JadePuffer wipes Azure resources with compromised service principals
Microsoft reported on September 25, 2026 two June attacks in which the ransomware operator it tracks as Storm-3168 (JadePuffer) used two compromised service principals in one tenant, driven by an AI agent toolchain, to map the environment, request storage account keys and delete most targeted storage accounts within seven minutes. Microsoft could not determine the initial access, but credentials for one of the service principals had appeared in a public GitHub issue before the attacks.
- Victim
- Unnamed Azure customer tenant (Microsoft case)
- Industry
- Cross-industry
- Country
- Not disclosed
- Intrusion began
- Jun 2026
- First disclosed
- Sep 25, 2026
- Actor
- Storm-3168 (JadePuffer), per Microsoft (Extortion group)
- Initial access
- Exposed secrets
- Identity control that failed
- Non-human identity
- MFA
- Not applicable (no interactive login)
- Abused identity
- Non-human (service account, token, key or app)
- Records affected
- Not disclosed
- Disclosed cost
- Not disclosed
The identity lesson
A workload secret posted in public carried standing rights to read keys and destroy resources. Managed identities or workload identity federation remove the secret, and separating destructive permissions from read access limits what one leak can do.
Go deeper on SWI
- Technique: Secrets in repositories and CI
- Technique: Static API key abuse
- Product involved: Microsoft Entra ID
- SWI coverage: jadepuffer used leaked service principal credentials to wipe azure tenants
Sources
- Storm-3168: Agentic-driven cloud attacks using compromised service principals, Microsoft Security Blog, Sep 25, 2026
- JadePuffer agentic AI attacks target Azure, destroy cloud resources, BleepingComputer, Sep 28, 2026
Record verified Oct 31, 2026 against the sources above. Corrections: contact us.
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- LiteLLM poisoned PyPI and Docker release traced to a leaked, never-revoked admin key 2026 · Exposed secrets
Cite this record
SWI Community Team. (2026). JadePuffer wipes Azure resources with compromised service principals. Identity Breach Database, Start with Identity. https://startwithidentity.com/breaches/incidents/2026-jadepuffer-azure-service-principals/
Part of the Identity Breach Database, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0. Analysis across every record: Identity Breach Report 2026.