Added Credential To Privileged Workload By Lower Or Non Privileged User Workload Identity Info
Query
// Exclude automated rotation of certificates for Managed Identities by Azure Back-end / IDMS
let ExcludedActor = dynamic (["Managed Service Identity", "Windows Azure Service Management API"]);
AuditLogs
// Captures "Add service principal", "Add service principal credentials", and "Update application - Certificates and secrets management" events
| where OperationName has_any ("Add service principal", "Certificates and secrets management", "Update application")
| where Result =~ "success"
| where parse_json(tostring(InitiatedBy.app)).displayName !in~ (ExcludedActor) and parse_json(tostring(InitiatedBy.app)).appId != "null"
| extend InitiatingUserOrAppId = iff(isnotempty(InitiatedBy.user.id), tostring(InitiatedBy.user.id), tostring(InitiatedBy.app.id))
| extend InitiatingIpAddress = iff(isnotempty(InitiatedBy.user.ipAddress), tostring(InitiatedBy.user.ipAddress), tostring(InitiatedBy.app.ipAddress))
| join kind=leftouter (UnifiedIdentityInfo
| project
ObjectId,
InitiatingUserOrAppClassification = Classification,
InitiatingUserOrAppName = ObjectDisplayName,
InitiatingUserOrAppDirectoryRoles = EntraIdRoles,
InitiatingUserOrAppGraphRoles = AppRoles)
on $left.InitiatingUserOrAppId == $right.ObjectId
| mv-apply TargetResource = TargetResources on
(
where TargetResource.type =~ "Application" or TargetResource.type =~ "ServicePrincipal"
| extend
TargetName = tostring(TargetResource.displayName),
ResourceId = tostring(TargetResource.id),
WorkloadIdentityObjectType = tostring(TargetResource.type),
keyEvents = TargetResource.modifiedProperties
)
| mv-apply Property = keyEvents on
(
where Property.displayName =~ "KeyDescription" or Property.displayName =~ "FederatedIdentityCredentials"
| extend
new_value_set = parse_json(tostring(Property.newValue)),
old_value_set = parse_json(tostring(Property.oldValue))
)
| extend diff = set_difference(new_value_set, old_value_set)
| where isnotempty(diff)
| parse diff with * "KeyIdentifier=" keyIdentifier: string ",KeyType=" keyType: string ",KeyUsage=" keyUsage: string ",DisplayName=" keyDisplayName: string "]" *
| where keyUsage =~ "Verify" or isnotempty(parse_json(tostring(diff[0].Audiences))[0])
| mv-apply AdditionalDetail = AdditionalDetails on
(
where AdditionalDetail.key =~ "User-Agent"
| extend UserAgent = tostring(AdditionalDetail.value)
)
| mv-apply AdditionalDetail = AdditionalDetails on
(
where AdditionalDetail.key =~ "AppId"
| extend ApplicationId = tostring(AdditionalDetail.value)
)
| join kind=leftouter (PrivilegedWorkloadIdentityInfo
| extend WorkloadIdClassification = EnterpriseAccessModelTiering
| extend WorkloadIdentityObjectId = ServicePrincipalObjectId)
on ApplicationId
| extend CredentialName = iff(isnotempty(keyDisplayName), keyDisplayName, diff[0].Name)
| extend CredentialIdentifier = iff(isnotempty(keyIdentifier), keyIdentifier, diff[0].Subject)
| extend CredentialType = iff(isnotempty(keyType), keyType, keyEvents[0].displayName)
| extend CredentialUsage = iff(isnotempty(keyUsage), keyUsage, tostring(diff[0].Audiences))
// Use Target Name if Workload Identity Name is unknown
| extend WorkloadIdentityName = iff(isempty(WorkloadIdentityName), TargetName, WorkloadIdentityName)
// Compare Classification of Application with Actor to detect "Tiering" breach, Allowlist all Control Plane roles
| where parse_json(tostring(parse_json(InitiatingUserOrAppClassification))) !contains WorkloadIdClassification and (parse_json(tostring(parse_json(InitiatingUserOrAppClassification))) !contains "ControlPlane")
// Optional: Exclude all Apps with Unclassified Permissions
//| where WorkloadIdClassification != "Unclassified"
| extend Severity = iff(WorkloadIdClassification contains "ControlPlane", "High", "Medium")Explanation
This query is designed to alert when an unprivileged or lower privileged user adds a new credential to an Application or Service Principal object. The purpose is to monitor these changes and prevent account takeovers and breaches of the tiering model. The query filters for specific events related to adding service principals and managing certificates and secrets. It also excludes automated rotations of certificates for Managed Identities by Azure Back-end/IDMS. The query joins different data sources to gather information about the user or application that initiated the change, the target resource, and the specific details of the credential change. The query also includes incident configuration settings for creating and grouping incidents, as well as alert details override for customizing the alert display name and description.
Details

Thomas Naunheim
Released: December 18, 2023
Tables
Keywords
Operators
Severity
MediumTactics
Frequency: 1h
Period: 1h