Suspicious Azure CLI Service Principal Login with Inline Secret

ATT&CK techniques

Initial Access → Cred Access

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
- T1078.004Cloud Accounts
Execution
Persistence
- T1078.004Cloud Accounts
Priv Esc
- T1078.004Cloud Accounts
Defense Evasion
- T1078.004Cloud Accounts
Cred Access
- T1552.001Credentials In Files
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects an Azure CLI service principal login where the client secret is supplied on the command line. It maps to abuse of stolen application credentials to authenticate non-interactively into a cloud tenant. Detecting it can reveal use of leaked service principal secrets for cloud access.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1552.001 — drag to rearrange

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Malicious TCC Privacy Database Access via sqlite3

Malicious Veeam Backup Credential Theft via psql Query of Credentials Table (via process_creation)

Malicious Marimo Notebook Credential File Access via Shell (via process_creation)

Malicious Keyhunter Worker Persistence via Systemd Service

Malicious AWS Cross-Account AssumeRole With Suspicious Session Names via CloudTrail (via aws)

Suspicious Azure CLI Service Principal Login with Inline Secret

Pivot detection · T1552.001 · 9 related

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.

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