Azure AD Account Created and Deleted Shortly After Creation (Audit Logs)

Identifies successful Azure user creation and deletion in quick succession, consistent with short-lived account activity.

FreeReviewedSigma · High · v5

Product: azure
Service: auditlogs
Author: Mark Morowczynski '@markmorow', MikeDuddington, '@dudders1', Tim Shelton (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published: 2022-08-11
Updated: 2026-07-31

Analysis Detection

ATT&CK techniques

Initial Access → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
- T1078Valid Accounts
Execution
Persistence
- T1078Valid Accounts
Priv Esc
- T1078Valid Accounts
Defense Evasion
- T1078Valid Accounts
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule flags cases where Azure account lifecycle events show a user was added and then deleted successfully within a very short time window. Rapid create-and-delete activity can be used to quickly obtain access or test persistence without leaving long-lived objects. It relies on Azure audit log messages indicating successful “Add user” and “Delete user” operations.

Reporting behind it

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Azure AD Account Created and Deleted Shortly After Creation (Audit Logs)

Pivot detection · T1078 · 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-entra-audit-logs-user-account-added-and-deleted-quickly-6f583da0

title: Azure AD Account Created and Deleted Shortly After Creation (Audit Logs)
id: d7ad26ac-89c4-40d1-aa43-f73500af35cd
status: test
description: This rule flags cases where Azure account lifecycle events show a user was added and then deleted successfully within a very short time window. Rapid create-and-delete activity can be used to quickly obtain access or test persistence without leaving long-lived objects. It relies on Azure audit log messages indicating successful “Add user” and “Delete user” operations.
references:
  - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/architecture/security-operations-user-accounts#short-lived-accounts
  - https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/master/rules/cloud/azure/audit_logs/azure_ad_account_created_deleted.yml
author: Mark Morowczynski '@markmorow', MikeDuddington, '@dudders1', Tim Shelton, Huntrule Team
date: 2022-08-11
modified: 2022-08-18
tags:
  - attack.privilege-escalation
  - attack.persistence
  - attack.initial-access
  - attack.stealth
  - attack.t1078
logsource:
  product: azure
  service: auditlogs
detection:
  selection:
    properties.message:
      - Add user
      - Delete user
    Status: Success
  condition: selection
falsepositives:
  - Legit administrative action
level: high
license: DRL-1.1
related:
  - id: 6f583da0-3a90-4566-a4ed-83c09fe18bbf
    type: derived

Convert

This rule as a query you can run. Uses no unlock credit.

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