Detection: O365 FullAccessAsApp Permission Assigned

Description

The following analytic detects the assignment of the 'full_access_as_app' permission to an application registration in Office 365 Exchange Online. This detection leverages Office 365 management activity logs and filters Azure Active Directory workload events to identify when the specific permission, identified by GUID 'dc890d15-9560-4a4c-9b7f-a736ec74ec40', is granted. This activity is significant because it provides extensive control over Office 365 operations, including access to all mailboxes and the ability to send mail as any user. If confirmed malicious, this could lead to unauthorized data access, exfiltration, or account compromise. Immediate investigation is required.

1`o365_management_activity` Workload=AzureActiveDirectory Operation="Update application." 
2| eval newvalue = mvindex('ModifiedProperties{}.NewValue',0) 
3| spath input=newvalue  
4| search "{}.ResourceAppId"="00000002-0000-0ff1-ce00-000000000000"  "{}.RequiredAppPermissions{}.EntitlementId"="dc890d15-9560-4a4c-9b7f-a736ec74ec40" 
5| eval Permissions = '{}.RequiredAppPermissions{}.EntitlementId' 
6| stats count earliest(_time) as firstTime latest(_time) as lastTime values(Permissions) by user, object, user_agent, Operation 
7| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
8| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
9| `o365_fullaccessasapp_permission_assigned_filter`

Data Source

Name Platform Sourcetype Source
O365 Update application. N/A 'o365:management:activity' 'o365'

Macros Used

Name Value
o365_management_activity sourcetype=o365:management:activity
o365_fullaccessasapp_permission_assigned_filter search *
o365_fullaccessasapp_permission_assigned_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
T1098.002 Additional Email Delegate Permissions Persistence
T1098.003 Additional Cloud Roles Privilege Escalation
KillChainPhase.EXPLOITAITON
KillChainPhase.INSTALLATION
NistCategory.DE_CM
Cis18Value.CIS_10
APT28
APT29
Magic Hound
LAPSUS$
Scattered Spider

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 Notable Yes
Rule Title %name%
Rule Description %description%
Notable Event Fields user, dest
Creates Risk Event True
This configuration file applies to all detections of type TTP. These detections will use Risk Based Alerting and generate Notable Events.

Implementation

You must install the Splunk Microsoft Office 365 Add-on and ingest Office 365 management activity events.

Known False Positives

The full_access_as_app API permission may be assigned to legitimate applications. Filter as needed.

Associated Analytic Story

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message Risk Score Impact Confidence
User $user$ assigned the full_access_as_app permission to the app registration $object$ 48 80 60
The Risk Score is calculated by the following formula: Risk Score = (Impact * Confidence/100). Initial Confidence and Impact is set by the analytic author.

References

Detection Testing

Test Type Status Dataset Source Sourcetype
Validation Passing N/A N/A N/A
Unit Passing Dataset o365:management:activity o365:management:activity
Integration ✅ Passing Dataset o365:management:activity o365:management:activity

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: 3