

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Suspicious AWS Instance Access or Export via SSH Key or Export Task
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.