GCP Service Account Key Creation

Elastic Stack Serverless Security

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 (https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/common-options.html#date-math[Date Math format], see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References:

• https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/service-accounts
• https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/creating-managing-service-account-keys

Tags:

• Elastic
• Cloud
• GCP
• Continuous Monitoring
• SecOps
• Identity and Access

Version: 7

Rule authors:

• Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

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

Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM

• Tactic:

  • Name: Persistence
  • ID: TA0003
  • Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0003/

• Technique:

  • Name: Account Manipulation
  • ID: T1098
  • Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1098/