Why did I receive an Amazon GuardDuty finding type UnauthorizedAccess:IAMUser/TorIPCaller or Recon:IAMUser/TorIPCaller alerts for my IAM user or role?

Short description

The UnauthorizedAccess:IAMUser/TorIPCaller and Recon:IAMUser/TorIPCaller finding types indicate that your AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) identity credentials or access keys were used to make an API operation to AWS from a Tor exit node IP address. For example, you can get this error when trying to create an Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instance, list access key IDs, or modify IAM permissions. These finding types can also indicate that IAM identity credentials or access keys have been associated unauthorized activity. For more information, see Finding types.

Resolution

Use GuardDuty to locate the IAM access key, and AWS CloudTrail to identify the AWS API activity.

1. Follow the instructions for Locating and analyzing GuardDuty findings.
2. In the findings detail pane, note the IAM access key ID.
3. Follow the instructions to search for IAM access key API activity using CloudTrail.

If you confirm that the activity is a legitimate use of AWS credentials, then you can:

• Ignore the finding type.
• Archive the finding type.
• Create suppression rules to automatically archive new finding types.

If you confirm that the activity isn't a legitimate use of AWS credentials, it's a security best practice to assume that all AWS credentials are compromised. Follow these instructions to remediate compromised AWS credentials.

For more information, see What do I do if I notice unauthorized activity in my AWS account?

Related information

What to do if you inadvertently expose an AWS access key