Suspicious GCP Metadata Service Account Enumeration via Command Line on Linux
- Product
- linux
- Category
- process_creation
- Author
- HuntRule
- Published
- 2026-11-05
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
ATT&CK techniques
Initial Access → Cred AccessRecon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact
What it detects
This rule detects command line access to the GCP compute metadata service account endpoint which SSRF exploitation uses to enumerate and steal service account credentials from cloud workloads. Direct querying of the computeMetadata service accounts path outside of expected SDK activity indicates credential harvesting from the instance metadata service.
Reporting behind it
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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