Anthropic Admin Role Assigned to User
The organization admin role controls organization settings, integrations, membership, and security configuration in
Anthropic Claude for Enterprise. Membership role changes are reported as claude_user_role_updated with
anthropic.audit.current_role. An attacker can promote a compromised or newly invited account to org admin to turn
initial access into durable control-plane access. From admin, they can disable SSO, mint admin API keys for automation,
start data exports, and weaken audit logging. Workspace-scoped role_assignment_granted grants (for example bare
admin on a workspace) are out of scope for this rule.
Elastic rule (View on GitHub)
1[metadata]
2creation_date = "2026/09/12"
3integration = ["anthropic"]
4maturity = "production"
5updated_date = "2026/10/07"
6
7[rule]
8author = ["Elastic"]
9description = """
10The organization admin role controls organization settings, integrations, membership, and security configuration in
11Anthropic Claude for Enterprise. Membership role changes are reported as `claude_user_role_updated` with
12`anthropic.audit.current_role`. An attacker can promote a compromised or newly invited account to org admin to turn
13initial access into durable control-plane access. From admin, they can disable SSO, mint admin API keys for automation,
14start data exports, and weaken audit logging. Workspace-scoped `role_assignment_granted` grants (for example bare
15`admin` on a workspace) are out of scope for this rule.
16"""
17false_positives = [
18 """
19 IT administrators promote users to organization admin during onboarding, staffing changes, or incident response.
20 Verify that the target user should hold org admin privileges, and that a change request exists when policy requires
21 one.
22 """,
23]
24from = "now-9m"
25language = "esql"
26license = "Elastic License v2"
27name = "Anthropic Admin Role Assigned to User"
28note = """## Triage and analysis
29
30### Investigating Anthropic Admin Role Assigned to User
31
32Org admin can change SSO, API keys, exports, and integrations. This rule matches `claude_user_role_updated` where
33`anthropic.audit.current_role` is the literal `admin` (organization membership role — not workspace
34`role_assignment_granted`, not project `chat_project:*` roles, not `rbac_role_assigned`).
35
36Unauthorized = no IAM ticket naming the target as org admin, target recently invited from an unexpected domain, or
37the promotion is followed by key creation / SSO weakening / exports by the same actor or target.
38
39#### Possible investigation steps
40
41- Identify target (`user.target.id`, `user.target.email`, `related.user`) and assigner (`anthropic.audit.actor.type`;
42 for `user_actor` check email/IP/UA).
43- Compare `anthropic.audit.previous_role` → `anthropic.audit.current_role` and check whether the target was invited or
44 otherwise role-changed shortly before becoming admin.
45- After the promotion, review ~48h of target activity and org IAM (primary owner transfer, admin keys, SSO, exports).
46- Close as FP when ticket + job function match. Escalate when the change is untracked or precedes control-plane abuse.
47
48### False positive analysis
49
50- Onboarding and IR staffing promotions to org admin are valid — require change request when policy demands one.
51
52### Response and remediation
53
54- On unauthorized promotion: revoke org admin (downgrade membership role), rotate credentials for assigner and
55 target, audit admin API keys and integration changes for the organization.
56"""
57references = [
58 "https://www.elastic.co/security-labs/elastic-advances-llm-security",
59 "https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/api/compliance/activities/list",
60]
61risk_score = 73
62rule_id = "f280afaf-332a-40c9-9213-8e2e717ed320"
63severity = "high"
64tags = [
65 "Domain: GenAI",
66 "Platform: Anthropic",
67 "Data Source: Anthropic Audit Logs",
68 "Use Case: Identity and Access Audit",
69 "Use Case: Threat Detection",
70 "Resources: Investigation Guide",
71 "Rule Type: ES|QL",
72 "Tactic: Persistence",
73 "Tactic: Privilege Escalation",
74 "Mitre Atlas: AML.T0012",
75]
76timestamp_override = "event.ingested"
77type = "esql"
78
79query = '''
80from logs-anthropic.audit-* metadata _id, _version, _index
81| where
82 data_stream.dataset == "anthropic.audit" and
83 mv_contains(event.category, "iam") and
84 event.action == "claude_user_role_updated" and
85 anthropic.audit.current_role in ("admin", "owner", "membership_admin")
86| keep _id, _version, _index, @timestamp, event.*, organization.*, user.*, source.*, user_agent.*, anthropic.audit.*, data_stream.*
87'''
88
89
90[[rule.threat]]
91framework = "MITRE ATT&CK"
92[[rule.threat.technique]]
93id = "T1098"
94name = "Account Manipulation"
95reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1098/"
96[[rule.threat.technique.subtechnique]]
97id = "T1098.003"
98name = "Additional Cloud Roles"
99reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1098/003/"
100
101
102
103[rule.threat.tactic]
104id = "TA0003"
105name = "Persistence"
106reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0003/"
107[[rule.threat]]
108framework = "MITRE ATT&CK"
109[[rule.threat.technique]]
110id = "T1098"
111name = "Account Manipulation"
112reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1098/"
113[[rule.threat.technique.subtechnique]]
114id = "T1098.003"
115name = "Additional Cloud Roles"
116reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1098/003/"
117
118
119
120[rule.threat.tactic]
121id = "TA0004"
122name = "Privilege Escalation"
123reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0004/"
124[[rule.threat_mappings]]
125framework = "MITRE ATLAS"
126version = "2026.08"
127[[rule.threat_mappings.threat]]
128framework = "MITRE ATLAS"
129[[rule.threat_mappings.threat.technique]]
130id = "AML.T0012"
131name = "Valid Accounts"
132reference = "https://atlas.mitre.org/techniques/AML.T0012/"
133
134
135[rule.threat_mappings.threat.tactic]
136id = "AML.TA0012"
137name = "Privilege Escalation"
138reference = "https://atlas.mitre.org/tactics/AML.TA0012/"
139
140[rule.investigation_fields]
141field_names = [
142 "@timestamp",
143 "event.action",
144 "event.id",
145 "organization.id",
146 "user.target.id",
147 "user.target.email",
148 "related.user",
149 "anthropic.audit.current_role",
150 "anthropic.audit.previous_role",
151 "anthropic.audit.actor.type",
152 "user.email",
153 "user.id",
154 "source.ip",
155 "user_agent.original",
156]
Triage and analysis
Investigating Anthropic Admin Role Assigned to User
Org admin can change SSO, API keys, exports, and integrations. This rule matches claude_user_role_updated where
anthropic.audit.current_role is the literal admin (organization membership role — not workspace
role_assignment_granted, not project chat_project:* roles, not rbac_role_assigned).
Unauthorized = no IAM ticket naming the target as org admin, target recently invited from an unexpected domain, or the promotion is followed by key creation / SSO weakening / exports by the same actor or target.
Possible investigation steps
- Identify target (
user.target.id,user.target.email,related.user) and assigner (anthropic.audit.actor.type; foruser_actorcheck email/IP/UA). - Compare
anthropic.audit.previous_role→anthropic.audit.current_roleand check whether the target was invited or otherwise role-changed shortly before becoming admin. - After the promotion, review ~48h of target activity and org IAM (primary owner transfer, admin keys, SSO, exports).
- Close as FP when ticket + job function match. Escalate when the change is untracked or precedes control-plane abuse.
False positive analysis
- Onboarding and IR staffing promotions to org admin are valid — require change request when policy demands one.
Response and remediation
- On unauthorized promotion: revoke org admin (downgrade membership role), rotate credentials for assigner and target, audit admin API keys and integration changes for the organization.
References
Related rules
- Anthropic Primary Owner Transferred
- Anthropic Sensitive Claude Project Role Assigned to User
- Anthropic User Activity From High Number of Countries
- Anthropic Admin API Key Created
- Anthropic Compliance API Key Created