splunk-security_content/stories/aws_cryptomining.yml

name: AWS Cryptomining
id: ced74200-8465-4bc3-bd2c-9a782eec6750
version: 1
date: '2018-03-08'
description: Monitor your AWS EC2 instances for activities related to cryptojacking/cryptomining.
  New instances that originate from previously unseen regions, users who launch abnormally
  high numbers of instances, or EC2 instances started by previously unseen users are
  just a few examples of potentially malicious behavior.
narrative: 'Cryptomining is an intentionally difficult, resource-intensive business.
  Its complexity was designed into the process to ensure that the number of blocks
  mined each day would remain steady. So, it''s par for the course that ambitious,
  but unscrupulous, miners make amassing the computing power of large enterprises--a
  practice known as cryptojacking--a top priority. \

  Cryptojacking has attracted an increasing amount of media attention since its explosion
  in popularity in the fall of 2017. The attacks have moved from in-browser exploits
  and mobile phones to enterprise cloud services, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS).
  It''s difficult to determine exactly how widespread the practice has become, since
  bad actors continually evolve their ability to escape detection, including employing
  unlisted endpoints, moderating their CPU usage, and hiding the mining pool''s IP
  address behind a free CDN. \

  hen malicious miners appropriate a cloud instance, often spinning up hundreds of
  new instances, the costs can become astronomical for the account holder. So, it
  is critically important to monitor your systems for suspicious activities that could
  indicate that your network has been infiltrated. \

  This Analytic Story is focused on detecting suspicious new instances in your EC2
  environment to help prevent such a disaster. It contains detection searches that
  will detect when a previously unused instance type or AMI is used. It also contains
  support searches to build lookup files to ensure proper execution of the detection
  searches.'
author: David Dorsey, Splunk
type: ESCU
references:
- https://d0.awsstatic.com/whitepapers/aws-security-best-practices.pdf
tags:
  analytics_story: AWS Cryptomining
  usecase: Security Monitoring
  category:
  - Cloud Security