Azure DevOps Pipeline modified by a new user

Status: available
Severity: medium
Time window: 14d
Group by: AadUserId, ActorUserId
Source: github.com/Azure/Azure-Sentinel

'There are several potential pipeline steps that could be modified by an attacker to inject malicious code into the build cycle. A likely attacker path is the modification to an existing pipeline that they have access to. This detection looks for users modifying a pipeline when they have not previously been observed modifying or creating that pipeline before. This query also joins events with data to Microsoft Entra ID Protection in order to show if the user conducting the action has any associated Microsoft Entra ID Protection alerts. You can also choose to filter this detection to only alert when the user also has Microsoft Entra ID Protection alerts associated with them.'

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Execution	`T1569` System Services
Defense Impairment	`T1578` Modify Cloud Compute Infrastructure

Rule body kusto

id: 155e9134-d5ad-4a6f-88f3-99c220040b66
name: Azure DevOps Pipeline modified by a new user
description: |
  'There are several potential pipeline steps that could be modified by an attacker to inject malicious code into the build cycle. A likely attacker path is the modification to an existing pipeline that they have access to. 
  This detection looks for users modifying a pipeline when they have not previously been observed modifying or creating that pipeline before. This query also joins events with data to Microsoft Entra ID Protection in order to show if the user conducting the action has any associated Microsoft Entra ID Protection alerts. You can also choose to filter this detection to only alert when the user also has Microsoft Entra ID Protection alerts associated with them.'
severity: Medium
status: Available
requiredDataConnectors: []
queryFrequency: 1d
queryPeriod: 14d
triggerOperator: gt
triggerThreshold: 0
tactics:
  - Execution 
  - DefenseEvasion
relevantTechniques:
  - T1578
  - T1569
query: |
  // Set the lookback to determine if user has created pipelines before
  let timeback = 14d;
  // Set the period for detections
  let timeframe = 1d;
  // Get a list of previous Release Pipeline creators to exclude
  let releaseusers = ADOAuditLogs
  | where TimeGenerated > ago(timeback) and TimeGenerated < ago(timeframe)
  | where OperationName in ("Release.ReleasePipelineCreated", "Release.ReleasePipelineModified")
  // We want to look for users performing actions in specific projects so we create this userscope object to match on
  | extend UserScope = strcat(ActorUserId, "-", ProjectName)
  | summarize by UserScope;
  // Get Release Pipeline creations by new users
  ADOAuditLogs
  | where TimeGenerated > ago(timeframe)
  | where OperationName =~ "Release.ReleasePipelineModified"
  | extend UserScope = strcat(ActorUserId, "-", ProjectName)
  | where UserScope !in (releaseusers)
  | extend ActorUPN = tolower(ActorUPN)
  | project-away Id, ActivityId, ActorCUID, ScopeId, ProjectId, TenantId, SourceSystem, UserScope
  // See if any of these users have Azure AD alerts associated with them in the same timeframe
  | join kind = leftouter (
  SecurityAlert
  | where TimeGenerated > ago(timeframe)
  | where ProviderName == "IPC"
  | extend AadUserId = tostring(parse_json(Entities)[0].AadUserId)
  | summarize Alerts=count() by AadUserId) on $left.ActorUserId == $right.AadUserId
  | extend Alerts = iif(isnotempty(Alerts), Alerts, 0)
  // Uncomment the line below to only show results where the user as AADIdP alerts
  //| where Alerts > 0
  | extend timestamp = TimeGenerated
  | extend AccountName = tostring(split(ActorUPN, "@")[0]), AccountUPNSuffix = tostring(split(ActorUPN, "@")[1])
entityMappings:
  - entityType: Account
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: FullName
        columnName: ActorUPN
      - identifier: Name
        columnName: AccountName
      - identifier: UPNSuffix
        columnName: AccountUPNSuffix
  - entityType: IP
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: Address
        columnName: IpAddress
version: 1.0.8
kind: Scheduled

Stages and Predicates

Parameters

let timeback = 14d;
let timeframe = 1d;

Let binding: `releaseusers`

let releaseusers = ADOAuditLogs
| where TimeGenerated > ago(timeback) and TimeGenerated < ago(timeframe)
| where OperationName in ("Release.ReleasePipelineCreated", "Release.ReleasePipelineModified")
| extend UserScope = strcat(ActorUserId, "-", ProjectName)
| summarize by UserScope;

Derived from timeback, timeframe.

Stage 1: `source`

ADOAuditLogs

Stage 2: `where`

| where TimeGenerated > ago(timeframe)

Stage 3: `where`

| where OperationName =~ "Release.ReleasePipelineModified"

Stage 4: `extend`

| extend UserScope = strcat(ActorUserId, "-", ProjectName)

Stage 5: `where`

| where UserScope !in (releaseusers)

References releaseusers (defined above).

Stage 6: `extend`

| extend ActorUPN = tolower(ActorUPN)

Stage 7: `project-away`

| project-away Id, ActivityId, ActorCUID, ScopeId, ProjectId, TenantId, SourceSystem, UserScope

Stage 8: `join`

| join kind = leftouter (
SecurityAlert
| where TimeGenerated > ago(timeframe)
| where ProviderName == "IPC"
| extend AadUserId = tostring(parse_json(Entities)[0].AadUserId)
| summarize Alerts=count() by AadUserId) on $left.ActorUserId == $right.AadUserId

Stage 9: `extend` (3 consecutive steps)

| extend Alerts = iif(isnotempty(Alerts), Alerts, 0)
| extend timestamp = TimeGenerated
| extend AccountName = tostring(split(ActorUPN, "@")[0]), AccountUPNSuffix = tostring(split(ActorUPN, "@")[1])

Stage 10: `summarize`

summarize by AadUserId

Exclusions

Top-level NOT(...) conjuncts: predicates this rule actively suppresses.

Field	Kind	Excluded values
`UserScope`	eq	`releaseusers`

Indicators

Each row is a field, operator, and value that the rule matches. The corpus column counts how many other rules in the catalog look for the same combination: high numbers point to widely-used, community-vetted indicators. Blank or 1 shows that the indicator is specific to this rule.

Field	Kind	Values
`OperationName`	eq	`Release.ReleasePipelineModified`
`ProviderName`	eq	`IPC` transforms: `cased`

Output fields

Fields the rule emits when it matches. Chronicle authors list these in the outcome block; they appear on the detection and $risk_score drives alerting. Sentinel / Defender XDR rules build them up through project / summarize / extend stages. Sentinel maps these into alert fields via entityMappings and customDetails; Defender XDR custom detections surface them as alert fields directly.

Field	Source
`AadUserId`	`summarize`

`j` / `k`	Scroll down / up
`d` / `u`	Half-page down / up
`gg` / `G`	Top / bottom
`h` / `l`	History back / forward
`f`	Follow link (`Shift` = new tab)
`/`	Focus search
`?`	Toggle this help
`↑` / `↓`	Navigate search results
`Enter`	Open highlighted result
`Esc`	Close results / dialog

`type:`	`events` / `rules` / `providers`
`vendor:`	`sigma` / `elastic` / `splunk` / `kusto` / `chronicle` (vendor name alone also works: `sigma:`, `kql:`, `secops:`…)
`tactic:`	TA-id, slug, or name: `credential_access`, `TA0006`
`technique:`	technique or sub-technique ID: `T1003`, `T1003.001` (alias `tech:`)
`severity:`	`critical` / `high` / `medium` / `low` / `informational` (alias `sev:`)
`risk_score`	Numeric comparison on the Elastic risk score (0 to 100): `risk_score>50`, `risk_score<=20`, `risk_score=99` (alias `risk`; Elastic rules only)
`stages:`	Rules with exactly N pipeline stages
`correlation:`	`single_event` / `sequence` / `alternatives` / `alternatives_cross_log` / `all_required` / `correlated`
`with:`	Co-occurrence event-id; stacks (`with:4624 with:4769`) to require all, while a comma list in one occurrence (`with:4624,4769`) is an either-or group. Implies multi-event
`like:`	Structural neighbors of a rule slug (equivalents + subsumption stricter / broader): `like:comsvcs_lsass_memory_dump-splunk-sysmon`
`groupby:`	Entity-grouping substring match against `group_by_keys`: `groupby:user`, `groupby:host`
`uses:`	Rules whose predicate tree touches the field (any kind, any value): `uses:CommandLine`
`excludes:`	Rules with top-level `not()` clauses on the field (FP whitelists): `excludes:ParentImage`
`field:` / `value:`	Predicate search; narrows rule cards to those with a matching leaf and drives the indicator tier. Unquoted = substring, wildcards allowed (`value:mimikatz`)
`indicator:`	Shorthand for `field:F value:V`: `indicator:Image=*\powershell.exe`
`kind:`	Filter by predicate kind. Narrows rule cards to those carrying a matching predicate leaf (`vendor:elastic kind:cidr_match`) and drives the indicator tier: `contains` / `starts_with` / `ends_with` / `regex` / `cidr` / `eq` / `in` … (operator aliases `op:`/`match:`)
`has:` / `no:`	`sample`, `field`, `notes`, `refs`, `trace`, `thirdparty`, `rule`, `pattern`, `timewindow`, `threshold`, `newterms`, `sigma`/`elastic`/`splunk`/`kusto`/`chronicle`
`-op:val`	Exclude matches; works on most operators but not `type:`/`like:`/`has:`/`no:` (use `no:<flag>` to exclude a rule flag): `tactic:execution -vendor:splunk`. Standalone `-kind:`/`-field:`/`-value:` drop every rule carrying a matching predicate leaf (`type:rules -kind:is_null`)
`field:"…"` / `value:"…"`	Quoted value = anchored exact match (also allows spaces): `value:"net user"`
`a,b`	Comma = OR inside one operator (`vendor:sigma,elastic`, `severity:high,critical`); repeating a facet merges the same way. `field:`/`value:` never split (literal commas)
`vendors:` / `stage:`	Singular and plural spellings fold to the canonical operator and value: `tactics:` = `tactic:`, `type:event` = `type:events`, `correlation:sequences` = `correlation:sequence`, `has:thresholds` = `has:threshold`
`"quoted phrase"`	Exact-match a multi-word phrase (free text)

Azure DevOps Pipeline modified by a new user

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Rule body kusto

Stages and Predicates

Parameters

Let binding: `releaseusers`

Stage 1: `source`

Stage 2: `where`

Stage 3: `where`

Stage 4: `extend`

Stage 5: `where`

Stage 6: `extend`

Stage 7: `project-away`

Stage 8: `join`

Stage 9: `extend` (3 consecutive steps)

Stage 10: `summarize`

Exclusions

Indicators

Output fields

Keyboard shortcuts

Search operators

Azure DevOps Pipeline modified by a new user

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Rule body kusto

Stages and Predicates

Parameters

Let binding: releaseusers

Stage 1: source

Stage 2: where

Stage 3: where

Stage 4: extend

Stage 5: where

Stage 6: extend

Stage 7: project-away

Stage 8: join

Stage 9: extend (3 consecutive steps)

Stage 10: summarize

Exclusions

Indicators

Output fields

Let binding: `releaseusers`

Stage 1: `source`

Stage 2: `where`

Stage 3: `where`

Stage 4: `extend`

Stage 5: `where`

Stage 6: `extend`

Stage 7: `project-away`

Stage 8: `join`

Stage 9: `extend` (3 consecutive steps)

Stage 10: `summarize`