Azure Activity Logs: DNS Zone Write or Delete Operations
Alerts on Azure Activity Log events indicating DNS zone WRITE or DELETE operations.
- Product
- azure
- Service
- activitylogs
- Author
- Austin Songer @austinsonger (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
- Published
- 2021-08-08
- Updated
- 2026-07-31
ATT&CK techniques
ImpactRecon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
What it detects
This rule flags Azure Activity Log events where the operation name targets DNS zones with either a WRITE or DELETE action. Attackers or misusers may change or remove DNS zones to disrupt name resolution and affect service availability or redirection. The detection relies on Azure Activity Log telemetry capturing the DNS zone operation names, including the WRITE and DELETE suffixes.
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: DNS Zone Write or Delete Operations"
id: 962a58a3-fbc1-4adc-a4ab-ddc71afc49cf
status: test
description: This rule flags Azure Activity Log events where the operation name targets DNS zones with either a WRITE or DELETE action. Attackers or misusers may change or remove DNS zones to disrupt name resolution and affect service availability or redirection. The detection relies on Azure Activity Log telemetry capturing the DNS zone operation names, including the WRITE and DELETE suffixes.
references:
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/role-based-access-control/resource-provider-operations#microsoftkubernetes
- https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/master/rules/cloud/azure/activity_logs/azure_dns_zone_modified_or_deleted.yml
author: Austin Songer @austinsonger, Huntrule Team
date: 2021-08-08
modified: 2022-08-23
tags:
- attack.impact
- attack.t1565.001
logsource:
product: azure
service: activitylogs
detection:
selection:
operationName|startswith: MICROSOFT.NETWORK/DNSZONES
operationName|endswith:
- /WRITE
- /DELETE
condition: selection
falsepositives:
- DNS zone modified and deleted may be performed by a system administrator. Verify whether the user identity, user agent, and/or hostname should be making changes in your environment.
- DNS zone modification from unfamiliar users should be investigated. If known behavior is causing false positives, it can be exempted from the rule.
level: medium
license: DRL-1.1
related:
- id: af6925b0-8826-47f1-9324-337507a0babd
type: derived