performing-cloud-log-forensics-with-athena

name	performing-cloud-log-forensics-with-athena
description	Uses AWS Athena to query CloudTrail, VPC Flow Logs, S3 access logs, and ALB logs for forensic investigation. Covers CREATE TABLE DDL with partition projection, forensic SQL queries for detecting unauthorized access, data exfiltration, lateral movement, and privilege escalation. Use when investigating AWS security incidents or building cloud-native forensic workflows at scale.
domain	cybersecurity
tags	["cloud","forensics","athena","aws","cloudtrail","vpc-flow-logs","s3","alb"]
subdomain	cloud-security
version	1.0
author	oyi77
license	Apache-2.0
nist_csf	["PR.IR-01","ID.AM-08","GV.SC-06","DE.CM-01"]

Performing Cloud Log Forensics With Athena

Overview

Cybersecurity skill for performing cloud log forensics with athena. Follows industry best practices and security standards.

When to Use

Trigger phrases:

• "performing cloud log forensics with athena"

• "When investigating AWS security incidents that require querying massive volumes"

• "When performing forensic analysis across CloudTrail, VPC Flow Logs, S3 access lo"

• "When building reusable Athena tables with partition projection for ongoing incid"

• When investigating AWS security incidents that require querying massive volumes of cloud logs

• When performing forensic analysis across CloudTrail, VPC Flow Logs, S3 access logs, and ALB logs

• When building reusable Athena tables with partition projection for ongoing incident response

• When hunting for indicators of compromise across multiple AWS log sources simultaneously

• When creating evidence-grade SQL queries for compliance audits or legal proceedings

When NOT to Use

• When you lack proper authorization for testing
• For production systems without change management
• When the task requires legal or compliance expertise beyond technical scope

Prerequisites

• AWS account with Athena, S3, and Glue permissions
• CloudTrail configured to deliver logs to an S3 bucket
• VPC Flow Logs enabled and publishing to S3
• S3 server access logging enabled on target buckets
• ALB access logging enabled and publishing to S3
• Python 3.8+ with boto3 installed
• Appropriate IAM permissions for Athena queries and S3 access

Workflow

# Example: IOC detection
import re

IOC_PATTERNS = {
    "ip": r"\b(?:\d{1,3}\.){3}\d{1,3}\b",
    "domain": r"\b[a-z0-9-]+\.[a-z]{2,}\b",
    "hash_md5": r"\b[a-f0-9]{32}\b",
    "hash_sha256": r"\b[a-f0-9]{64}\b",
}

def extract_iocs() -> :
     {k: re.findall(v, text)  k, v  IOC_PATTERNS.items()}