GCP Service Account Creation
editGCP Service Account Creation
editIdentifies when a new service account is created in Google Cloud Platform (GCP). A service account is a special type of account used by an application or a virtual machine (VM) instance, not a person. Applications use service accounts to make authorized API calls, authorized as either the service account itself, or as G Suite or Cloud Identity users through domain-wide delegation. If service accounts are not tracked and managed properly, they can present a security risk. An adversary may create a new service account to use during their operations in order to avoid using a standard user account and attempt to evade detection.
Rule type: query
Rule indices:
- filebeat-*
- logs-gcp*
Severity: low
Risk score: 21
Runs every: 5 minutes
Searches indices from: now-6m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time
)
Maximum alerts per execution: 100
References:
Tags:
- Elastic
- Cloud
- GCP
- Continuous Monitoring
- SecOps
- Identity and Access
Version: 102 (version history)
Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.10.0
Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 8.6.0
Rule authors: Elastic
Rule license: Elastic License v2
Potential false positives
editService accounts can be created by system administrators. Verify that the behavior was expected. Exceptions can be added to this rule to filter expected behavior.
Investigation guide
editRule query
editevent.dataset:gcp.audit and event.action:google.iam.admin.v*.CreateServiceAccount and event.outcome:success
Threat mapping
editFramework: MITRE ATT&CKTM
-
Tactic:
- Name: Persistence
- ID: TA0003
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0003/
-
Technique:
- Name: Create Account
- ID: T1136
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1136/
Rule version history
edit- Version 102 (8.6.0 release)
-
- Formatting only
- Version 100 (8.5.0 release)
-
- Formatting only
- Version 7 (8.4.0 release)
-
-
Updated query, changed from:
event.dataset:(googlecloud.audit or gcp.audit) and event.action:google.iam.admin.v*.CreateServiceAccount and event.outcome:success
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- Version 5 (7.13.0 release)
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- Formatting only
- Version 4 (7.12.0 release)
-
- Formatting only
- Version 3 (7.11.2 release)
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- Formatting only
- Version 2 (7.11.0 release)
-
-
Updated query, changed from:
event.dataset:googlecloud.audit and event.action:google.iam.admin.v*.CreateServiceAccount and event.outcome:success
-