Cloud Provisioning Activity From Previously Unseen IP Address

name: Cloud Provisioning Activity From Previously Unseen IP Address
id: f86a8ec9-b042-45eb-92f4-e9ed1d781078
version: 7
date: '2026-03-10'
author: Rico Valdez, Splunk
status: production
type: Anomaly
description: The following analytic detects cloud provisioning activities originating from previously unseen IP addresses. It leverages cloud infrastructure logs to identify events where resources are created or started, and cross-references these with a baseline of known IP addresses. This activity is significant as it may indicate unauthorized access or potential misuse of cloud resources. If confirmed malicious, an attacker could gain unauthorized control over cloud resources, leading to data breaches, service disruptions, or increased operational costs.
data_source:
    - AWS CloudTrail
search: |-
    | tstats earliest(_time) as firstTime, latest(_time) as lastTime, values(All_Changes.object_id) as object_id FROM datamodel=Change
      WHERE (
            All_Changes.action=started
            OR
            All_Changes.action=created
        )
        All_Changes.status=success
      BY All_Changes.src, All_Changes.user, All_Changes.command
    | `drop_dm_object_name("All_Changes")`
    | lookup previously_seen_cloud_provisioning_activity_sources src as src OUTPUT firstTimeSeen, enough_data
    | eventstats max(enough_data) as enough_data
    | where enough_data=1
    | eval firstTimeSeenSrc=min(firstTimeSeen)
    | where isnull(firstTimeSeenSrc) OR firstTimeSeenSrc > relative_time(now(), `previously_unseen_cloud_provisioning_activity_window`)
    | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
    | table firstTime, src, user, object_id, command
    | `cloud_provisioning_activity_from_previously_unseen_ip_address_filter`
how_to_implement: You must be ingesting your cloud infrastructure logs from your cloud provider.  You should run the baseline search `Previously Seen Cloud Provisioning Activity Sources - Initial` to build the initial table of source IP address, geographic locations, and times. You must also enable the second baseline search `Previously Seen Cloud Provisioning Activity Sources - Update` to keep this table up to date and to age out old data. You can adjust the time window for this search by updating the `previously_unseen_cloud_provisioning_activity_window` macro. You can also provide additional filtering for this search by customizing the `cloud_provisioning_activity_from_previously_unseen_ip_address_filter` macro.
known_false_positives: "This is a strictly behavioral search, so we define \"false positive\" slightly differently. Every time this fires, it will accurately reflect the first occurrence in the time period you're searching within, plus what is stored in the cache feature. But while there are really no \"false positives\" in a traditional sense, there is definitely lots of noise.\nThis search will fire any time a new IP address is seen in the **GeoIP** database for any kind of provisioning activity. If you typically do all provisioning from tools inside of your country, there should be few false positives. If you are located in countries where the free version of **MaxMind GeoIP** that ships by default with Splunk has weak resolution (particularly small countries in less economically powerful regions), this may be much less valuable to you."
references: []
drilldown_searches:
    - name: View the detection results for - "$object_id$"
      search: '%original_detection_search% | search  object_id = "$object_id$"'
      earliest_offset: $info_min_time$
      latest_offset: $info_max_time$
    - name: View risk events for the last 7 days for - "$object_id$"
      search: '| from datamodel Risk.All_Risk | search normalized_risk_object IN ("$object_id$") 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 starting or creating an instance $object_id$ for the first time from IP address $src$
    risk_objects:
        - field: object_id
          type: system
          score: 20
        - field: user
          type: user
          score: 20
    threat_objects:
        - field: src
          type: ip_address
tags:
    analytic_story:
        - Suspicious Cloud Provisioning Activities
    asset_type: AWS Instance
    mitre_attack_id:
        - T1078
    product:
        - Splunk Enterprise
        - Splunk Enterprise Security
        - Splunk Cloud
    security_domain: threat
    manual_test: This search needs the baseline to be run first to create a lookup
tests:
    - name: True Positive Test
      attack_data:
        - data: https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/splunk/attack_data/master/datasets/suspicious_behaviour/abnormally_high_cloud_instances_launched/cloudtrail_behavioural_detections.json
          sourcetype: aws:cloudtrail
          source: aws_cloudtrail