---
title: Unfamiliar IAM user retrieved secret from AWS Secrets Manager
description: Datadog, the leading service for cloud-scale monitoring.
breadcrumbs: >-
  Docs > Datadog Security > OOTB Rules > Unfamiliar IAM user retrieved secret
  from AWS Secrets Manager
---

# Unfamiliar IAM user retrieved secret from AWS Secrets Manager
Classification:attackTactic:[TA0006-credential-access](https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0006)Technique:[T1555-credentials-from-password-stores](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1555) 
## Goal{% #goal %}

Detect when a previously unseen IAM user retrieves secrets from AWS Secrets Manager.

## Strategy{% #strategy %}

This rule lets you monitor the [`GetSecretValue`](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/secretsmanager/latest/apireference/API_GetSecretValue.html) CloudTrail API calls to detect when a secret is retrieved. It does this by inspecting the IAM users accessing secrets within your AWS account over a 7-day window. Newly detected users after this 7-day window will generate security signals.

## Triage and response{% #triage-and-response %}

1. Determine whether the IAM user: `{{@userIdentity.arn}}` is expected to access the Secrets Manager and the secrets within `@requestParameters.secretId`.
1. If the action is legitimate, consider including the user in a suppression list. See [Best practices for creating detection rules with Datadog Cloud SIEM](https://www.datadoghq.com/blog/writing-datadog-security-detection-rules/#fine-tune-security-signals-to-reduce-noise) for more information.
1. If the action shouldn't have happened:
   - Contact the user: `{{@userIdentity.arn}}` and see if they made the API call.
   - Use the Cloud SIEM - User Investigation dashboard to see if the user `{{@userIdentity.arn}}` has taken other actions.
   - Use the Cloud SIEM - IP Investigation dashboard to see if there's more traffic from the IP `{{@network.client.ip}}`.
1. If the results of the triage indicate that an attacker has taken the action, begin your company's incident response process as well as an investigation.