↳ 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
Related content
Links established from declared identifiers and solution manifests.
Source provenance
GitHubDisplayed values come from files in Azure/Azure-Sentinel. They describe the published template, not your workspace configuration.
- Commit
9800e51↗- Source identifier
4b93c5af-d20b-4236-b696-a28b8c51407f
Additional source files 1
Detections/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