AWS Successful Single-Factor Authentication

name: AWS Successful Single-Factor Authentication
id: a520b1fe-cc9e-4f56-b762-18354594c52f
version: 9
date: '2026-03-10'
author: Bhavin Patel, Splunk
status: production
type: TTP
description: The following analytic identifies a successful Console Login authentication event for an AWS IAM user account without Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) enabled. It leverages AWS CloudTrail logs to detect instances where MFA was not used during login. This activity is significant as it may indicate a misconfiguration, policy violation, or potential account takeover attempt. If confirmed malicious, an attacker could gain unauthorized access to the AWS environment, potentially leading to data exfiltration, resource manipulation, or further privilege escalation.
data_source:
    - AWS CloudTrail ConsoleLogin
search: |-
    `cloudtrail` eventName= ConsoleLogin errorCode=success "additionalEventData.MFAUsed"=No
      | rename user_name as user
      | stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime
        BY signature dest user
           user_agent src vendor_account
           vendor_region vendor_product
      | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
      | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
      | `aws_successful_single_factor_authentication_filter`
how_to_implement: The Splunk AWS Add-on is required to utilize this data. The search requires AWS CloudTrail logs.
known_false_positives: It is possible that some accounts do not have MFA enabled for the AWS account however its agaisnt the best practices of securing AWS.
references:
    - https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1621/
    - https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1078/004/
    - https://aws.amazon.com/what-is/mfa/
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 $user$ has successfully logged into an AWS Console without Multi-Factor Authentication from $src$
    risk_objects:
        - field: user
          type: user
          score: 50
    threat_objects:
        - field: src
          type: ip_address
tags:
    analytic_story:
        - AWS Identity and Access Management Account Takeover
    asset_type: AWS Account
    mitre_attack_id:
        - T1078.004
        - 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/T1078.004/aws_login_sfa/cloudtrail.json
          sourcetype: aws:cloudtrail
          source: aws_cloudtrail