An identity attached an administrative policy to an IAM user or role

Cortex XDR Analytics Alert Reference by Alert name

Product
Cortex XDR
Last date published
2025-11-09
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

5 Days

Required Data

  • Requires:
    • AWS Audit Log

Detection Modules

Cloud

Detector Tags

ATT&CK Tactic

ATT&CK Technique

Severity

Informational

Description

An identity attached an administrative policy to an IAM user or role.

Attacker's Goals

Escalate privileges in cloud environments.

Investigative actions

  • Confirm whether this activity was intentional.
  • Check for other API calls that were executed by the identity.
  • Look for any suspicious behavior from the IAM user or role to whom the administrative policy was attached.

Variations

An identity with high administrative activity attached an administrative policy to an IAM user/role

Synopsis

ATT&CK Tactic

ATT&CK Technique

Severity

Informational

Description

An identity with high administrative activity attached an administrative policy to an IAM user/role.

Attacker's Goals

Escalate privileges in cloud environments.

Investigative actions

  • Confirm whether this activity was intentional.
  • Check for other API calls that were executed by the identity.
  • Look for any suspicious behavior from the IAM user or role to whom the administrative policy was attached.


An identity attached an administrative policy to itself

Synopsis

ATT&CK Tactic

ATT&CK Technique

Severity

Medium

Description

An identity attached an administrative policy to an IAM user or role.

Attacker's Goals

Escalate privileges in cloud environments.

Investigative actions

  • Confirm whether this activity was intentional.
  • Check for other API calls that were executed by the identity.
  • Look for any suspicious behavior from the IAM user or role to whom the administrative policy was attached.


An identity failed to attach an administrative policy to an IAM user or role

Synopsis

ATT&CK Tactic

ATT&CK Technique

Severity

Medium

Description

An identity attached an administrative policy to an IAM user or role.

Attacker's Goals

Escalate privileges in cloud environments.

Investigative actions

  • Confirm whether this activity was intentional.
  • Check for other API calls that were executed by the identity.
  • Look for any suspicious behavior from the IAM user or role to whom the administrative policy was attached.


A suspicious identity attached an administrative policy to an IAM user/role

Synopsis

ATT&CK Tactic

ATT&CK Technique

Severity

Low

Description

An identity attached an administrative policy to an IAM user or role.

Attacker's Goals

Escalate privileges in cloud environments.

Investigative actions

  • Confirm whether this activity was intentional.
  • Check for other API calls that were executed by the identity.
  • Look for any suspicious behavior from the IAM user or role to whom the administrative policy was attached.