↳ GitHub sourceAnalytics ruleMedium

User account created and deleted within 10 mins

Description

'Identifies when a user account is created and then deleted within 10 minutes. This can be an indication of compromise and an adversary attempting to hide in the noise.'
Rule type
Scheduled
Version
1.2.2
Query frequency
1d
Query period
25h
Trigger
gt 0

Declared MITRE coverage

Declared sources

Metadata from the source file. No dependencies inferred from KQL.

Connectors

Data types

KQL query

Original query, unchanged.

let timeframe = 1d;
let spanoftime = 10m;
let threshold = 0;
(union isfuzzy=true
    (SecurityEvent
    | where TimeGenerated > ago(timeframe+spanoftime)
    // A user account was created
    | where EventID == 4720
    | where AccountType =~ "User"
    | project creationTime = TimeGenerated, CreateEventID = EventID, CreateActivity = Activity, Computer = toupper(Computer), 
    TargetAccount = tolower(TargetAccount), TargetUserName, TargetDomainName, TargetSid, 
    AccountUsedToCreate = SubjectAccount, CreatedBySubjectUserName = SubjectUserName, CreatedBySubjectDomainName = SubjectDomainName, SIDofAccountUsedToCreate = SubjectUserSid, UserPrincipalName
    ),
    (
    WindowsEvent
    | where TimeGenerated > ago(timeframe+spanoftime)
    // A user account was created
    | where EventID == 4720
    | extend SubjectUserSid = tostring(EventData.SubjectUserSid)
    | extend AccountType=case(EventData.SubjectUserName endswith "$" or SubjectUserSid in ("S-1-5-18", "S-1-5-19", "S-1-5-20"), "Machine", isempty(SubjectUserSid), "", "User")
    | where AccountType =~ "User"
    | extend SubjectAccount = strcat(tostring(EventData.SubjectDomainName),"\\", tostring(EventData.SubjectUserName))
    | extend SubjectDomainName = tostring(EventData.SubjectDomainName), SubjectUserName = tostring(EventData.SubjectUserName)
    | extend TargetAccount = strcat(EventData.TargetDomainName,"\\", EventData.TargetUserName)
    | extend TargetSid = tostring(EventData.TargetSid)
    | extend UserPrincipalName = tostring(EventData.UserPrincipalName)
    | extend Activity = "4720 - A user account was created."
    | extend TargetUserName = tostring(EventData.TargetUserName), TargetDomainName = tostring(EventData.TargetDomainName) 
    | project creationTime = TimeGenerated, CreateEventID = EventID, CreateActivity = Activity, Computer = toupper(Computer), 
    TargetAccount = tolower(TargetAccount), TargetUserName, TargetDomainName, TargetSid, 
    AccountUsedToCreate = SubjectAccount, CreatedBySubjectUserName = SubjectUserName, CreatedBySubjectDomainName = SubjectDomainName, SIDofAccountUsedToCreate = SubjectUserSid, UserPrincipalName
    )
  )
| join kind = inner 
(
  (union isfuzzy=true
    (SecurityEvent
    | where TimeGenerated > ago(timeframe)
    // A user account was deleted
    | where EventID == 4726
    | where AccountType == "User"
    | project deletionTime = TimeGenerated, DeleteEventID = EventID, DeleteActivity = Activity, Computer = toupper(Computer), 
    TargetAccount = tolower(TargetAccount), TargetUserName, TargetDomainName, TargetSid, 
    AccountUsedToDelete = SubjectAccount, DeletedBySubjectUserName = SubjectUserName, DeletedBySubjectDomainName = SubjectDomainName, SIDofAccountUsedToDelete = SubjectUserSid, UserPrincipalName
    ),
    (WindowsEvent
    | where TimeGenerated > ago(timeframe)
    // A user account was deleted
    | where EventID == 4726
    | extend SubjectUserSid = tostring(EventData.SubjectUserSid)
    | extend SubjectAccount = strcat(tostring(EventData.SubjectDomainName),"\\", tostring(EventData.SubjectUserName))
    | extend AccountType=case(SubjectAccount endswith "$" or SubjectUserSid in ("S-1-5-18", "S-1-5-19", "S-1-5-20"), "Machine", isempty(SubjectUserSid), "", "User")
    | where AccountType == "User"
    | extend SubjectDomainName = tostring(EventData.SubjectDomainName), SubjectUserName = tostring(EventData.SubjectUserName)
    | extend TargetSid = tostring(EventData.TargetSid)
    | extend UserPrincipalName = tostring(EventData.UserPrincipalName)
    | extend Activity = "4726 - A user account was deleted."
    | extend TargetUserName = tostring(EventData.TargetUserName), TargetDomainName = tostring(EventData.TargetDomainName) 
    | extend TargetAccount = strcat(EventData.TargetDomainName,"\\", EventData.TargetUserName)
    | project deletionTime = TimeGenerated, DeleteEventID = EventID, DeleteActivity = Activity, Computer = toupper(Computer), 
    TargetAccount = tolower(TargetAccount), TargetUserName, TargetDomainName, TargetSid, 
    AccountUsedToDelete = SubjectAccount, DeletedBySubjectUserName = SubjectUserName, DeletedBySubjectDomainName = SubjectDomainName, SIDofAccountUsedToDelete = SubjectUserSid, UserPrincipalName
    )
  )
) on Computer, TargetAccount
| where deletionTime - creationTime < spanoftime
| extend TimeDelta = deletionTime - creationTime
| where tolong(TimeDelta) >= threshold
| project TimeDelta, creationTime, CreateEventID, CreateActivity, Computer, TargetAccount, TargetSid, UserPrincipalName, AccountUsedToCreate, SIDofAccountUsedToCreate,
deletionTime, DeleteEventID, DeleteActivity, AccountUsedToDelete, SIDofAccountUsedToDelete, TargetUserName, TargetDomainName, 
CreatedBySubjectUserName, CreatedBySubjectDomainName, DeletedBySubjectUserName, DeletedBySubjectDomainName
| extend HostName = tostring(split(Computer, ".")[0]), DomainIndex = toint(indexof(Computer, '.'))
| extend HostNameDomain = iff(DomainIndex != -1, substring(Computer, DomainIndex + 1), Computer)
| project-away DomainIndex

Declared entities

AccountHost

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
4b93c5af-d20b-4236-b696-a28b8c51407f
Additional source files 1Detections/SecurityEvent/UserAccountCreatedDeleted_10m.yamlsource ↗
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.