Suspicious SSH Key Push to EC2 via EC2 Instance Connect

ATT&CK techniques

Initial Access → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
- T1078.004Cloud Accounts
Execution
- T1651Cloud Administration Command
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 use of EC2 Instance Connect SendSSHPublicKey and SendSerialConsoleSSHPublicKey to inject a temporary public key onto an instance, an access path abused by adversaries holding valid AWS credentials to reach virtual machines. Pushing keys through the control plane grants interactive access while bypassing key management controls. Detecting these calls exposes credentialed lateral movement into compute workloads.

Reporting behind it

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Suspicious SSH Key Push to EC2 via EC2 Instance Connect

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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