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Azure DevOps Build Variable Modified by New User

Description

'Variables can be configured and used at any stage of the build process in Azure DevOps to inject values. An attacker with the required permissions could modify or add to these variables to conduct malicious activity such as changing paths or remote endpoints called during the build. As variables are often changed by users, just detecting these changes would have a high false positive rate. This detection looks for modifications to variable groups where that user has not been observed modifying them before.'
Rule type
Scheduled
Version
1.0.6
Declared status
Available
Query frequency
1d
Query period
14d
Trigger
gt 0

Declared MITRE coverage

KQL query

Original query, unchanged.

let lookback = 14d;
let timeframe = 1d;
let historical_data =
ADOAuditLogs
| where TimeGenerated > ago(lookback) and TimeGenerated < ago(timeframe)
| where OperationName =~ "Library.VariableGroupModified"
| extend variables = Data.Variables
| extend VariableGroupId = tostring(Data.VariableGroupId)
| extend UserKey = strcat(VariableGroupId, "-", ActorUserId)
| project UserKey;
ADOAuditLogs
| where TimeGenerated > ago(timeframe)
| where OperationName =~ "Library.VariableGroupModified"
| extend VariableGroupName = tostring(Data.VariableGroupName)
| extend VariableGroupId = tostring(Data.VariableGroupId)
| extend UserKey = strcat(VariableGroupId, "-", ActorUserId)
| where UserKey !in (historical_data)
| project-away UserKey
| project-reorder TimeGenerated, VariableGroupName, ActorUPN, IpAddress, UserAgent
| extend timestamp = TimeGenerated
| extend AccountName = tostring(split(ActorUPN, "@")[0]), AccountUPNSuffix = tostring(split(ActorUPN, "@")[1])

Declared entities

AccountIP

Related content

Links established from declared identifiers and solution manifests.

Source provenance

GitHub

Displayed values come from files in Azure/Azure-Sentinel. They describe the published template, not your workspace configuration.

Source identifier
3b9a44d7-c651-45ed-816c-eae583a6f2f1
Additional source files 3Solutions/AzureDevOpsAuditing/Analytic Rules/ADOVariableModifiedByNewUser.yamlsource ↗Detections/AzureDevOpsAuditing/ADOVariableModifiedByNewUser.yamlmigration-note ↗Solutions/AzureDevOpsAuditing/Data/Solution_AzureDevOpsAuditing.jsonsolution-membership ↗
GSTEP / CATALOG TRACKING

Added to catalog : 16 Sept 2026 · 05:49 UTC
Last change observed : 16 Sept 2026 · 05:49 UTC

GSTEP sync dates, separate from the source content’s publication dates.