Sigma rule: AWS RDS Master Password Change

A detection rule from the SigmaHQ repository, shown as its author published it. Dataset version ref-6c3acb47a47b, updated 2022-10-05T00:00:00.000Z.

Rule

Title: AWS RDS Master Password Change
Status: test
Level: medium
Author: faloker
Date: 2020-02-12
Modified: 2022-10-05
File: rules/cloud/aws/cloudtrail/aws_rds_change_master_password.yml
Commit: ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects the change of database master password. It may be a part of data exfiltration.

Log source

product: aws
service: cloudtrail

Detection

selection_source:
    eventSource: rds.amazonaws.com
    responseElements.pendingModifiedValues.masterUserPassword|contains: '*'
    eventName: ModifyDBInstance
condition: selection_source

False positives (as the rule lists them)

Benign changes to a db instance

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

T1020

References

https://github.com/RhinoSecurityLabs/pacu/blob/866376cd711666c775bbfcde0524c817f2c5b181/pacu/modules/rds__explore_snapshots/main.py

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

Sources and licences

SigmaHQ
"AWS RDS Master Password Change" by faloker (SigmaHQ). Rule: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/cloud/aws/cloudtrail/aws_rds_change_master_password.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: AWS RDS Master Password Change",
entity page, dataset version ref-6c3acb47a47b, updated 2022-10-05T00:00:00.000Z,
https://ransomware-tracker.com/detections/sigma/8a63cdd4-6207-414a-85bc-7e032bd3c1a2 (accessed 2026-11-03).
Underlying source: SigmaHQ rule 8a63cdd4-6207-414a-85bc-7e032bd3c1a2, 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.