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.
- 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 EvasionRecon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
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
Changelog
v5- v5Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
- v4Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
- v3Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
- v2Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
- v1No 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.
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