Sigma rule: Azure Kubernetes Sensitive Role Access

Rule

Title

Azure Kubernetes Sensitive Role Access

Status

test

Level

medium

Author

Austin Songer @austinsonger

Date

2021-08-07

Modified

2022-08-23

File

rules/cloud/azure/activity_logs/azure_kubernetes_role_access.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Identifies when ClusterRoles/Roles are being modified or deleted.

Log source

product

azure

service

activitylogs

Detection

selection:
    operationName:
        - MICROSOFT.KUBERNETES/CONNECTEDCLUSTERS/RBAC.AUTHORIZATION.K8S.IO/ROLES/WRITE
        - MICROSOFT.KUBERNETES/CONNECTEDCLUSTERS/RBAC.AUTHORIZATION.K8S.IO/ROLES/DELETE
        - MICROSOFT.KUBERNETES/CONNECTEDCLUSTERS/RBAC.AUTHORIZATION.K8S.IO/ROLES/BIND/ACTION
        - MICROSOFT.KUBERNETES/CONNECTEDCLUSTERS/RBAC.AUTHORIZATION.K8S.IO/ROLES/ESCALATE/ACTION
        - MICROSOFT.KUBERNETES/CONNECTEDCLUSTERS/RBAC.AUTHORIZATION.K8S.IO/CLUSTERROLES/WRITE
        - MICROSOFT.KUBERNETES/CONNECTEDCLUSTERS/RBAC.AUTHORIZATION.K8S.IO/CLUSTERROLES/DELETE
        - MICROSOFT.KUBERNETES/CONNECTEDCLUSTERS/RBAC.AUTHORIZATION.K8S.IO/CLUSTERROLES/BIND/ACTION
        - MICROSOFT.KUBERNETES/CONNECTEDCLUSTERS/RBAC.AUTHORIZATION.K8S.IO/CLUSTERROLES/ESCALATE/ACTION
condition: selection

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• ClusterRoles/Roles being modified and deleted may be performed by a system administrator. Verify whether the user identity, user agent, and/or hostname should be making changes in your environment.
• ClusterRoles/Roles modification from unfamiliar users should be investigated. If known behavior is causing false positives, it can be exempted from the rule.

Tags

• attack.impact
• attack.t1485
• attack.t1496
• attack.t1489

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1485
• T1489
• T1496

References

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/role-based-access-control/resource-provider-operations#microsoftkubernetes
• https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2021/03/23/secure-containerized-environments-with-updated-threat-matrix-for-kubernetes/
• https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2020/04/02/attack-matrix-kubernetes/
• https://medium.com/mitre-engenuity/att-ck-for-containers-now-available-4c2359654bf1

Read on 2026-11-03T00:58:21.399Z under licence sigma-drl-1.1@d5f4c36a from https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/cloud/azure/activity_logs/azure_kubernetes_role_access.yml