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Description

The following analytic detects the addition of a new federated domain within an Azure Active Directory tenant. It leverages Azure AD AuditLogs to identify successful "Set domain authentication" operations. This activity is significant as it may indicate the use of the Azure AD identity federation backdoor technique, allowing an adversary to establish persistence. If confirmed malicious, the attacker could impersonate any user, bypassing password and MFA requirements, potentially leading to unauthorized access and control over the Azure AD environment.

  • Type: TTP

  • Product: Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Enterprise Security, Splunk Cloud

  • Last Updated: 2024-05-28
  • Author: Mauricio Velazco, Gowthamaraj Rajendran, Splunk
  • ID: a87cd633-076d-4ab2-9047-977751a3c1a0

Annotations

ATT&CK

ATT&CK

ID Technique Tactic
T1484 Domain or Tenant Policy Modification Defense Evasion, Privilege Escalation
T1484.002 Trust Modification Defense Evasion, Privilege Escalation
Kill Chain Phase
  • Exploitation
NIST
  • DE.CM
CIS20
  • CIS 10
CVE 


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 `azure_monitor_aad`  operationName="Set domain authentication" "properties.result"=success 
| rename properties.* as * 
| rename targetResources{}.displayName as domain 
| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime by user, domain, result, operationName, src_ip 
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
| `azure_ad_new_federated_domain_added_filter`

Macros

The SPL above uses the following Macros:

:information_source: azure_ad_new_federated_domain_added_filter is a empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.

Required fields

List of fields required to use this analytic.

  • _time
  • operationName
  • properties.result
  • src_ip
  • properties.targetResources{}.displayName
  • user

How To Implement

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 AuditLogs log category.

Known False Positives

In most organizations, domain federation settings will be updated infrequently. Filter as needed.

Associated Analytic Story

RBA

Risk Score Impact Confidence Message
81.0 90 90 A new federated domain, $domain$ , was added by $user$

:information_source: The Risk Score is calculated by the following formula: Risk Score = (Impact * Confidence/100). Initial Confidence and Impact is set by the analytic author.

Reference

Test Dataset

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 | version: 3