Elastic Security Detection Rules

GCP IAM Service Account Key Deletion

Last updated 7 months ago on 2025-01-15
Created 5 years ago on 2020-09-21

About

Identifies the deletion of an Identity and Access Management (IAM) service account key in Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Each service account is associated with two sets of public/private RSA key pairs that are used to authenticate. If a key is deleted, the application will no longer be able to access Google Cloud resources using that key. A security best practice is to rotate your service account keys regularly.
Tags
Domain: CloudData Source: GCPData Source: Google Cloud PlatformUse Case: Identity and Access AuditTactic: PersistenceLanguage: kuery
Severity
low
Risk Score
21
MITRE ATT&CK™

Persistence (TA0003)(opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Account Manipulation (T1098)(opens in a new tab or window)

False Positive Examples
Service account key deletions may be done by a system or network administrator. Verify whether the user email, resource name, and/or hostname should be making changes in your environment. Key deletions by unfamiliar users or hosts should be investigated. If known behavior is causing false positives, it can be exempted from the rule.
License
Elastic License v2(opens in a new tab or window)

Definition

Rule Type
Query (Kibana Query Language)
Integration Pack
Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Index Patterns
filebeat-*logs-gcp*
Related Integrations

gcp(opens in a new tab or window)

Query
event.dataset:gcp.audit and event.action:google.iam.admin.v*.DeleteServiceAccountKey and event.outcome:success

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect GCP IAM Service Account Key Deletion in the Elastic Security detection engine by installing this rule into your Elastic Stack.

To setup this rule, check out the installation guide for Prebuilt Security Detection Rules(opens in a new tab or window).