Sigma rule: Potential AWS Cloud Email Service Abuse

A detection rule from the SigmaHQ repository, shown as its author published it. Dataset version ref-a23af4bf7c6b, updated 2023-03-24T00:00:00.000Z.

Rule

Title
Potential AWS Cloud Email Service Abuse
Status
unsupported
Level
medium
Author
Janantha Marasinghe
Date
2022/12/12
Modified
2023/03/24
File
unsupported/cloud/aws_ses_messaging_enabled.yml
Commit
ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects when the email sending feature is enabled for an AWS account and the email address verification request is dispatched in quick succession

Log source

product
aws
service
cloudtrail

Detection

selection1:
    eventSource: 'ses.amazonaws.com'
    eventName: 'UpdateAccountSendingEnabled'
selection2:
    eventSource: 'ses.amazonaws.com'
    eventName: 'VerifyEmailIdentity'
timeframe: 5m
condition: selection1 and selection2 # We don't combine them in one selection because we want to correlate both events

False positives (as the rule lists them)

  • Legitimate SES configuration activity

Tags

  • attack.t1583.006
  • attack.resource_development

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

References

Read on 2026-11-03T00:58:21.399Z under licence sigma-drl-1.1@d5f4c36a from https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/unsupported/cloud/aws_ses_messaging_enabled.yml

Sources and licences

  • SigmaHQ

    "Potential AWS Cloud Email Service Abuse" by Janantha Marasinghe (SigmaHQ). Rule: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/unsupported/cloud/aws_ses_messaging_enabled.yml.
    Licensed under the Detection Rule License (DRL) 1.1: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/Detection-Rule-License

    Detection Rule License (DRL) 1.1

Cite this page

Dragons Eye Ransomware Tracker, "Sigma rule: Potential AWS Cloud Email Service Abuse",
entity page, dataset version ref-a23af4bf7c6b, updated 2023-03-24T00:00:00.000Z,
https://ransomware-tracker.com/detections/sigma/60b84424-a724-4502-bd0d-cc676e1bc90e (accessed 2026-11-03).
Underlying source: SigmaHQ rule 60b84424-a724-4502-bd0d-cc676e1bc90e, commit ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84.

Pages change. The dataset version identifies the data, but no archive of old versions is kept, so this citation cannot be replayed later.