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

Related detections9 linkedT1078 — drag to rearrange

Possible Next.js Middleware Auth Bypass via X-Middleware-Subrequest Header (CVE-2025-29927)

Suspicious Brutforce with Denied Access Due to Account Restrictions Policies (via security)

Suspicious Success Login Attempt on a Windows OpenSSH Server (via security)

Suspicious SQL Server - Connection Attempt Using a Disabled Account (via application)

Suspicious Lateral Movement Detection - Based on "special Groups" Feature (via security)

Suspicious Snowflake Anomalous Client Application Associated With UNC5537 (via cloud)

Malicious Network Login Performed to Multiple Targets (via security)

Malicious RDP Reconnaissance with Valid Credentials Performed on Multiple Hosts (via security)

Malicious Local Administrator Added by Atera RMM Agent

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.

SplunkSPL