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Audit Microsoft Sentinel queries and activities

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This article describes how you can view audit data for queries run and activities performed in your Microsoft Sentinel workspace, such as for internal and external compliance requirements in your Security Operations (SOC) workspace.

Microsoft Sentinel provides access to:

  • The AzureActivity table, which provides details about all actions taken in Microsoft Sentinel, such as editing alert rules. The AzureActivity table does not log specific query data. For more information, see Auditing with Azure Activity logs.

  • The LAQueryLogs table, which provides details about the queries run in Log Analytics, including queries run from Microsoft Sentinel. For more information, see Auditing with LAQueryLogs.

Tip

In addition to the manual queries described in this article, Microsoft Sentinel provides a built-in workbook to help you audit the activities in your SOC environment.

In the Microsoft Sentinel Workbooks area, search for the Workspace audit workbook.

Prerequisites

Auditing with Azure Activity logs

Microsoft Sentinel's audit logs are maintained in the Azure Activity Logs, where the AzureActivity table includes all actions taken in your Microsoft Sentinel workspace.

You can use the AzureActivity table when auditing activity in your SOC environment with Microsoft Sentinel.

To query the AzureActivity table:

  1. Connect the Azure Activity data source to start streaming audit events into a new table called AzureActivity. In the Azure portal, query this table in the Logs page. In the Defender portal, query this table in the Investigation & response > Hunting > Advanced hunting page. For more information, see

  2. Query the data using KQL, like you would any other table.

    The AzureActivity table includes data from many services, including Microsoft Sentinel. To filter in only data from Microsoft Sentinel, start your query with the following code:

     AzureActivity
| where OperationNameValue startswith "MICROSOFT.SECURITYINSIGHTS"

    For example, to find out who was the last user to edit a particular analytics rule, use the following query (replacing xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx with the rule ID of the rule you want to check):

    AzureActivity
| where OperationNameValue startswith "MICROSOFT.SECURITYINSIGHTS/ALERTRULES/WRITE"
| where Properties contains "alertRules/xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx"
| project Caller , TimeGenerated , Properties

Add more parameters to your query to explore the AzureActivities table further, depending on what you need to report. The following sections provide other sample queries to use when auditing with AzureActivity table data.

For more information, see Microsoft Sentinel data included in Azure Activity logs.

Find all actions taken by a specific user in the last 24 hours

The following AzureActivity table query lists all actions taken by a specific Microsoft Entra user in the last 24 hours.

AzureActivity
| where OperationNameValue contains "SecurityInsights"
| where Caller == "[AzureAD username]"
| where TimeGenerated > ago(1d)

Find all delete operations

The following AzureActivity table query lists all the delete operations performed in your Microsoft Sentinel workspace.

AzureActivity
| where OperationNameValue contains "SecurityInsights"
| where OperationName contains "Delete"
| where ActivityStatusValue contains "Succeeded"
| project TimeGenerated, Caller, OperationName

Microsoft Sentinel data included in Azure Activity logs

Microsoft Sentinel's audit logs are maintained in the Azure Activity Logs, and include the following types of information:

Operation Information types
Created Alert rules
Case comments
Incident comments
Saved searches
Watchlists
Workbooks
Deleted Alert rules
Bookmarks
Data connectors
Incidents
Saved searches
Settings
Threat intelligence reports
Watchlists
Workbooks
Workflow
Updated Alert rules
Bookmarks
Cases
Data connectors
Incidents
Incident comments
Threat intelligence reports
Workbooks
Workflow

You can also use the Azure Activity logs to check for user authorizations and licenses.

For example, the following table lists selected operations found in Azure Activity logs with the specific resource the log data is pulled from.

Operation name Resource type
Create or update workbook Microsoft.Insights/workbooks
Delete workbook Microsoft.Insights/workbooks
Set workflow Microsoft.Logic/workflows
Delete workflow Microsoft.Logic/workflows
Create saved search Microsoft.OperationalInsights/workspaces/savedSearches
Delete saved search Microsoft.OperationalInsights/workspaces/savedSearches
Update alert rules Microsoft.SecurityInsights/alertRules
Delete alert rules Microsoft.SecurityInsights/alertRules
Update alert rule response actions Microsoft.SecurityInsights/alertRules/actions
Delete alert rule response actions Microsoft.SecurityInsights/alertRules/actions
Update bookmarks Microsoft.SecurityInsights/bookmarks
Delete bookmarks Microsoft.SecurityInsights/bookmarks
Update cases Microsoft.SecurityInsights/Cases
Update case investigation Microsoft.SecurityInsights/Cases/investigations
Create case comments Microsoft.SecurityInsights/Cases/comments
Update data connectors Microsoft.SecurityInsights/dataConnectors
Delete data connectors Microsoft.SecurityInsights/dataConnectors
Update settings Microsoft.SecurityInsights/settings

For more information, see Azure Activity Log event schema.

Auditing with LAQueryLogs

The LAQueryLogs table provides details about log queries run in Log Analytics. Since Log Analytics is used as Microsoft Sentinel's underlying data store, you can configure your system to collect LAQueryLogs data in your Microsoft Sentinel workspace.

LAQueryLogs data includes information such as:

  • When queries were run
  • Who ran queries in Log Analytics
  • What tool was used to run queries in Log Analytics, such as Microsoft Sentinel
  • The query texts themselves
  • Performance data on each query run

Note

  • The LAQueryLogs table only includes queries that have been run in the Logs blade of Microsoft Sentinel. It does not include the queries run by scheduled analytics rules, using the Investigation Graph, in the Microsoft Sentinel Hunting page, or in the Defender portal's Advanced hunting page.

  • There may be a short delay between the time a query is run and the data is populated in the LAQueryLogs table. We recommend waiting about 5 minutes to query the LAQueryLogs table for audit data.

To query the LAQueryLogs table:

  1. The LAQueryLogs table isn't enabled by default in your Log Analytics workspace. To use LAQueryLogs data when auditing in Microsoft Sentinel, first enable the LAQueryLogs in your Log Analytics workspace's Diagnostics settings area.

    For more information, see Audit queries in Azure Monitor logs.

  2. Then, query the data using KQL, like you would any other table.

    For example, the following query shows how many queries were run in the last week, on a per-day basis:

    LAQueryLogs
| where TimeGenerated > ago(7d)
| summarize events_count=count() by bin(TimeGenerated, 1d)

The following sections show more sample queries to run on the LAQueryLogs table when auditing activities in your SOC environment using Microsoft Sentinel.

The number of queries run where the response wasn't "OK"

The following LAQueryLogs table query shows the number of queries run, where anything other than an HTTP response of 200 OK was received. For example, this number will include queries that had failed to run.

LAQueryLogs
| where ResponseCode != 200 
| count

Show users for CPU-intensive queries

The following LAQueryLogs table query lists the users who ran the most CPU-intensive queries, based on CPU used and length of query time.

LAQueryLogs
|summarize arg_max(StatsCPUTimeMs, *) by AADClientId
| extend User = AADEmail, QueryRunTime = StatsCPUTimeMs
| project User, QueryRunTime, QueryText
| order by QueryRunTime desc

Show users who ran the most queries in the past week

The following LAQueryLogs table query lists the users who ran the most queries in the last week.

LAQueryLogs
| where TimeGenerated > ago(7d)
| summarize events_count=count() by AADEmail
| extend UserPrincipalName = AADEmail, Queries = events_count
| join kind= leftouter (
    SigninLogs)
    on UserPrincipalName
| project UserDisplayName, UserPrincipalName, Queries
| summarize arg_max(Queries, *) by UserPrincipalName
| sort by Queries desc

Configuring alerts for Microsoft Sentinel activities

You may want to use Microsoft Sentinel auditing resources to create proactive alerts.

For example, if you have sensitive tables in your Microsoft Sentinel workspace, use the following query to notify you each time those tables are queried:

LAQueryLogs
| where QueryText contains "[Name of sensitive table]"
| where TimeGenerated > ago(1d)
| extend User = AADEmail, Query = QueryText
| project User, Query

Monitor Microsoft Sentinel with workbooks, rules, and playbooks

Use Microsoft Sentinel's own features to monitor events and actions that occur within Microsoft Sentinel.

  • Monitor with workbooks. Several built-in Microsoft Sentinel workbooks can help you monitor workspace activity, including information about the users working in your workspace, the analytics rules being used, the MITRE tactics most covered, stalled or stopped ingestions, and SOC team performance.

    For more information, see Visualize and monitor your data by using workbooks in Microsoft Sentinel and Commonly used Microsoft Sentinel workbooks

  • Watch for ingestion delay. If you have concerns about ingestion delay, set a variable in an analytics rule to represent the delay.

    For example, the following analytics rule can help to ensure that results don't include duplicates, and that logs aren't missed when running the rules:

    let ingestion_delay= 2min;let rule_look_back = 5min;CommonSecurityLog| where TimeGenerated >= ago(ingestion_delay + rule_look_back)| where ingestion_time() > (rule_look_back)
- Calculating ingestion delay
  CommonSecurityLog| extend delay = ingestion_time() - TimeGenerated| summarize percentiles(delay,95,99) by DeviceVendor, DeviceProduct

    For more information, see Automate incident handling in Microsoft Sentinel with automation rules.

  • Monitor data connector health using the Connector Health Push Notification Solution playbook to watch for stalled or stopped ingestion, and send notifications when a connector has stopped collecting data or machines have stopped reporting.

Next steps

In Microsoft Sentinel, use the Workspace audit workbook to audit the activities in your SOC environment.

For more information, see Visualize and monitor your data.