GCP Break-glass Container Workload Deployed

Status: test
Severity: medium
Log source: product gcp, service gcp.audit
Author: Bryan Lim
Source: github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Detects the deployment of workloads that are deployed by using the break-glass flag to override Binary Authorization controls.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Privilege Escalation	`T1548` Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism

Rules detecting the same action

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

GCP K8s Pod Attached To Node Host Network (Panther)
GCP K8S Pod Create Or Modify Host Path Volume Mount (Panther)
GCP K8s Pod Using Host PID Namespace (Panther)

Rule body yaml

title: GCP Break-glass Container Workload Deployed
id: 76737c19-66ee-4c07-b65a-a03301d1573d
status: test
description: |
    Detects the deployment of workloads that are deployed by using the break-glass flag to override Binary Authorization controls.
references:
    - https://cloud.google.com/binary-authorization
author: Bryan Lim
date: 2024-01-12
tags:
    - attack.privilege-escalation
    - attack.t1548
logsource:
    product: gcp
    service: gcp.audit
detection:
    selection:
        data.protoPayload.resource.type: 'k8s_cluster'
        data.protoPayload.logName:
            - 'cloudaudit.googleapis.com/activity'
            - 'cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity'
        data.protoPayload.methodName: 'io.k8s.core.v1.pods.create'
    keywords:
        - 'image-policy.k8s.io/break-glass'
    condition: selection and keywords
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: medium

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

selection and keywords

Stage 1: `selection`

selection:
    data.protoPayload.resource.type: 'k8s_cluster'
    data.protoPayload.logName:
        - 'cloudaudit.googleapis.com/activity'
        - 'cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity'
    data.protoPayload.methodName: 'io.k8s.core.v1.pods.create'

Stage 2: `keywords`

keywords:
    - 'image-policy.k8s.io/break-glass'

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
`data.protoPayload.logName`	eq	`cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity` `cloudaudit.googleapis.com/activity`
`data.protoPayload.methodName`	eq	`io.k8s.core.v1.pods.create`
`data.protoPayload.resource.type`	eq	`k8s_cluster`

`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 Break-glass Container Workload Deployed

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Rules detecting the same action

Rule body yaml

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

Stage 1: `selection`

Stage 2: `keywords`

Indicators

Keyboard shortcuts

Search operators

GCP Break-glass Container Workload Deployed

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Rules detecting the same action

Rule body yaml

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

Stage 1: selection

Stage 2: keywords

Indicators

Stage 0: `condition`

Stage 1: `selection`

Stage 2: `keywords`