GitLab - Personal Access Tokens creation over time

Status: available
Severity: medium
Time window: 1d
Group by: AuthorName, Repository, TimeGenerated
Source: github.com/Azure/Azure-Sentinel

'This queries GitLab Audit Logs for access tokens. Attacker can exfiltrate data from you GitLab repository after gaining access to it by generating or hijacking access tokens. This hunting queries allows you to track the personal access tokens creation for each of your repositories. The visualization allow you to quickly identify anomalies/excessive creation, to further investigate repo access & permissions.'

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Collection	`T1213` Data from Information Repositories

Rule body kusto

id: 4d6d8b0e-6d9a-4857-a141-f5d89393cddb
name: GitLab - Personal Access Tokens creation over time
description: |
  'This queries GitLab Audit Logs for access tokens. Attacker can exfiltrate data from you GitLab repository after gaining access to it by generating or hijacking access tokens. 
  This hunting queries allows you to track the personal access tokens creation for each of your repositories. 
  The visualization allow you to quickly identify anomalies/excessive creation, to further investigate repo access & permissions.'
severity: Medium
status: Available
requiredDataConnectors:
  - connectorId: SyslogAma
    dataTypes: 
      - Syslog
queryFrequency: 1h
queryPeriod: 1d
triggerOperator: gt
triggerThreshold: 0
tactics:
  - Collection
relevantTechniques:
  - T1213
query: |
  // l_min_tokens_created - minimum tokens created per repository per user per day to consider
  let l_min_tokens_created = 0;
  let interval = 1d;
  GitLabAudit
  | where TargetType == "PersonalAccessToken"
  | project Severity, TimeGenerated = bin(todatetime(EventTime),1d), AuthorName, IPAddress, Repository = EntityName, Action, TargetType
  | summarize total = count() by Repository, TimeGenerated, AuthorName
  | where total >= l_min_tokens_created
entityMappings:
  - entityType: Account
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: FullName
        columnName: AuthorName
version: 1.0.1
kind: Scheduled

Stages and Predicates

Parameters

let l_min_tokens_created = 0;
let interval = 1d;

Stage 1: `source`

GitLabAudit

Stage 2: `where`

| where TargetType == "PersonalAccessToken"

Stage 3: `project`

| project Severity, TimeGenerated = bin(todatetime(EventTime),1d), AuthorName, IPAddress, Repository = EntityName, Action, TargetType

Stage 4: `summarize`

| summarize total = count() by Repository, TimeGenerated, AuthorName

Threshold: ge 0

Stage 5: `where`

| where total >= l_min_tokens_created

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
`TargetType`	eq	`PersonalAccessToken` transforms: `cased`
`total`	ge	`0` 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
`AuthorName`	`summarize`
`Repository`	`summarize`
`TimeGenerated`	`summarize`
`total`	`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)

GitLab - Personal Access Tokens creation over time

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Rule body kusto

Stages and Predicates

Parameters

Stage 1: `source`

Stage 2: `where`

Stage 3: `project`

Stage 4: `summarize`

Stage 5: `where`

Indicators

Output fields

Keyboard shortcuts

Search operators

GitLab - Personal Access Tokens creation over time

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Rule body kusto

Stages and Predicates

Parameters

Stage 1: source

Stage 2: where

Stage 3: project

Stage 4: summarize

Stage 5: where

Indicators

Output fields

Stage 1: `source`

Stage 2: `where`

Stage 3: `project`

Stage 4: `summarize`

Stage 5: `where`