↳ 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
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
dc99e38c-f4e9-4837-94d7-353ac0b01a77
Additional source files 1
Detections/AuditLogs/Useraccountcreatedwithoutexpectedattributesdefined.yamlsource ↗GSTEP / CATALOG TRACKING
Added to catalog : 16 Sept 2026 · 05:49 UTC
Last change observed : 16 Sept 2026 · 05:49 UTC