GCP Service Account Key Creation

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Identifies when a new key is created for a service account in Google Cloud Platform (GCP). A service account is a special type of account used by an application or a virtual machine (VM) instance, not a person. Applications use service accounts to make authorized API calls, authorized as either the service account itself, or as G Suite or Cloud Identity users through domain-wide delegation. If private keys are not tracked and managed properly, they can present a security risk. An adversary may create a new key for a service account in order to attempt to abuse the permissions assigned to that account and evade detection.

Rule type: query

Rule indices:

  • filebeat-*
  • logs-gcp*

Severity: low

Risk score: 21

Runs every: 5m

Searches indices from: None (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References:

Tags:

  • Domain: Cloud
  • Data Source: GCP
  • Data Source: Google Cloud Platform
  • Use Case: Identity and Access Audit
  • Tactic: Persistence

Version: 104

Rule authors:

  • Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Investigation guide

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Rule query

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event.dataset:gcp.audit and event.action:google.iam.admin.v*.CreateServiceAccountKey and event.outcome:success

Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM