Sigma rule: AWS Key Pair Import Activity

Rule

Title

AWS Key Pair Import Activity

Status

experimental

Level

medium

Author

Ivan Saakov

Date

2024-12-19

File

rules/cloud/aws/cloudtrail/aws_ec2_import_key_pair_activity.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects the import of SSH key pairs into AWS EC2, which may indicate an attacker attempting to gain unauthorized access to instances. This activity could lead to initial access, persistence, or privilege escalation, potentially compromising sensitive data and operations.

Log source

product

aws

service

cloudtrail

Detection

selection:
    eventSource: 'ec2.amazonaws.com'
    eventName: 'ImportKeyPair'
condition: selection

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Legitimate administrative actions by authorized users importing keys for valid purposes.
• Automated processes for infrastructure setup may trigger this alert.
• Verify the user identity, user agent, and source IP address to ensure they are expected.

Tags

• attack.initial-access
• attack.stealth
• attack.t1078
• attack.persistence
• attack.privilege-escalation

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1078

References

• https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/APIReference/API_ImportKeyPair.html

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_ec2_import_key_pair_activity.yml