conducting-cloud-incident-response

Responds to security incidents in cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP) by performing identity-based containment, cloud-native log analysis, resource isolation, and forensic evidence acquisition adapted for ephemeral cloud infrastructure. Activates for requests involving cloud incident response, AWS security incident, Azure compromise, GCP breach, cloud forensics, or cloud identity compromise.

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name	conducting-cloud-incident-response
description	Responds to security incidents in cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP) by performing identity-based containment, cloud-native log analysis, resource isolation, and forensic evidence acquisition adapted for ephemeral cloud infrastructure. Activates for requests involving cloud incident response, AWS security incident, Azure compromise, GCP breach, cloud forensics, or cloud identity compromise.
domain	cybersecurity
subdomain	incident-response
tags	["cloud-IR","AWS-forensics","Azure-incident-response","GCP-security","identity-containment"]
version	1.0.0
author	mahipal
license	Apache-2.0

Conducting Cloud Incident Response

When to Use

Cloud security posture management (CSPM) alerts on unauthorized resource changes
CloudTrail, Azure Activity Logs, or GCP Audit Logs show suspicious API calls
Cloud access keys or service principal credentials are suspected compromised
Unauthorized compute instances, storage buckets, or IAM changes are detected
A cloud-hosted application is breached and attacker activity spans cloud services

Do not use for on-premises-only incidents with no cloud component; use standard enterprise IR procedures.

Prerequisites

Cloud-native logging enabled and centralized: AWS CloudTrail (all regions), Azure Activity/Sign-in Logs, GCP Cloud Audit Logs
IR-specific cloud IAM roles pre-provisioned with read-only forensic access
Isolated forensic account/subscription/project for evidence preservation
Cloud incident response runbooks specific to each cloud provider
Cloud-native security tools: AWS GuardDuty, Azure Defender for Cloud, GCP Security Command Center
Network traffic logging: VPC Flow Logs (AWS/GCP), NSG Flow Logs (Azure)

Workflow

Step 1: Detect and Confirm the Cloud Incident

Identify the scope and nature of the compromise:

AWS Indicators:

CloudTrail suspicious events to investigate:
- ConsoleLogin from unexpected geolocation or IP
- CreateAccessKey for existing IAM user (persistence)
- RunInstances for crypto-mining (large instance types)
- PutBucketPolicy making S3 bucket public
- AssumeRole to cross-account roles
- DeleteTrail or StopLogging (defense evasion)
- CreateUser or AttachUserPolicy (privilege escalation)

Azure Indicators:

Azure Activity Log events to investigate:
- Sign-in from anonymous IP or TOR exit node
- Service principal credential added
- Role assignment changes (Owner, Contributor added)
- VM created in unusual region
- Storage account access key regenerated
- Conditional Access policy modified or deleted
- MFA disabled for user account

GCP Indicators:

GCP Audit Log events to investigate:
- SetIamPolicy changes granting broad access
- CreateServiceAccountKey for existing SA
- InsertInstance in unexpected zone
- SetBucketIamPolicy with allUsers
- DeleteLog or UpdateSink (log tampering)

Step 2: Contain Cloud Identity Compromise

Cloud containment is primarily an identity operation:

AWS Containment:

# Disable compromised IAM access keys
aws iam update-access-key --user-name compromised-user \
  --access-key-id AKIA... --status Inactive


aws iam attach-user-policy --user-name compromised-user \
  --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AWSDenyAll


aws iam put-role-policy --role-name compromised-role \
  --policy-name RevokeOlderSessions --policy-document 


aws ec2 modify-instance-attribute --instance-id i-0abc123 \
  -- sg-isolate-forensic

# Disable compromised user
Set-AzureADUser -ObjectId "user@tenant.onmicrosoft.com" -AccountEnabled $false

# Revoke all sessions
Revoke-AzureADUserAllRefreshToken -ObjectId "user-object-id"

# Remove role assignments
Remove-AzRoleAssignment -ObjectId "sp-object-id" -RoleDefinitionName "Contributor"

# Isolate VM with NSG deny-all rule
$nsg = New-AzNetworkSecurityGroup -Name "isolate-nsg" -ResourceGroupName "rg" -Location "eastus"
$nsg | Add-AzNetworkSecurityRuleConfig -Name "DenyAll" -Priority 100 -Direction Inbound `
  -Access Deny -Protocol * -SourceAddressPrefix * -SourcePortRange * `
  -DestinationAddressPrefix * -DestinationPortRange *

Common Cloud Attack Patterns:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
1. Credential Compromise → IAM Privilege Escalation → Resource Abuse
2. Public S3/Blob → Data Exfiltration
3. SSRF from Web App → IMDS Token Theft → Lateral Movement
4. Compromised CI/CD Pipeline → Malicious Deployment
5. Cross-Account Role Abuse → Multi-Account Pivot
6. Lambda/Function Abuse → Crypto-mining or Data Processing

# Search CloudTrail for API calls using instance role credentials from external IP
aws cloudtrail lookup-events --lookup-attributes \
  AttributeKey=EventSource,AttributeValue=ec2.amazonaws.com \
  --start-time 2025-11-14 --end-time 2025-11-16 \
  | jq '.Events[] | select(.CloudTrailEvent | fromjson | .sourceIPAddress != "internal")'

Term	Definition
IMDS (Instance Metadata Service)	Cloud service providing instance credentials accessible from within a VM; SSRF attacks target IMDS to steal tokens
CloudTrail	AWS service logging all API calls across the AWS account; primary evidence source for AWS incident response
Service Principal	Non-human identity in Azure AD used by applications and services; compromise enables persistent API access
SCP (Service Control Policy)	AWS Organizations policy that limits the maximum permissions available to accounts; useful for guardrails
Ephemeral Infrastructure	Cloud resources (containers, functions, auto-scaled instances) that may be terminated before evidence can be collected
Cross-Account Role Assumption	AWS mechanism allowing one account to temporarily access resources in another; attackers pivot through assumed roles

CLOUD INCIDENT RESPONSE REPORT
================================
Incident:          INC-2025-1705
Cloud Provider:    AWS (Account: 123456789012)
Date Detected:     2025-11-15T14:00:00Z
Detection Source:  GuardDuty - UnauthorizedAccess:IAMUser/InstanceCredentialExfiltration

COMPROMISE SUMMARY
Initial Access:    IAM access key exposed in public GitHub repo
Affected Identity: iam-user: deploy-bot (AKIA...)
Attacker IP:       203.0.113.42 (VPN exit node, Netherlands)
Duration:          4 hours (10:00 UTC - 14:00 UTC)

ATTACKER ACTIVITY (from CloudTrail)
10:15 UTC - DescribeInstances (reconnaissance)
10:18 UTC - RunInstances x 12 (c5.4xlarge, all regions - crypto-mining)
10:22 UTC - CreateUser "backup-admin" (persistence)
10:23 UTC - CreateAccessKey for "backup-admin"
10:25 UTC - AttachUserPolicy - AdministratorAccess to "backup-admin"
10:30 UTC - PutBucketPolicy - s3://data-bucket made public (exfiltration)

CONTAINMENT ACTIONS
[x] Original access key disabled
[x] User policy set to AWSDenyAll
[x] Backdoor IAM user "backup-admin" deleted
[x] 12 crypto-mining instances terminated (all regions)
[x] S3 bucket policy restored to private

FINANCIAL IMPACT
Unauthorized EC2: $2,847 (4 hours x 12 x c5.4xlarge)
Data Transfer:    $127 (S3 public access data egress)
Total:            $2,974

POST-INCIDENT HARDENING
1. GitHub secret scanning enabled
2. Access key rotation policy implemented
3. SCP preventing CloudTrail disablement deployed
4. GuardDuty auto-remediation Lambda configured