Azure Audit Logs: User Elevated to User Access Administrator Across Azure Subscriptions
Flags Azure AuditLogs events where a user is assigned to User Access Administrator, enabling full subscription management.
- Product
- azure
- Service
- auditlogs
- Author
- Austin Songer @austinsonger (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
- Published
- 2021-11-26
- Updated
- 2026-10-03
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 cases in Azure Audit Logs where an activity indicates a user elevated their access to the User Access Administrator role for their Azure resources. Because this permission level can grant broad management capabilities, unexpected elevation may allow an attacker to gain or maintain access to Azure subscriptions. Detection relies on the audit log fields Category and ActivityDisplayName indicating the specific RBAC elevation event.
Reporting behind it
Changelog
v7- v7Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-10-03
- 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 Audit Logs: User Elevated to User Access Administrator Across Azure Subscriptions"
id: e2bcddb3-cc7a-40db-8130-8b7be794a2a9
status: test
description: This rule flags cases in Azure Audit Logs where an activity indicates a user elevated their access to the User Access Administrator role for their Azure resources. Because this permission level can grant broad management capabilities, unexpected elevation may allow an attacker to gain or maintain access to Azure subscriptions. Detection relies on the audit log fields Category and ActivityDisplayName indicating the specific RBAC elevation event.
references:
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/architecture/security-operations-privileged-accounts#assignment-and-elevation
- https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/master/rules/cloud/azure/audit_logs/azure_subscription_permissions_elevation_via_auditlogs.yml
author: Austin Songer @austinsonger, Huntrule Team
date: 2021-11-26
modified: 2026-09-26
tags:
- attack.privilege-escalation
- attack.persistence
- attack.initial-access
- attack.stealth
- attack.t1078
logsource:
product: azure
service: auditlogs
detection:
selection:
Category: AzureRBACRoleManagementElevateAccess
ActivityDisplayName: User has elevated their access to User Access Administrator for their Azure Resources
condition: selection
falsepositives:
- If this was approved by System Administrator.
level: high
license: DRL-1.1
related:
- id: ca9bf243-465e-494a-9e54-bf9fc239057d
type: derived