GCP IAM - High privileged role added to service account

Status: available
Severity: high
Time window: 15m
Source: github.com/Azure/Azure-Sentinel

'Detects when high privileged role was added to service account.'

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Privilege Escalation	`T1078` Valid Accounts

Rules detecting the same action

Other rules on this platform that filter on the same API call or operation.

GCP Admin Privileged Roles Added To Service Accounts (YARA-L)
GCP Corporate Email Not Used (Panther)
GCP Free Gmail Domains Added To IAM Policy (YARA-L)
GCP IAM - Disable Data Access Logging (Kusto)
GCP Org or Folder Policy Was Changed Manually (Panther)

Rule body kusto

id: 86112c4b-2535-4178-aa0e-ed9e32e3f054
name: GCP IAM - High privileged role added to service account
description: |
  'Detects when high privileged role was added to service account.'
severity: High
status: Available
requiredDataConnectors:
  - connectorId: GCPIAMDataConnector
    dataTypes:
      - GCP_IAM
queryFrequency: 15m
queryPeriod: 15m
triggerOperator: gt
triggerThreshold: 0
tactics:
  - PrivilegeEscalation
relevantTechniques:
  - T1078
query: |
  let privileged_roles = dynamic(['roles/iam.securityAdmin', 'roles/secretmanager.admin', 'roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor', 'roles/apigateway.admin', 'roles/logging.admin', 'roles/iam.organizationRoleAdmin', 'roles/iam.roleAdmin', 'roles/iam.serviceAccountAdmin', 'roles/iam.serviceAccountCreator', 'roles/iam.serviceAccountKeyAdmin']);
  GCP_IAM
  | where PayloadMethodname =~ 'SetIamPolicy'
  | extend action = parse_json(todynamic(PayloadServicedataPolicydeltaBindingdeltas))[0]['action']
  | where action =~ 'ADD'
  | extend role = parse_json(todynamic(PayloadServicedataPolicydeltaBindingdeltas))[0]['role']
  | where role in~ (privileged_roles)
  | project-away action
  | extend AccountName = tostring(split(PayloadAuthenticationinfoPrincipalemail, "@")[0]), AccountUPNSuffix = tostring(split(PayloadAuthenticationinfoPrincipalemail, "@")[1])
entityMappings:
  - entityType: Account
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: FullName
        columnName: PayloadAuthenticationinfoPrincipalemail
      - identifier: Name
        columnName: AccountName
      - identifier: UPNSuffix
        columnName: AccountUPNSuffix
  - entityType: IP
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: Address
        columnName: SrcIpAddr
version: 1.0.1
kind: Scheduled

Stages and Predicates

Let binding: `privileged_roles`

let privileged_roles = dynamic(['roles/iam.securityAdmin', 'roles/secretmanager.admin', 'roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor', 'roles/apigateway.admin', 'roles/logging.admin', 'roles/iam.organizationRoleAdmin', 'roles/iam.roleAdmin', 'roles/iam.serviceAccountAdmin', 'roles/iam.serviceAccountCreator', 'roles/iam.serviceAccountKeyAdmin']);

Stage 1: `source`

GCP_IAM

Stage 2: `where`

| where PayloadMethodname =~ 'SetIamPolicy'

Stage 3: `extend`

| extend action = parse_json(todynamic(PayloadServicedataPolicydeltaBindingdeltas))[0]['action']

Stage 4: `where`

| where action =~ 'ADD'

Stage 5: `extend`

| extend role = parse_json(todynamic(PayloadServicedataPolicydeltaBindingdeltas))[0]['role']

Stage 6: `where`

| where role in~ (privileged_roles)

References privileged_roles (defined above).

Stage 7: `project-away`

| project-away action

Stage 8: `extend`

| extend AccountName = tostring(split(PayloadAuthenticationinfoPrincipalemail, "@")[0]), AccountUPNSuffix = tostring(split(PayloadAuthenticationinfoPrincipalemail, "@")[1])

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
`PayloadMethodname`	eq	`SetIamPolicy`
`action`	eq	`ADD`
`role`	in	`roles/apigateway.admin` `roles/iam.organizationRoleAdmin` `roles/iam.roleAdmin` `roles/iam.securityAdmin` `roles/iam.serviceAccountAdmin` `roles/iam.serviceAccountCreator` `roles/iam.serviceAccountKeyAdmin` `roles/logging.admin` `roles/secretmanager.admin` `roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor`

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
`role`	`extend`
`AccountName`	`extend`
`AccountUPNSuffix`	`extend`

`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)

GCP IAM - High privileged role added to service account

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Rules detecting the same action

Rule body kusto

Stages and Predicates

Let binding: `privileged_roles`

Stage 1: `source`

Stage 2: `where`

Stage 3: `extend`

Stage 4: `where`

Stage 5: `extend`

Stage 6: `where`

Stage 7: `project-away`

Stage 8: `extend`

Indicators

Output fields

Keyboard shortcuts

Search operators

GCP IAM - High privileged role added to service account

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Rules detecting the same action

Rule body kusto

Stages and Predicates

Let binding: privileged_roles

Stage 1: source

Stage 2: where

Stage 3: extend

Stage 4: where

Stage 5: extend

Stage 6: where

Stage 7: project-away

Stage 8: extend

Indicators

Output fields

Let binding: `privileged_roles`

Stage 1: `source`

Stage 2: `where`

Stage 3: `extend`

Stage 4: `where`

Stage 5: `extend`

Stage 6: `where`

Stage 7: `project-away`

Stage 8: `extend`