AWS EC2 discovery operation

Cortex XDR Analytics Alert Reference by Alert name

Product
Cortex XDR
Last date published
2026-02-02
Category
Analytics Alert Reference
Index by
Alert name

Synopsis

Activation Period

14 Days

Training Period

30 Days

Test Period

N/A (single event)

Deduplication Period

1 Day

Required Data

  • Requires:
    • AWS Audit Log

Detection Modules

Cloud

Detector Tags

ATT&CK Tactic

Discovery (TA0007)

ATT&CK Technique

Severity

Informational

Description

AWS EC2 discovery operation.

Attacker's Goals

  • Gather information about instances to identify targets and understand the environment.
  • Plan lateral movement or privilege escalation.

Investigative actions

  • Verify if the identity is authorized to perform EC2 queries and whether this activity aligns with its normal behavior.
  • Check if there were related API calls before or after this event.
  • Determine if the activity is part of a scheduled task or an unexpected manual request.
  • Investigate whether this was followed by any actions that could indicate lateral movement.