Detection: Cisco ASA - User Privilege Level Change

Updated Date: 2025-11-18 ID: 5f7d8c3e-9a2b-4d6f-8e1c-3b5a9d7f2c4e Author: Nasreddine Bencherchali, Splunk Type: Anomaly Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

This analytic detects privilege level changes for user accounts on Cisco ASA devices via CLI or ASDM. Adversaries may escalate account privileges to gain elevated access to network infrastructure, enable additional command execution capabilities, or establish higher-level persistent access. Privilege levels on Cisco ASA range from 0 (lowest) to 15 (full administrative access), with level 15 providing complete device control. The detection monitors for ASA message ID 502103, which is generated whenever a user account's privilege level is modified, capturing both the old and new privilege levels along with the username and administrator who made the change. Investigate unexpected privilege changes, especially escalations to level 15, substantial privilege increases (e.g., from level 1 to 15), changes performed outside business hours, changes by non-administrative users, or changes without corresponding change management tickets.

Search

 1`cisco_asa`
 2message_id IN (502103)
 3
 4| fillnull
 5
 6| stats earliest(_time) as firstTime
 7        latest(_time) as lastTime
 8        values(action) as action
 9        values(message_id) as message_id
10        values(old_privilege_level) as old_privilege_level
11        values(new_privilege_level) as new_privilege_level
12  by host user
13
14| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
15
16| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
17
18| `cisco_asa___user_privilege_level_change_filter`

Data Source

Name	Platform	Sourcetype	Source
Cisco ASA Logs	Other	`'cisco:asa'`	`'not_applicable'`

Macros Used

Name	Value
cisco_asa	`sourcetype=cisco:asa`
cisco_asa___user_privilege_level_change_filter	`search *`

cisco_asa___user_privilege_level_change_filter is an empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.

Annotations

- MITRE ATT&CK

+ Kill Chain Phases

+ NIST

+ CIS

- Threat Actors

ID	Technique	Tactic
T1078.003	Local Accounts	Defense Evasion
T1098	Account Manipulation	Initial Access

Delivery

Exploitation

Installation

DE.AE

CIS 13

Default Configuration

This detection is configured by default in Splunk Enterprise Security to run with the following settings:

Setting	Value
Disabled	true
Cron Schedule	`0 * * * *`
Earliest Time	`-70m@m`
Latest Time	`-10m@m`
Schedule Window	`auto`
Creates Risk Event	True

This configuration file applies to all detections of type anomaly. These detections will use Risk Based Alerting.

Implementation

This search requires Cisco ASA syslog data to be ingested into Splunk via the Cisco Security Cloud TA. To ensure this detection works effectively, configure your ASA and FTD devices to generate and forward message ID 502103. If your logging level is set to 'Notifications' or higher, these messages should already be included, else we recommend setting an event list that keeps the severity level you are using and adding the message IDs 502103. You can find specific instructions on how to set this up here : https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/security/pix-500-series-security-appliances/63884-config-asa-00.html. You can also change the severity level of the above message id's to the syslog level you have currently enabled using the logging message syslog_id level severity_level command in global configuration mode. For more information, see Change the Severity Level of a Syslog Message : https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/security/asa/asa922/configuration/general/asa-922-general-config/monitor-syslog.html#ID-2121-000006da

Known False Positives

Legitimate changes occur during role changes, temporary escalation for maintenance, or security policy adjustments. Verify against change management. Filter known admin accounts during maintenance windows.

Associated Analytic Story

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message:

User account $user$ privilege level changed from $old_privilege_level$ to $new_privilege_level$ on Cisco ASA host $host$.

Risk Object	Risk Object Type	Risk Score	Threat Objects
host	system	40	No Threat Objects
user	user	40	No Threat Objects

References

Detection Testing

Test Type	Status	Dataset	Source	Sourcetype
Validation	✅ Passing	N/A	N/A	N/A
Unit	✅ Passing	Dataset	`not_applicable`	`cisco:asa`
Integration	✅ Passing	Dataset	`not_applicable`	`cisco:asa`

Replay any dataset to Splunk Enterprise by using our replay.py tool or the UI. Alternatively you can replay a dataset into a Splunk Attack Range

Source: GitHub | Version: 1