AWS Credential Access GetPasswordData

name: AWS Credential Access GetPasswordData
id: 4d347c4a-306e-41db-8d10-b46baf71b3e2
version: 9
date: '2026-03-10'
author: Bhavin Patel, Splunk
status: production
type: Anomaly
description: The following analytic identifies more than 10 GetPasswordData API calls within a 5-minute window in your AWS account. It leverages AWS CloudTrail logs to detect this activity by counting the distinct instance IDs accessed. This behavior is significant as it may indicate an attempt to retrieve encrypted administrator passwords for running Windows instances, which is a critical security concern. If confirmed malicious, attackers could gain unauthorized access to administrative credentials, potentially leading to full control over the affected instances and further compromise of the AWS environment.
data_source:
    - AWS CloudTrail GetPasswordData
search: |-
    `cloudtrail` eventName=GetPasswordData eventSource = ec2.amazonaws.com
      | bin _time span=5m
      | rename user_name as user
      | stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime dc(requestParameters.instanceId) as distinct_instance_ids
        BY signature dest user
           user_agent src vendor_account
           vendor_region vendor_product
      | where distinct_instance_ids > 10
      | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
      | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
      | `aws_credential_access_getpassworddata_filter`
how_to_implement: You must install splunk AWS add on and Splunk App for AWS. This search works with AWS CloudTrail logs. We encourage the users to adjust the values of `distinct_instance_ids` and tweak the `span` value according to their environment.
known_false_positives: Administrator tooling or automated scripts may make these calls but it is highly unlikely to make several calls in a short period of time.
references:
    - https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1552/
    - https://stratus-red-team.cloud/attack-techniques/AWS/aws.credential-access.ec2-get-password-data/
drilldown_searches:
    - name: View the detection results for - "$user$"
      search: '%original_detection_search% | search  user = "$user$"'
      earliest_offset: $info_min_time$
      latest_offset: $info_max_time$
    - name: View risk events for the last 7 days for - "$user$"
      search: '| from datamodel Risk.All_Risk | search normalized_risk_object IN ("$user$") starthoursago=168  | stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime values(search_name) as "Search Name" values(risk_message) as "Risk Message" values(analyticstories) as "Analytic Stories" values(annotations._all) as "Annotations" values(annotations.mitre_attack.mitre_tactic) as "ATT&CK Tactics" by normalized_risk_object | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`'
      earliest_offset: $info_min_time$
      latest_offset: $info_max_time$
rba:
    message: User $user$ is seen to make mulitple `GetPasswordData` API calls to multiple instances from IP $src$
    risk_objects:
        - field: user
          type: user
          score: 20
    threat_objects:
        - field: src
          type: ip_address
tags:
    analytic_story:
        - AWS Identity and Access Management Account Takeover
    asset_type: AWS Account
    mitre_attack_id:
        - T1110.001
        - T1586.003
    product:
        - Splunk Enterprise
        - Splunk Enterprise Security
        - Splunk Cloud
    security_domain: threat
tests:
    - name: True Positive Test
      attack_data:
        - data: https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/splunk/attack_data/master/datasets/attack_techniques/T1552/aws_getpassworddata/aws_cloudtrail_events.json
          source: aws_cloudtrail
          sourcetype: aws:cloudtrail