Google Workspace Restrictions for Google Marketplace Modified to Allow Any App

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Google Workspace Restrictions for Google Marketplace Modified to Allow Any App

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Detects when the Google Marketplace restrictions are changed to allow any application for users in Google Workspace. Malicious APKs created by adversaries may be uploaded to the Google marketplace but not installed on devices managed within Google Workspace. Administrators should set restrictions to not allow any application from the marketplace for security reasons. Adversaries may enable any app to be installed and executed on mobile devices within a Google Workspace environment prior to distributing the malicious APK to the end user.

Rule type: query

Rule indices:

  • filebeat-*
  • logs-google_workspace*

Severity: medium

Risk score: 47

Runs every: 10 minutes

Searches indices from: now-130m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References:

Tags:

  • Elastic
  • Cloud
  • Google Workspace
  • Continuous Monitoring
  • SecOps
  • Configuration Audit
  • Defense Evasion

Version: 2 (version history)

Added (Elastic Stack release): 8.5.0

Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 8.6.0

Rule authors: Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Potential false positives

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Applications can be added and removed from blocklists by Google Workspace administrators, but they can all be explicitly allowed for users. Verify that the configuration change was expected. Exceptions can be added to this rule to filter expected behavior.

Investigation guide

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### Important Information Regarding Google Workspace Event Lag Times
- As per Google's documentation, Google Workspace administrators may observe lag times ranging from minutes up to 3 days between the time of an event's occurrence and the event being visible in the Google Workspace admin/audit logs.
- This rule is configured to run every 10 minutes with a lookback time of 130 minutes.
- To reduce the risk of false negatives, consider reducing the interval that the Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) Filebeat module polls Google's reporting API for new events.
- By default, `var.interval` is set to 2 hours (2h). Consider changing this interval to a lower value, such as 10 minutes (10m).
- See the following references for further information:
  - https://support.google.com/a/answer/7061566
  - https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/filebeat/current/filebeat-module-google_workspace.html

Rule query

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event.dataset:"google_workspace.admin" and
event.action:"CHANGE_APPLICATION_SETTING" and event.category:(iam or
configuration) and
google_workspace.event.type:"APPLICATION_SETTINGS" and
google_workspace.admin.application.name:"Google Workspace Marketplace"
and google_workspace.admin.setting.name:"Apps Access Setting Allowlist
access" and google_workspace.admin.new_value:"ALLOW_ALL"

Threat mapping

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Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM

Rule version history

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Version 2 (8.6.0 release)
  • Formatting only