Privileged Account Permissions Changed

Severity: medium
Time window: 2d
Source: github.com/Azure/Azure-Sentinel

Detects changes to permissions assigned to admin users. Threat actors may try and increase permission scope by adding additional roles to already privileged accounts. Review any modifications to ensure they were made legitimately. Ref: https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/active-directory/fundamentals/security-operations-privileged-accounts#changes-to-privileged-accounts

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Privilege Escalation	`T1078.004` Valid Accounts: Cloud Accounts

Event coverage

Provider	Event	Title
Entra-AuditLogs	_catch_all	Entra ID audit event (any operation)

Rules detecting the same action

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

Admin promotion after Role Management Application Permission Grant (Kusto)
Bulk Changes to Privileged Account Permissions (Kusto)
Changes to PIM Settings (Kusto)
Detect PIM Alert Disabling activity (Kusto)
Multiple admin membership removals from newly created admin. (Kusto)
New External User Granted Admin Role (Kusto)
NRT Privileged Role Assigned Outside PIM (Kusto)
NRT User added to Microsoft Entra ID Privileged Groups (Kusto)

Rule body kusto

id: 0433c8a3-9aa6-4577-beef-2ea23be41137
name: Privileged Account Permissions Changed
description: |
  'Detects changes to permissions assigned to admin users. Threat actors may try and increase permission scope by adding additional roles to already privileged accounts.
  Review any modifications to ensure they were made legitimately.
  Ref: https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/active-directory/fundamentals/security-operations-privileged-accounts#changes-to-privileged-accounts'
severity: Medium
requiredDataConnectors:
  - connectorId: AzureActiveDirectory
    dataTypes:
      - AuditLogs
  - connectorId: BehaviorAnalytics
    dataTypes:
      - IdentityInfo
queryFrequency: 1d
queryPeriod: 2d
triggerOperator: gt
triggerThreshold: 0
tactics:
  - PrivilegeEscalation
relevantTechniques:
  - T1078.004
tags:
  - AADSecOpsGuide
query: |
  let admin_users = (IdentityInfo
    | where TimeGenerated > ago(2d)
    | summarize arg_max(TimeGenerated, *) by AccountUPN
    | where AssignedRoles contains "admin" or GroupMembership has "Admin"
    | summarize by tolower(AccountUPN));
    AuditLogs
    | where Category =~ "RoleManagement"
    | where OperationName has "Add eligible member"
    | extend TargetUserPrincipalName = tostring(TargetResources[0].userPrincipalName)
    | where tolower(TargetUserPrincipalName) in (admin_users)
    | extend TargetAadUserId = tostring(TargetResources[0].id)
    | extend Group = tostring(TargetResources[0].displayName)
    | extend RoleAddedTo = iif(isnotempty(TargetUserPrincipalName), TargetUserPrincipalName, Group)
    | extend mod_props = TargetResources[0].modifiedProperties
    | extend InitiatingAppName = tostring(InitiatedBy.app.displayName)
    | extend InitiatingAppServicePrincipalId = tostring(InitiatedBy.app.servicePrincipalId)
    | extend InitiatingUserPrincipalName = tostring(InitiatedBy.user.userPrincipalName)
    | extend InitiatingAadUserId = tostring(InitiatedBy.user.id)
    | extend InitiatingIPAddress = tostring(InitiatedBy.user.ipAddress)
    | extend RoleAddedBy = iif(isnotempty(InitiatingAppName), InitiatingAppName, InitiatingUserPrincipalName)
    | mv-expand mod_props
    | where mod_props.displayName == "Role.DisplayName"
    | extend UserAgent = tostring(AdditionalDetails[0].value)
    | extend RoleAdded = tostring(parse_json(tostring(mod_props.newValue)))
    | extend TargetAccountName = tostring(split(TargetUserPrincipalName, "@")[0]), TargetAccountUPNSuffix = tostring(split(TargetUserPrincipalName, "@")[1])
    | extend InitiatingAccountName = tostring(split(InitiatingUserPrincipalName, "@")[0]), InitiatingAccountUPNSuffix = tostring(split(InitiatingUserPrincipalName, "@")[1])
    | project-reorder TimeGenerated, OperationName, TargetUserPrincipalName, RoleAddedTo, RoleAdded, RoleAddedBy, InitiatingUserPrincipalName, InitiatingAppName
entityMappings:
  - entityType: Account
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: FullName
        columnName: TargetUserPrincipalName
      - identifier: Name
        columnName: TargetAccountName
      - identifier: UPNSuffix
        columnName: TargetAccountUPNSuffix
  - entityType: Account
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: AadUserId
        columnName: TargetAadUserId
  - entityType: Account
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: FullName
        columnName: InitiatingUserPrincipalName
      - identifier: Name
        columnName: InitiatingAccountName
      - identifier: UPNSuffix
        columnName: InitiatingAccountUPNSuffix
  - entityType: Account
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: AadUserId
        columnName: InitiatingAadUserId
version: 1.0.7
kind: Scheduled

Stages and Predicates

Let binding: `admin_users`

let admin_users = (IdentityInfo
  | where TimeGenerated > ago(2d)
  | summarize arg_max(TimeGenerated, *) by AccountUPN
  | where AssignedRoles contains "admin" or GroupMembership has "Admin"
  | summarize by tolower(AccountUPN));

Stage 1: `source`

AuditLogs

Stage 2: `where`

| where Category =~ "RoleManagement"

Stage 3: `where`

| where OperationName has "Add eligible member"

Stage 4: `extend`

| extend TargetUserPrincipalName = tostring(TargetResources[0].userPrincipalName)

Stage 5: `where`

| where tolower(TargetUserPrincipalName) in (admin_users)

References admin_users (defined above).

Stage 6: `extend` (10 consecutive steps)

| extend TargetAadUserId = tostring(TargetResources[0].id)
| extend Group = tostring(TargetResources[0].displayName)
| extend RoleAddedTo = iif(isnotempty(TargetUserPrincipalName), TargetUserPrincipalName, Group)
| extend mod_props = TargetResources[0].modifiedProperties
| extend InitiatingAppName = tostring(InitiatedBy.app.displayName)
| extend InitiatingAppServicePrincipalId = tostring(InitiatedBy.app.servicePrincipalId)
| extend InitiatingUserPrincipalName = tostring(InitiatedBy.user.userPrincipalName)
| extend InitiatingAadUserId = tostring(InitiatedBy.user.id)
| extend InitiatingIPAddress = tostring(InitiatedBy.user.ipAddress)
| extend RoleAddedBy = iif(isnotempty(InitiatingAppName), InitiatingAppName, InitiatingUserPrincipalName)

Stage 7: `mv-expand`

| mv-expand mod_props

Stage 8: `where`

| where mod_props.displayName == "Role.DisplayName"

Stage 9: `extend` (4 consecutive steps)

| extend UserAgent = tostring(AdditionalDetails[0].value)
| extend RoleAdded = tostring(parse_json(tostring(mod_props.newValue)))
| extend TargetAccountName = tostring(split(TargetUserPrincipalName, "@")[0]), TargetAccountUPNSuffix = tostring(split(TargetUserPrincipalName, "@")[1])
| extend InitiatingAccountName = tostring(split(InitiatingUserPrincipalName, "@")[0]), InitiatingAccountUPNSuffix = tostring(split(InitiatingUserPrincipalName, "@")[1])

Stage 10: `project-reorder`

| project-reorder TimeGenerated, OperationName, TargetUserPrincipalName, RoleAddedTo, RoleAdded, RoleAddedBy, InitiatingUserPrincipalName, InitiatingAppName

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
`Category`	eq	`RoleManagement`
`OperationName`	match	`Add eligible member` transforms: `term`
`TargetUserPrincipalName`	in	`admin_users` transforms: `tolower`, `cased`
`displayName`	eq	`Role.DisplayName` 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
`TargetUserPrincipalName`	`extend`
`TargetAadUserId`	`extend`
`Group`	`extend`
`RoleAddedTo`	`extend`
`mod_props`	`extend`
`InitiatingAppName`	`extend`
`InitiatingAppServicePrincipalId`	`extend`
`InitiatingUserPrincipalName`	`extend`
`InitiatingAadUserId`	`extend`
`InitiatingIPAddress`	`extend`
`RoleAddedBy`	`extend`
`UserAgent`	`extend`
`RoleAdded`	`extend`
`TargetAccountName`	`extend`
`TargetAccountUPNSuffix`	`extend`
`InitiatingAccountName`	`extend`
`InitiatingAccountUPNSuffix`	`extend`

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`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)

Privileged Account Permissions Changed

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Event coverage

Rules detecting the same action

Rule body kusto

Stages and Predicates

Let binding: `admin_users`

Stage 1: `source`

Stage 2: `where`

Stage 3: `where`

Stage 4: `extend`

Stage 5: `where`

Stage 6: `extend` (10 consecutive steps)

Stage 7: `mv-expand`

Stage 8: `where`

Stage 9: `extend` (4 consecutive steps)

Stage 10: `project-reorder`

Indicators

Output fields

Keyboard shortcuts

Search operators

Privileged Account Permissions Changed

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Event coverage

Rules detecting the same action

Rule body kusto

Stages and Predicates

Let binding: admin_users

Stage 1: source

Stage 2: where

Stage 3: where

Stage 4: extend

Stage 5: where

Stage 6: extend (10 consecutive steps)

Stage 7: mv-expand

Stage 8: where

Stage 9: extend (4 consecutive steps)

Stage 10: project-reorder

Indicators

Output fields

Let binding: `admin_users`

Stage 1: `source`

Stage 2: `where`

Stage 3: `where`

Stage 4: `extend`

Stage 5: `where`

Stage 6: `extend` (10 consecutive steps)

Stage 7: `mv-expand`

Stage 8: `where`

Stage 9: `extend` (4 consecutive steps)

Stage 10: `project-reorder`