tfMITRE ATT&CK sub-technique

Modify Cloud Compute Configurations T1578.005

sub-technique of T1578 Modify Cloud Compute Infrastructure

Tactic: Defense Impairment
Platform: IaaS
Version: 3.0
Created: 05 September 2023
Last modified: 12 May 2026
Contributors: Amir Gharib, Microsoft Threat Intelligence; Blake Strom, Microsoft Threat Intelligence

Adversaries may modify settings that directly affect the size, locations, and resources available to cloud compute infrastructure in order to evade defenses. These settings may include service quotas, subscription associations, tenant-wide policies, or other configurations that impact available compute. Such modifications may allow adversaries to abuse the victim’s compute resources to achieve their goals, potentially without affecting the execution of running instances and/or revealing their activities to the victim.

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 rules42nd pct

Detection rules42nd percentile · 58% of ATT&CK techniques have more detection rules written.

Offense vs defense T1578.005

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.

How it got here

Range

Adversary activity (campaign spans) over cumulative rule output. Each source is plotted independently from zero, so neither line includes the other. Campaign dates are year-granularity.

Campaigns · 0Sigma rules (cumulative) · 0Splunk ESCU (cumulative) · 1

first rule: 2024 Q1

Modify Cloud Compute Configurations detection strategy DET0492

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 Strategy for Modify Cloud Compute Infrastructure: Modify Cloud Compute Configurations

Enterprise

1 platform

AN1356 · IaaS

Defenders should monitor for anomalous or unauthorized changes to cloud compute configurations that alter quotas, tenant-wide policies, subscription associations, or allowed deployment regions. From a defender’s perspective, suspicious behavior chains include a sudden increase in compute quota requests followed by new instance or resource creation, policy modifications that weaken security restrictions, or enabling previously unused/unsupported cloud regions. Correlation across identity, configuration, and subsequent provisioning logs is critical to distinguish legitimate administrative activity from adversarial abuse.

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
Cloud Service ModificationDC0069	AWS:CloudTrail	RequestServiceQuotaIncrease

Tunable fields

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

Field	What you tune
UserContext	Identity performing the quota or configuration change; tuned to filter known admins or automation accounts.
TimeWindow	Correlation period for configuration change followed by resource creation; tuned to environment norms.
ChangeType	Type of configuration being modified (quota, policy, region); tuned to organization-specific risk thresholds.
GeoLocation	Region where the configuration change originates; tuned to enterprise’s expected operational geography.

Modify Cloud Compute Configurations detections T1578.005

1 rule is mapped to this technique. Parent techniques also include their sub-techniques’ rules. Click a slice or key entry to filter the table.

42nd pctamong all ATT&CK techniques for number of rules

Product

Severity

Library

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