AWS ECR Container Scanning Findings Medium

SPLUNK detection rule by Patrick Bareiss, Splunk · Apache-2.0

The following analytic identifies medium-severity findings from AWS Elastic Container Registry (ECR) image scans. It leverages AWS CloudTrail logs, specifically the DescribeImageScanFindings event, to detect vulnerabilities in container images. This activity is significant for a SOC as it highlights potential security risks in containerized applications, which could be exploited if not addressed. If confirmed malicious, these vulnerabilities could lead to unauthorized access, data breaches, or further exploitation within the container environment, compromising the overall security posture.

name: AWS ECR Container Scanning Findings Medium
id: 0b80e2c8-c746-4ddb-89eb-9efd892220cf
version: 13
creation_date: '2021-08-18'
modification_date: '2026-05-13'
author: Patrick Bareiss, Splunk
status: production
type: Anomaly
description: The following analytic identifies medium-severity findings from AWS Elastic Container Registry (ECR) image scans. It leverages AWS CloudTrail logs, specifically the DescribeImageScanFindings event, to detect vulnerabilities in container images. This activity is significant for a SOC as it highlights potential security risks in containerized applications, which could be exploited if not addressed. If confirmed malicious, these vulnerabilities could lead to unauthorized access, data breaches, or further exploitation within the container environment, compromising the overall security posture.
data_source:
    - AWS CloudTrail DescribeImageScanFindings
search: |-
    `cloudtrail` eventSource=ecr.amazonaws.com eventName=DescribeImageScanFindings
      | spath path=responseElements.imageScanFindings.findings{} output=findings
      | mvexpand findings
      | spath input=findings
      | search severity=MEDIUM
      | rename name as finding_name, description as finding_description, requestParameters.imageId.imageDigest as imageDigest, requestParameters.repositoryName as repository
      | rename user_name as user
      | stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime
        BY signature dest user
           user_agent src vendor_account
           vendor_region vendor_product finding_name
           finding_description imageDigest repository
      | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
      | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
      | `aws_ecr_container_scanning_findings_medium_filter`
how_to_implement: You must install splunk AWS add on and Splunk App for AWS. This search works with AWS CloudTrail logs.
known_false_positives: No false positives have been identified at this time.
references:
    - https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonECR/latest/userguide/image-scanning.html
drilldown_searches:
    - name: View the detection results for - "$user$"
      search: '%original_detection_search% | search  user = "$user$"'
      earliest_offset: $info_min_time$
      latest_offset: $info_max_time$
    - name: View risk events for the last 7 days for - "$user$"
      search: '| from datamodel Risk.All_Risk | search normalized_risk_object IN ("$user$") | stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime values(search_name) as "Search Name" values(risk_message) as "Risk Message" values(analyticstories) as "Analytic Stories" values(annotations._all) as "Annotations" values(annotations.mitre_attack.mitre_tactic) as "ATT&CK Tactics" by normalized_risk_object | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`'
      earliest_offset: 7d
      latest_offset: "0"
intermediate_findings:
    entities:
        - field: user
          type: user
          score: 20
          message: Vulnerabilities with severity medium found in repository $repository$
analytic_story:
    - Dev Sec Ops
asset_type: AWS Account
mitre_attack_id:
    - T1204.003
product:
    - Splunk Enterprise
    - Splunk Enterprise Security
    - Splunk Cloud
category: cloud
security_domain: network
tests:
    - name: True Positive Test
      attack_data:
        - data: https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/splunk/attack_data/master/datasets/attack_techniques/T1204.003/aws_ecr_image_scanning/aws_ecr_scanning_findings_events.json
          sourcetype: aws:cloudtrail
          source: aws_cloudtrail
      test_type: unit

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7a3f898e-16fb-401a-b9ae-1954501220c9

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Format & documentation suggestions

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