Suspicious GCP Service Account Key Creation for Persistence (via gcp.audit)

ATT&CK techniques

Persistence → Priv Esc

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
- T1098.001Additional Cloud Credentials
Priv Esc
- T1098.001Additional Cloud Credentials
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects creation of a GCP service account key which yields long-lived credentials that survive session revocation. The cloud persistence IR guide highlights new service account keys as a favored durable-access technique. Key creation on a sensitive service account from an unexpected identity should be investigated.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1098.001 — drag to rearrange

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Suspicious GCP Service Account Key Creation for Persistence (via gcp.audit)

Pivot detection · T1098.001 · 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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