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Suspicious AWS S3 Connection via Script Interpreter

Elastic Detection Rules

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Summary
The detection rule titled 'Suspicious AWS S3 Connection via Script Interpreter' identifies potential malicious activity on macOS systems by monitoring for outbound connections made by script interpreters such as osascript, Node.js, and Python targeting Amazon S3 and CloudFront domains. This behavior is classified as suspicious when such scripts use minimal command-line arguments, a common indicator of automated activities. Threat actors often exploit S3 buckets for command and control operations and data exfiltration by executing simple scripts to fetch payloads or send data. The rule captures events from logs, specifically monitoring for any script interpreter that initiates at least five connections to these cloud resources. The investigation steps advised include tracking the process ancestry, analyzing outbound traffic patterns, and correlating with organizational assets to establish the legitimacy of the traffic. False positives may arise from normal development workflows or automation tasks that legitimately access cloud storage, necessitating careful analysis. Active response and remediation strategies include network isolation, analytical preservation of scripts, and credential management to prevent further exploitation.
Categories
  • macOS
  • Cloud
  • AWS
  • Endpoint
Data Sources
  • Process
  • Network Traffic
  • Application Log
ATT&CK Techniques
  • T1102
  • T1567
  • T1567.002
Created: 2026-01-30