Detection: O365 Add App Role Assignment Grant User

Updated Date: 2026-05-13 ID: b2c81cc6-6040-11eb-ae93-0242ac130002 Author: Rod Soto, Splunk Type: TTP Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

The following analytic detects the addition of an application role assignment grant to a user in Office 365. It leverages data from the o365_management_activity dataset, specifically monitoring the "Add app role assignment grant to user" operation. This activity is significant as it can indicate unauthorized privilege escalation or the assignment of sensitive roles to users. If confirmed malicious, this could allow an attacker to gain elevated permissions, potentially leading to unauthorized access to critical resources and data within the Office 365 environment.

Search

 1`o365_management_activity` Workload=AzureActiveDirectory Operation="Add app role assignment grant to user."
 2  
 3| fillnull
 4  
 5| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime
 6    BY signature dest user
 7       src vendor_account vendor_product
 8  
 9| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
10  
11| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
12  
13| `o365_add_app_role_assignment_grant_user_filter`

Data Source

Name	Platform	Sourcetype	Source
O365 Add app role assignment grant to user.	Other	`'o365:management:activity'`	`'o365'`

Macros Used

Name	Value
o365_management_activity	`sourcetype=o365:management:activity`
o365_add_app_role_assignment_grant_user_filter	`search *`

o365_add_app_role_assignment_grant_user_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
T1136.003	Cloud Account	Persistence

Installation

DE.CM

CIS 10

LAPSUS$

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 Finding (Notable)	Yes
Rule Title	`%name%`
Rule Description	`%description%`
Notable Event Fields	user, dest
Creates Intermediate Finding (Risk Event)	Yes

TTP detections generate a Finding (Notable) and may generate Intermediate Findings (Risk Events) for associated entities.

Implementation

You must install splunk Microsoft Office 365 add-on. This search works with o365:management:activity

Known False Positives

The creation of a new Federation is not necessarily malicious, however this events need to be followed closely, as it may indicate federated credential abuse or backdoor via federated identities at a different cloud provider.

Associated Analytic Story

Finding

Title	Entity Field	Entity Type	Risk Score
User $user$ added a new app role assignment	user	user	50

Intermediate Findings

Message	Entity Field	Entity Type	Risk Score
User $user$ added a new app role assignment	dest	system	50

References

Detection Testing

Test Type	Status	Dataset	Source	Sourcetype
Validation	✅ Passing	N/A	N/A	N/A
Unit	✅ Passing	Dataset	`o365`	`o365:management:activity`
Integration	✅ Passing	Dataset	`o365`	`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: 12