Azure Suspect Credential Dump

Azure Suspect Credential Dump

Detection overview

Triggers

  • An unusually high number of export actions were performed targeting credentials stored within Azure services, such as Azure Storage.
  • Credentials were accessed or exported from multiple Azure services in a short duration, indicating potential credential harvesting.
  • Credentials were accessed by accounts or service principals that have not previously accessed these services or credentials.

Possible Root Causes

  • Unauthorized Access: A threat actor has obtained access to an account or service principal and is attempting to enumerate or exfiltrate credentials.
  • Automated Backup or Compliance Tasks: Scheduled jobs or scripts may be exporting credentials for backup, disaster recovery, or compliance purposes.
  • Policy-Driven Actions: Credential export actions may be related to key rotation policies or regulatory requirements.
  • Internal Security Testing: Security teams may conduct tests or compliance audits that involve bulk access to credentials across services.

Business Impact

  • Exposed Azure credentials may enable attackers to access critical resources, disrupt operations, and escalate privileges within the environment.
  • Compromised credentials could allow attackers to steal sensitive data, such as customer information or intellectual property.
  • Attackers may use stolen credentials to deploy costly resources, such as VMs for cryptomining.
  • Unauthorized access could disrupt critical applications by modifying or deleting essential resources.
  • Credential exposure could lead to privilege escalation, granting attackers full control over cloud environments.

Steps to Verify

  • Analyze Activity Logs: Review logs for unusual credential export activity, focusing on the frequency, timing, and signs of automated exports or bulk actions inconsistent with normal operations.
  • Review Access Patterns: Check whether the account or service principal involved shows deviations from its typical access behavior, especially across the affected Azure services.
  • Inspect Permissions: Ensure that the account or principal's permissions were not recently elevated, which may indicate unauthorized privilege escalation.
  • Actions if Confirmed Suspicious:
    • Disable or rotate affected credentials to prevent further misuse.
    • Restrict access from unusual IP ranges or locations involved in the activity.
    • Conduct a deeper investigation into affected resources to assess the extent of access and identify any further compromised assets.
    • Notify relevant stakeholders and document the event in the incident management system for proper follow-up.
Azure Suspect Credential Dump

Possible root causes

Malicious Detection

Benign Detection

Azure Suspect Credential Dump

Example scenarios

Azure Suspect Credential Dump

Business impact

If this detection indicates a genuine threat, the organization faces significant risks:

Azure Suspect Credential Dump

Steps to investigate

Azure Suspect Credential Dump

MITRE ATT&CK techniques covered

Azure Suspect Credential Dump

Related detections

No items found.

FAQs