↳ GitHub sourceAnalytics ruleLow

User account created without expected attributes defined

Description

'This query looks for accounts being created that do not have attributes populated that are commonly populated in the tenant. Attackers may attempt to add accounts as a means of establishing persistant access to an environment, looking for anomalies in created accounts may help identify illegitimately created accounts. Created accounts should be investigated to ensure they were legitimated created. Ref: https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/active-directory/fundamentals/security-operations-user-accounts#accounts-not-following-naming-policies'
Rule type
Scheduled
Version
1.1.0
Query frequency
1d
Query period
1d
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 threshold = 10;
let default_ad_attributes = dynamic(["LastDirSyncTime", "StsRefreshTokensValidFrom", "Included Updated Properties", "AccountEnabled", "Action Client Name", "SourceAnchor"]);
let addUsers = AuditLogs
| where OperationName =~ "Add user"
| where Result =~ "success"
| extend AccountProperties = TargetResources[0].modifiedProperties
| mv-expand AccountProperties
;
addUsers
| evaluate bag_unpack(AccountProperties) : (displayName:string, oldValue: string, newValue: string , TenantId : string, SourceSystem : string, TimeGenerated : datetime, ResourceId : string, OperationName : string, OperationVersion : string, Category : string, ResultType : string, ResultSignature : string, ResultDescription : string, DurationMs : long, CorrelationId : string, Resource : string, ResourceGroup : string, ResourceProvider : string, Identity : string, Level : string, Location : string, AdditionalDetails : dynamic, Id : string, InitiatedBy : dynamic, LoggedByService : string, Result : string, ResultReason : string, TargetResources : dynamic, AADTenantId : string, ActivityDisplayName : string, ActivityDateTime : datetime, AADOperationType : string, Type : string)
| extend displayName = column_ifexists("displayName", "Unknown Value")
| summarize count() by displayName, TenantId
| where displayName !in (default_ad_attributes)
| top threshold by count_ desc
| summarize make_set(displayName) by TenantId
| join kind=inner (
addUsers
| extend CreatingUserPrincipalName = tostring(parse_json(tostring(InitiatedBy.user)).userPrincipalName)
| extend CreatingAadUserId = tostring(InitiatedBy.user.id)
| extend CreatingUserIPAddress = tostring(InitiatedBy.user.ipAddress)
| extend CreatedUserPrincipalName = tostring(TargetResources[0].userPrincipalName)
| extend PropName = tostring(AccountProperties.displayName)) 
on TenantId
| summarize makeset(PropName) by TimeGenerated, CorrelationId, CreatedUserPrincipalName, CreatingUserPrincipalName, CreatingAadUserId, CreatingUserIPAddress, tostring(set_displayName)
| extend missing_props = set_difference(todynamic(set_displayName), set_PropName)
| where array_length(missing_props) > 0
| join kind=innerunique (
AuditLogs
| where Result =~ "success"
| where OperationName =~ "Add user"
| extend CreatedUserPrincipalName = tostring(TargetResources[0].userPrincipalName)) 
on CorrelationId, CreatedUserPrincipalName
| extend ExpectedProperties = set_displayName
| project-away set_displayName, set_PropName
| extend InitiatingAccountName = tostring(split(CreatingUserPrincipalName, "@")[0]), InitiatingAccountUPNSuffix = tostring(split(CreatingUserPrincipalName, "@")[1])
| extend TargetAccountName = tostring(split(CreatedUserPrincipalName, "@")[0]), TargetAccountUPNSuffix = tostring(split(CreatedUserPrincipalName, "@")[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
dc99e38c-f4e9-4837-94d7-353ac0b01a77
Additional source files 1Detections/AuditLogs/Useraccountcreatedwithoutexpectedattributesdefined.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.