Detection: O365 Mail Permissioned Application Consent Granted by User

Description

The following analytic identifies instances where a user grants consent to an application requesting mail-related permissions within the Office 365 environment. It leverages O365 audit logs, specifically focusing on events related to application permissions and user consent actions. This activity is significant as it can indicate potential security risks, such as data exfiltration or spear phishing, if malicious applications gain access. If confirmed malicious, this could lead to unauthorized data access, email forwarding, or sending malicious emails from the compromised account. Validating the legitimacy of the application and consent context is crucial to prevent data breaches.

 1`o365_management_activity` Workload=AzureActiveDirectory Operation="Consent to application." ResultStatus=Success 
 2| eval admin_consent =mvindex('ModifiedProperties{}.NewValue', 0) 
 3| search admin_consent=False 
 4| eval permissions =mvindex('ModifiedProperties{}.NewValue', 4) 
 5| rex field=permissions "Scope: (?<Scope>[^,]+)" 
 6| makemv delim=" " Scope 
 7| search Scope IN ("Mail.Read", "Mail.ReadBasic", "Mail.ReadWrite", "Mail.Read.Shared", "Mail.ReadWrite.Shared", "Mail.Send", "Mail.Send.Shared") 
 8| stats max(_time) as lastTime values(Scope) by Operation, user, object, ObjectId 
 9| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
10| `o365_mail_permissioned_application_consent_granted_by_user_filter`

Data Source

Name Platform Sourcetype Source Supported App
O365 Consent to application. N/A 'o365:management:activity' 'o365' N/A

Macros Used

Name Value
o365_management_activity sourcetype=o365:management:activity
o365_mail_permissioned_application_consent_granted_by_user_filter search *
o365_mail_permissioned_application_consent_granted_by_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
T1528 Steal Application Access Token Credential Access
KillChainPhase.EXPLOITAITON
NistCategory.DE_CM
Cis18Value.CIS_10
APT28
APT29

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

OAuth applications that require mail permissions may be legitimate, investigate and filter as needed.

Associated Analytic Story

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message Risk Score Impact Confidence
User $user$ consented an OAuth application that requests mail-related permissions. 40 80 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 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: 2