Suspicious IAM CreateLoginProfile For Root User via AWS AssumeRoot Abuse

ATT&CK techniques

Initial Access → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
- T1078.004Cloud Accounts
Execution
Persistence
- T1078.004Cloud Accounts
- T1098.003Additional Cloud Roles
Priv Esc
- T1078.004Cloud Accounts
- T1098.003Additional Cloud Roles
Defense Evasion
- T1078.004Cloud Accounts
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects an IAM CreateLoginProfile event that establishes console access for the root user which follows abuse of STS AssumeRoot to plant durable access in a member account. Adversaries create a root login profile to convert temporary root credentials into persistent account takeover.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1078.004 — drag to rearrange

Malicious Assignment of a Privileged Azure AD Role (via auditlogs)

Possible Credential Stuffing Blocked by Conditional Access in Microsoft 365

Suspicious SES Account Sending Enablement and Identity Verification via CloudTrail

Possible Stolen AWS Credential Validation via STS GetCallerIdentity

Suspicious AWS Federated Console Login From Programmatic Credentials

Suspicious M365 Legacy Authentication via BAV2ROPC Client via m365

Suspicious Entra Cross-Tenant Access or External User Invitation via Azure Audit (via azure)

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

Suspicious AWS Console Login Without MFA

Suspicious IAM CreateLoginProfile For Root User via AWS AssumeRoot Abuse

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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