Detection rules › Panther

Databricks Group Created

Status
Experimental
Severity
informational
Log types
Databricks.Audit
Tags
Databricks, Persistence
Reference
https://github.com/databricks-solutions/cybersec-workspace-detection-app/tree/main/base/detections/behavioral
Source
github.com/panther-labs/panther-analysis

Detects creation of user groups in Databricks. Group creation may be part of normal administration or could indicate privilege escalation preparation by creating a group that will later receive elevated permissions.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

TacticTechniques
PersistenceT1136 Create Account

Rule body yaml

AnalysisType: rule
Filename: databricks_group_created.py
RuleID: "Databricks.Audit.GroupCreated"
DisplayName: "Databricks Group Created"
Enabled: true
Status: Experimental
LogTypes:
  - Databricks.Audit
Tags:
  - Databricks
  - Persistence
Reports:
  MITRE ATT&CK:
    - TA0003:T1136 # Create Account
Severity: Info
Description: >
  Detects creation of user groups in Databricks. Group creation may be part of normal
  administration or could indicate privilege escalation preparation by creating a group
  that will later receive elevated permissions.
Runbook: |
  1. Verify the group creation was part of an approved workflow
  2. Check if the group was subsequently granted admin or elevated permissions
  3. Review group membership additions following creation
Reference: https://github.com/databricks-solutions/cybersec-workspace-detection-app/tree/main/base/detections/behavioral
Tests:
  - Name: Group Created
    ExpectedResult: true
    Log:
      serviceName: "accounts"
      actionName: "createGroup"
      userIdentity:
        email: "admin@example.com"
      requestParams:
        targetGroupName: "data-engineers"
      response:
        statusCode: 200

  - Name: Different Service - Should Not Alert
    ExpectedResult: false
    Log:
      serviceName: "workspace"
      actionName: "createGroup"
      userIdentity:
        email: "admin@example.com"

  - Name: Different Action - Should Not Alert
    ExpectedResult: false
    Log:
      serviceName: "accounts"
      actionName: "removeGroup"
      userIdentity:
        email: "admin@example.com"

Detection logic

Condition

serviceName eq "accounts"
actionName eq "createGroup"

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.

FieldKindValues
actionNameeq
  • createGroup
serviceNameeq
  • accounts

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.

FieldSource
emailuserIdentity.email