tfMITRE ATT&CK sub-technique

Direct Cloud VM Connections T1021.008

Tactic: Lateral Movement
Platform: IaaS
Version: 1.0
Created: 02 June 2023
Last modified: 15 April 2025
Contributor: Thanabodi Phrakhun, @naikordian

Adversaries may leverage Valid Accounts to log directly into accessible cloud hosted compute infrastructure through cloud native methods. Many cloud providers offer interactive connections to virtual infrastructure that can be accessed through the Cloud API, such as Azure Serial Console[1], AWS EC2 Instance Connect[2][3], and AWS System Manager.[4].

ReconResource DevInitial AccessExecutionPersistencePriv EscStealthDef ImpairmentCred AccessDiscoveryLateral MoveCollectionC2ExfiltrationImpact

Threat groupsNone recorded

Threat groupsNone recorded · 29% of ATT&CK techniques have none either.

CampaignsNone recorded

CampaignsNone recorded · 54% of ATT&CK techniques have none either.

Tools & malwareNone recorded

Tools & malwareNone recorded · 29% of ATT&CK techniques have none either.

Detection rulesNone recorded

Detection rulesNone recorded · 33% of ATT&CK techniques have none either.

Offense vs defense T1021.008

Is defensive coverage keeping up with adversary use? Eight counts, each ranked against all 697 ATT&CK techniques. Attack sits left, defense right, so a shape leaning left means adversaries are better documented here than defenders are equipped. Hover any spoke for its percentile and the share of techniques that have more. The timeline below shows when each side arrived.

Direct Cloud VM Connections detection strategy DET0211

MITRE names one behaviour worth catching for this technique and breaks it into 1 analytic, one per platform. Each carries the log sources it needs and the fields you tune per environment.

Detection of Direct VM Console Access via Cloud-Native Methods

Enterprise

1 platform

AN0594 · IaaS

Direct login to cloud-hosted virtual machines via cloud-native access methods (e.g., EC2 Instance Connect, Azure Serial Console, SSM), followed by command execution or privilege escalation on the VM

Log sources

The data this analytic draws on. You do not need every component — each one you already collect covers part of it. Each links to its ATT&CK record.

Data component	Name	Channel
Process CreationDC0032	WinEventLog:Sysmon	EventCode=1
Logon Session CreationDC0067	AWS:CloudTrail	SendSSHPublicKey, StartSession (SSM), EC2InstanceConnect

Tunable fields

MITRE calls these the analytic’s mutable elements: the thresholds and filters you set for your own environment.

Field	What you tune
TimeWindow	Correlates cloud login to host activity within a reasonable time span (e.g., < 60 seconds)
CloudAuthMethod	Filters based on access vector: SSH key, SSM session, or Console connect
SessionOriginRegion	Identifies sessions from out-of-region or untrusted networks
TargetInstanceTags	Filters sensitive systems or production assets for alert tuning

Direct Cloud VM Connections detections T1021.008

No detection rules are mapped to this technique yet.

None recorded— 33% of ATT&CK techniques have none either

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