ID | Technique | Tactic |
---|---|---|
T1136 | Create Account | Persistence |
T1136.003 | Cloud Account | Persistence |
Detection: Azure Automation Account Created
Description
The following analytic detects the creation of a new Azure Automation account within an Azure tenant. It leverages Azure Audit events, specifically the Azure Activity log category, to identify when an account is created or updated. This activity is significant because Azure Automation accounts can be used to automate tasks and orchestrate actions across Azure and on-premise environments. If an attacker creates an Automation account with elevated privileges, they could maintain persistence, execute malicious runbooks, and potentially escalate privileges or execute code on virtual machines, posing a significant security risk.
Search
1`azure_audit` operationName.localizedValue="Create or Update an Azure Automation account" status.value=Succeeded
2| dedup object
3| rename claims.ipaddr as src_ip
4| rename caller as user
5| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime values(object) as object by user, src_ip, resourceGroupName, object_path
6| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
7| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
8| `azure_automation_account_created_filter`
Data Source
Name | Platform | Sourcetype | Source |
---|---|---|---|
Azure Audit Create or Update an Azure Automation account | Azure | 'mscs:azure:audit' |
'mscs:azure:audit' |
Macros Used
Name | Value |
---|---|
azure_audit | sourcetype=mscs:azure:audit |
azure_automation_account_created_filter | search * |
azure_automation_account_created_filter
is an empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.
Annotations
Default Configuration
This detection is configured by default in Splunk Enterprise Security to run with the following settings:
Setting | Value |
---|---|
Disabled | true |
Cron Schedule | 0 * * * * |
Earliest Time | -70m@m |
Latest Time | -10m@m |
Schedule Window | auto |
Creates Notable | Yes |
Rule Title | %name% |
Rule Description | %description% |
Notable Event Fields | user, dest |
Creates Risk Event | True |
Implementation
You must install the latest version of Splunk Add-on for Microsoft Cloud Services from Splunkbase (https://splunkbase.splunk.com/app/3110/#/details). You must be ingesting Azure Audit events into your Splunk environment. Specifically, this analytic leverages the Azure Activity log category.
Known False Positives
Administrators may legitimately create Azure Automation accounts. Filter as needed.
Associated Analytic Story
Risk Based Analytics (RBA)
Risk Message | Risk Score | Impact | Confidence |
---|---|---|---|
A new Azure Automation account $object$ was created by $user$ | 63 | 70 | 90 |
References
-
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/automation/automation-hybrid-runbook-worker
-
https://www.inversecos.com/2021/12/how-to-detect-malicious-azure.html
-
https://microsoft.github.io/Azure-Threat-Research-Matrix/Persistence/AZT503/AZT503-3/
Detection Testing
Test Type | Status | Dataset | Source | Sourcetype |
---|---|---|---|---|
Validation | ✅ Passing | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Unit | ✅ Passing | Dataset | mscs:azure:audit |
mscs:azure:audit |
Integration | ✅ Passing | Dataset | mscs:azure:audit |
mscs:azure:audit |
Replay any dataset to Splunk Enterprise by using our replay.py
tool or the UI.
Alternatively you can replay a dataset into a Splunk Attack Range
Source: GitHub | Version: 5