↳ GitHub sourceAnalytics ruleHigh
GCP Audit Logs - Detect Bulk VM Snapshot Deletion
Description
'Detects bulk deletion of Google Cloud VM snapshots within a short time period, which may indicate data destruction or defense evasion activities.
VM snapshots are critical for backup and disaster recovery. Bulk deletion of snapshots can prevent recovery from incidents and may indicate
malicious activity such as ransomware, data destruction, or an attempt to cover tracks after a security breach.
Adversaries may delete snapshots to maximize damage, prevent forensic investigation, or hinder recovery efforts.
This rule triggers when multiple snapshots are deleted by the same user within a 1-minute window.'
- Rule type
- Scheduled
- Version
- 1.0.0
- Declared status
- Available
- Query frequency
- 15m
- Query period
- 15m
- 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.
// Update these thresholds if noisy in your environment
let SnapshotDeletionThreshold = 10;
let TimeWindow = 1m;
GCPAuditLogs
| where ServiceName == "compute.googleapis.com"
| where MethodName has "compute.snapshots.delete"
| where GCPResourceType == "gce_snapshot" and Severity == "NOTICE"
| extend
AuthzInfoJson = parse_json(AuthorizationInfo),
RequestMetadataJson = parse_json(RequestMetadata),
ResponseJson = parse_json(Response)
| extend PermissionType = tostring(AuthzInfoJson[0].permissionType)
| where PermissionType == "ADMIN_WRITE"
| extend
CallerIpAddress = tostring(RequestMetadataJson.callerIp),
UserAgent = tostring(RequestMetadataJson.callerSuppliedUserAgent),
SnapshotName = extract(@"snapshots/([^/]+)", 1, GCPResourceName),
OperationType = tostring(ResponseJson.operationType),
OperationId = tostring(ResponseJson.id)
| summarize
SnapshotCount = count(),
SnapshotList = make_set(SnapshotName, 100),
FirstDeletion = min(TimeGenerated),
LastDeletion = max(TimeGenerated),
OperationIds = make_set(OperationId, 100),
CallerIPs = make_set(CallerIpAddress, 10)
by PrincipalEmail, ProjectId, UserAgent
| where SnapshotCount >= SnapshotDeletionThreshold
| extend DeletionTimeSpan = LastDeletion - FirstDeletion
| where DeletionTimeSpan <= TimeWindow
| extend
AccountName = tostring(split(PrincipalEmail, "@")[0]),
AccountUPNSuffix = tostring(split(PrincipalEmail, "@")[1])
| project
TimeGenerated = FirstDeletion,
PrincipalEmail,
ProjectId,
SnapshotCount,
SnapshotList,
FirstDeletion,
LastDeletion,
DeletionTimeSpan,
CallerIPs,
UserAgent,
OperationIds,
AccountName,
AccountUPNSuffix
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
dfdffdc7-929f-4c7e-8f48-30e5ffddb067
GSTEP / CATALOG TRACKING
Added to catalog : 16 Sept 2026 · 05:49 UTC
Last change observed : 16 Sept 2026 · 05:49 UTC