Azure Suspect Credential Dump

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.