Detection: Azure AD Application Administrator Role Assigned

Updated Date: 2024-09-30 ID: eac4de87-7a56-4538-a21b-277897af6d8d Author: Mauricio Velazco, Gowthamaraj Rajendran, Splunk Type: TTP Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

The following analytic identifies the assignment of the Application Administrator role to an Azure AD user. It leverages Azure Active Directory events, specifically monitoring the "Add member to role" operation. This activity is significant because users in this role can manage all aspects of enterprise applications, including credentials, which can be used to impersonate application identities. If confirmed malicious, an attacker could escalate privileges, manage application settings, and potentially access sensitive resources by impersonating application identities, posing a significant security risk to the Azure AD tenant.

Search

1`azure_monitor_aad`  "operationName"="Add member to role"  "properties.targetResources{}.modifiedProperties{}.newValue"="\"Application Administrator\"" 
2| rename properties.* as * 
3| rename initiatedBy.user.userPrincipalName as initiatedBy 
4| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime by user initiatedBy, result, operationName 
5| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
6| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
7| `azure_ad_application_administrator_role_assigned_filter`

Data Source

Name	Platform	Sourcetype	Source
Azure Active Directory Add member to role	Azure	`'azure:monitor:aad'`	`'Azure AD'`

Macros Used

Name	Value
azure_monitor_aad	`sourcetype=azure:monitor:aad`
azure_ad_application_administrator_role_assigned_filter	`search *`

azure_ad_application_administrator_role_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	Account Manipulation	Persistence
T1098.003	Additional Cloud Roles	Privilege Escalation

KillChainPhase.EXPLOITAITON

KillChainPhase.INSTALLATION

NistCategory.DE_CM

Cis18Value.CIS_10

HAFNIUM

Lazarus Group

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 latest version of Splunk Add-on for Microsoft Cloud Services from Splunkbase(https://splunkbase.splunk.com/app/3110/#/details). You must be ingesting Azure Active Directory events into your Splunk environment. This analytic was written to be used with the azure:monitor:aad sourcetype leveraging the Auditlog log category

Known False Positives

Administrators may legitimately assign the Application Administrator role to a user. Filter as needed.

Associated Analytic Story

Azure Active Directory Privilege Escalation

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message	Risk Score	Impact	Confidence
The privileged Azure AD role Application Administrator was assigned for User $user$ initiated by $initiatedBy$	35	70	50

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	`Azure AD`	`azure:monitor:aad`
Integration	✅ Passing	Dataset	`Azure AD`	`azure:monitor:aad`

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: 5