Suspicious Cross-Project Compute Snapshot Creation via GCP Audit

ATT&CK techniques

Defense Evasion → Exfiltration

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
- T1578.001Create Snapshot
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
- T1537Transfer Data to Cloud Account
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects v1.compute.snapshots.insert operations that carry CrossEntityControlAuditMetadata, indicating a snapshot created across project boundaries. Adversaries copy a disk snapshot into an attacker-controlled project to exfiltrate its contents outside the victim environment. Cross-project snapshot movement is a strong indicator of cloud data theft rather than routine backup activity.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1537 — drag to rearrange

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Suspicious Cross-Project Compute Snapshot Creation via GCP Audit

Pivot detection · T1537 · 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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