GCP Vertex AI Role Granted to Principal
Identifies an IAM policy change on a Google Cloud project, folder, or organization that grants a Vertex AI role (`roles/aiplatform.*`) to a principal. Vertex AI roles control who can invoke models, deploy endpoints,…
Description
Identifies an IAM policy change on a Google Cloud project, folder, or organization that grants a Vertex AI role (`roles/aiplatform.*`) to a principal. Vertex AI roles control who can invoke models, deploy endpoints, run agents, and read prompt and training data. An adversary who has gained IAM administration rights can grant a Vertex AI role to an identity they control to keep model access after the original foothold is removed, or to run LLMjacking workloads under the victim's billing. Google-managed service agent roles are excluded because Google grants them automatically when the API is enabled.
Detection logic
Its licence does not clear it for publishing here
Sunturai publishes a detection's own text where the licence it arrived under has been reviewed and permits it, and Elastic License 2.0 has not. The query as its source wrote it, its canonical form and the hash that pins this revision are in the workspace record.
Detection requirements
- Platform
- ContainersESXiIaaSIdentity ProviderLinuxmacOSNetwork DevicesOffice SuiteSaaSWindows
The rule states no platform. This is derived from the ATT&CK technique it maps to.
- Log source category
- event_index
Known benign triggers
- Infrastructure-as-code pipelines that manage project IAM bindings. Add exceptions for the service accounts that run these pipelines.
- Platform or ML engineering teams granting Vertex AI access to new users and service accounts. Confirm the grant against change records or the access request process.
MITRE ATT&CK mappings
0 exclusive techniques.This is coverage no other published rule has; it is not this rule's total technique count.
References
| Reference | Cited by |
|---|---|
| cloud.google.com/iam/docs/audit-logging | Only this detection cites it |
| cloud.google.com/vertex-ai/docs/general/access-control | Only this detection cites it |
| www.elastic.co/docs/reference/integrations/gcp/audit | Only this detection cites it |
From the source
- At source
- Open at source
- Upstream identifier
- 23b73162-cfaf-457d-9ba1-333b907d2a39
- Tagged by the source as
- Mitre Atlas: AML.T0012Data Source: GCPData Source: Google Cloud PlatformDomain: CloudDomain: GenAIDomain: IdentityPlatform: GCPResources: Investigation GuideRule Type: Custom Query (KQL)Service: GCP Vertex AITactic: PersistenceTactic: Privilege EscalationThreat: Unauthorized AI UsageUse Case: Identity and Access AuditUse Case: Threat Detection
Licence
- Published under
- Elastic License 2.0Read the licence
- Attribution
- Required
Authorship
- Written by
- Published
- Oct 28, 2026
- Version
- 1