Recently I reviewed an article covering an attack path that an actor took in a Google Workspace/GCP environment.
https://www.bitdefender.com/blog/businessinsights/the-chain-reaction-new-methods-for-extending-local-breaches-in-google-workspace/
When going over the TTPs one mentioned as "Golden Image Lateral Movement" stood out. The technique boils down to local accounts containing the same credentials on a VM if that VM gets cloned. Assuming an organization has ample GCP logs (Like GCP Cloud Audit) is there a detection that can see this behavior?
The FP rate will likely be high when looking for all clones however different orgs could modify the rule to bump out known procedures for cloning VMs.
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HY,AMALON.
Detecting lateral movement in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) around a golden image involves monitoring and analyzing various activities within your cloud environment. Lateral movement refers to the technique used by attackers to navigate from one system or resource to another within a network or cloud infrastructure. Here are steps and suggestions for detecting such movements:
1. **Logging and Monitoring Services:**
Enable and configure logging and monitoring services provided by GCP, such as Google Cloud Logging, Google Cloud Monitoring, and Google Cloud Audit Logging. These services can capture activities and events across your GCP resources.
2. **Use Security and Compliance Tools:**
Leverage security and compliance tools provided by GCP, such as Security Command Center (SCC), which offers insights into security threats and vulnerabilities across your GCP environment.
3. **Network Traffic Analysis:**
Implement network traffic analysis tools or services that monitor traffic between resources. Tools like Google Cloud VPC Flow Logs can capture network flow logs, providing visibility into network traffic patterns.
4. **Anomaly Detection and Behavioral Analysis:**
Employ anomaly detection and behavioral analysis tools that can identify unusual activities or deviations from normal behavior within your GCP environment. Tools like Google Cloud's anomaly detection features can help in this regard.
5. **Golden Image Integrity Monitoring:**
Regularly monitor the integrity of your golden images. Any unauthorized changes or modifications to these images could indicate potential compromise or unauthorized access.
6. **User Behavior Analytics:**
Implement user behavior analytics to detect unusual or suspicious activities by users or service accounts within GCP. Look for access patterns that deviate from normal behavior.
7. **Privilege Escalation Monitoring:**
Keep an eye on any signs of privilege escalation within your GCP environment. Sudden changes in permissions or access rights might indicate unauthorized actions.
8. **SIEM Integration and Correlation:**
Integrate GCP logs with a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) system to correlate events and logs from different sources. This can provide a more comprehensive view of potential threats and lateral movement activities.
9. **Regular Auditing and Review:**
Perform regular audits and reviews of logs, configurations, access controls, and permissions within your GCP environment. This proactive approach helps identify any suspicious or unauthorized activities.
10. **Incident Response and Automation:**
Have an incident response plan in place to swiftly respond to any detected security incidents. Implement automation where possible to quickly contain and mitigate potential threats.
Remember, security in the cloud requires a multi-layered approach. It's essential to continuously assess and enhance your security measures based on evolving threats and new features provided by GCP. Additionally, consider consulting with security experts or utilizing third-party security services to bolster your defenses and improve your ability to detect and respond to lateral movement within GCP.
HY,AMALON.
Detecting lateral movement in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) around a golden image involves monitoring and analyzing various activities within your cloud environment. Lateral movement refers to the technique used by attackers to navigate from one system or resource to another within a network or cloud infrastructure. Here are steps and suggestions for detecting such movements:
1. **Logging and Monitoring Services:**
Enable and configure logging and monitoring services provided by GCP, such as Google Cloud Logging, Google Cloud Monitoring, and Google Cloud Audit Logging. These services can capture activities and events across your GCP resources.
2. **Use Security and Compliance Tools:**
Leverage security and compliance tools provided by GCP, such as Security Command Center (SCC), which offers insights into security threats and vulnerabilities across your GCP environment.
3. **Network Traffic Analysis:**
Implement network traffic analysis tools or services that monitor traffic between resources. Tools like Google Cloud VPC Flow Logs can capture network flow logs, providing visibility into network traffic patterns.
4. **Anomaly Detection and Behavioral Analysis:**
Employ anomaly detection and behavioral analysis tools that can identify unusual activities or deviations from normal behavior within your GCP environment. Tools like Google Cloud's anomaly detection features can help in this regard.
5. **Golden Image Integrity Monitoring:**
Regularly monitor the integrity of your golden images. Any unauthorized changes or modifications to these images could indicate potential compromise or unauthorized access.
6. **User Behavior Analytics:**
Implement user behavior analytics to detect unusual or suspicious activities by users or service accounts within GCP. Look for access patterns that deviate from normal behavior.
7. **Privilege Escalation Monitoring:**
Keep an eye on any signs of privilege escalation within your GCP environment. Sudden changes in permissions or access rights might indicate unauthorized actions.
8. **SIEM Integration and Correlation:**
Integrate GCP logs with a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) system to correlate events and logs from different sources. This can provide a more comprehensive view of potential threats and lateral movement activities.
9. **Regular Auditing and Review:**
Perform regular audits and reviews of logs, configurations, access controls, and permissions within your GCP environment. This proactive approach helps identify any suspicious or unauthorized activities.
10. **Incident Response and Automation:**
Have an incident response plan in place to swiftly respond to any detected security incidents. Implement automation where possible to quickly contain and mitigate potential threats.
Remember, security in the cloud requires a multi-layered approach. It's essential to continuously assess and enhance your security measures based on evolving threats and new features provided by GCP. Additionally, consider consulting with security experts or utilizing third-party security services to bolster your defenses and improve your ability to detect and respond to lateral movement within GCP.
Thanks for passing along some of those suggestions. If you don't mind me asking are these standards that are given by GCP for how the platform should be monitored? If so is there a recommendation from google on which GCP logs should be put into Chronicle for ample logging?
Going back too my initial question I want to keep the solution more granular. I would like to see how Chronicle in particular can be leveraged with proper GCP logging to create novel detections for known behaviors like the one above. If anyone has any examples of rules or ideas for how this could be detected with Yara-L.
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