AWS Multiple Users Failing To Authenticate From Ip

name: AWS Multiple Users Failing To Authenticate From Ip
id: 71e1fb89-dd5f-4691-8523-575420de4630
version: 9
date: '2026-03-10'
author: Bhavin Patel
status: production
type: Anomaly
description: The following analytic identifies a single source IP failing to authenticate into the AWS Console with 30 unique valid users within 10 minutes. It leverages CloudTrail logs to detect multiple failed login attempts from the same IP address. This behavior is significant as it may indicate a Password Spraying attack, where an adversary attempts to gain unauthorized access or elevate privileges by trying common passwords across many accounts. If confirmed malicious, this activity could lead to unauthorized access, data breaches, or further exploitation within the AWS environment.
data_source:
    - AWS CloudTrail ConsoleLogin
search: |-
    `cloudtrail` eventName=ConsoleLogin action=failure
      | bucket span=10m _time
      | rename user_name as user
      | stats  dc(user) AS unique_accounts values(user) as user values(user_agent) as user_agent
        BY _time, src, signature,
           dest, vendor_account, vendor_region,
           vendor_product
      | where unique_accounts>30
      | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
      | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
      | `aws_multiple_users_failing_to_authenticate_from_ip_filter`
how_to_implement: You must install Splunk Add-on for AWS in order to ingest Cloudtrail. We recommend the users to try different combinations of the bucket span time and the tried account threshold to tune this search according to their environment.
known_false_positives: No known false postives for this detection. Please review this alert
references:
    - https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1110/003/
    - https://www.whiteoaksecurity.com/blog/goawsconsolespray-password-spraying-tool/
    - https://softwaresecuritydotblog.wordpress.com/2019/09/28/how-to-protect-against-credential-stuffing-on-aws/
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: 'Multiple failed console login attempts (Count: $unique_accounts$) against users from IP Address - $src$'
    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
        - Compromised User Account
    asset_type: AWS Account
    mitre_attack_id:
        - T1110.003
        - T1110.004
    product:
        - Splunk Enterprise
        - Splunk Enterprise Security
        - Splunk Cloud
    security_domain: threat
    manual_test: This search needs a specific number of events in a time window for the alert to trigger and events split up in CI testing while updating timestamp.
tests:
    - name: True Positive Test
      attack_data:
        - data: https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/splunk/attack_data/master/datasets/attack_techniques/T1110.003/aws_mulitple_failed_console_login/aws_cloudtrail.json
          source: aws_cloudtrail
          sourcetype: aws:cloudtrail