An adversary may disable or modify cloud logging capabilities and integrations to limit what data is collected on their activities and avoid detection. Cloud environments allow for collection and analysis of audit and application logs that provide insight into what activities a user does within the environment. If an adversary has sufficient permissions, they can disable or modify logging to avoid detection of their activities.
For example, in AWS an adversary may disable CloudWatch/CloudTrail integrations prior to conducting further malicious activity.[1] They may alternatively tamper with logging functionality – for example, by removing any associated SNS topics, disabling multi-region logging, or disabling settings that validate and/or encrypt log files.[2][3] In Office 365, an adversary may disable logging on mail collection activities for specific users by using the Set-MailboxAuditBypassAssociation
cmdlet, by disabling M365 Advanced Auditing for the user, or by downgrading the user’s license from an Enterprise E5 to an Enterprise E3 license.[4]
ID | Name | Description |
---|---|---|
G0016 | APT29 |
APT29 has disabled Purview Audit on targeted accounts prior to stealing emails from Microsoft 365 tenants.[5] |
S1091 | Pacu |
Pacu can disable or otherwise restrict various AWS logging services, such as AWS CloudTrail and VPC flow logs.[6] |
ID | Mitigation | Description |
---|---|---|
M1018 | User Account Management |
Configure default account policy to enable logging. Manage policies to ensure only necessary users have permissions to make changes to logging policies. |
ID | Data Source | Data Component | Detects |
---|---|---|---|
DS0025 | Cloud Service | Cloud Service Disable |
Monitor logs for API calls to disable logging. In AWS, monitor for: |
Cloud Service Modification |
Monitor changes made to cloud services for unexpected modifications to settings and/or data |
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DS0002 | User Account | User Account Modification |
Monitor for changes to account settings associated with users/tenants that may impact defensive logging capabilities, such as the |