Azure Activity Logs: Authorization ElevateAccess Grants Subscription-Level Management

Alerts on Azure Activity Log authorization elevation actions that can grant access to manage all subscriptions.

FreeReviewedSigma · High · v5

Product: azure
Service: activitylogs
Author: Austin Songer @austinsonger (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published: 2021-11-26
Updated: 2026-07-31

ATT&CK techniques

Initial Access → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
- T1078.004Cloud Accounts
Execution
Persistence
- T1078.004Cloud Accounts
Priv Esc
- T1078.004Cloud Accounts
Defense Evasion
- T1078.004Cloud Accounts
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule flags Azure Activity Log events where operationName is MICROSOFT.AUTHORIZATION/ELEVATEACCESS/ACTION, indicating a permission elevation to manage all Azure subscriptions. Such changes can enable an attacker to gain broad access across the environment and may establish or expand persistence and initial access paths. It relies on Azure Activity Log telemetry capturing the specific authorization elevation operation invoked by a user or service principal.

Reporting behind it

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Azure Activity Logs: Authorization ElevateAccess Grants Subscription-Level Management

Pivot detection · T1078.004 · 9 related

Changelog

v5
Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
v4
Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
v3
Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
v2
Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
v1
No changelog recorded for this version.2026-07-30

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.

azure-activity-logs-permission-elevation-to-manage-all-subscriptions-09438caa

title: "Azure Activity Logs: Authorization ElevateAccess Grants Subscription-Level Management"
id: a9d6facf-963d-444f-92f2-331c69977350
status: test
description: This rule flags Azure Activity Log events where operationName is MICROSOFT.AUTHORIZATION/ELEVATEACCESS/ACTION, indicating a permission elevation to manage all Azure subscriptions. Such changes can enable an attacker to gain broad access across the environment and may establish or expand persistence and initial access paths. It relies on Azure Activity Log telemetry capturing the specific authorization elevation operation invoked by a user or service principal.
references:
  - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/role-based-access-control/resource-provider-operations#microsoftauthorization
  - https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/master/rules/cloud/azure/activity_logs/azure_subscription_permissions_elevation_via_activitylogs.yml
author: Austin Songer @austinsonger, Huntrule Team
date: 2021-11-26
modified: 2022-08-23
tags:
  - attack.privilege-escalation
  - attack.persistence
  - attack.initial-access
  - attack.stealth
  - attack.t1078.004
logsource:
  product: azure
  service: activitylogs
detection:
  selection:
    operationName: MICROSOFT.AUTHORIZATION/ELEVATEACCESS/ACTION
  condition: selection
falsepositives:
  - If this was approved by System Administrator.
level: high
license: DRL-1.1
related:
  - id: 09438caa-07b1-4870-8405-1dbafe3dad95
    type: derived

Convert

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