Detection rules › YARA-L

Hunt for Undocumented API - Estimate Access called in Microsoft Graph API

Severity
low
Type
Hunt
Time window
5m
Match by
ip, session
Author
Google Cloud Security
Source
github.com/chronicle/detection-rules

Estimate Access is an undocumented API in MS Graph and is used in the following GraphRunner functions Get-UpdatableGroups, Get-DynamicGroups and Invoke-GraphRecon. Although not inherently malicious, it does submit an action and then determines if the user can perform it

References

Rule body yaral

/*
 * Copyright 2025 Google LLC
 *
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *     https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */

rule ms_graph_estimate_access {

  meta:
    author = "Google Cloud Security"
    description = "Estimate Access is an undocumented API in MS Graph and is used in the following GraphRunner functions Get-UpdatableGroups, Get-DynamicGroups and Invoke-GraphRecon. Although not inherently malicious, it does submit an action and then determines if the user can perform it"
    rule_id = "mr_381921b8-e935-4720-9ff6-2d966aa00a32"
    rule_name = "Hunt for Undocumented API - Estimate Access called in Microsoft Graph API"
    assumption = "This can be chatty due to other commands calling this single API. Additional tuning of admin consoles and user agent strings may be needed."
    reference = "https://github.com/dafthack/GraphRunner/blob/main/GraphRunner.ps1"
    type = "Hunt"
    data_source = "MS Graph Activity Logs"
    platform = "Azure"
    severity = "Low"
    priority = "Low"

  events:
    $api.metadata.event_type = "NETWORK_HTTP"
    $api.metadata.product_event_type = "Microsoft Graph Activity"
    $api.target.url = "https://graph.microsoft.com/beta/roleManagement/directory/estimateAccess" nocase
    //Can be tuned for specific User Agent strings being used - by default GraphRunner does not forge the UA for this action
    //$api_est.network.http.user_agent = /PowerShell/ nocase
    $api.network.http.method = "POST"
    $api.network.http.response_code = 200
    //Used to filter admin consoles and/or internal Microsoft addresses as needed, the following IP CIDR blocks are part of Azure for instance
    //$api.principal.ip != "10.10.10.10"
    NOT (
        net.ip_in_range_cidr($api.principal.ip, "20.228.0.0/18") or
        net.ip_in_range_cidr($api.principal.ip, "20.228.64.0/18") or
        net.ip_in_range_cidr($api.principal.ip, "20.228.128.0/17")
    )
    /*Used to filter Microsoft IPv6 network ranges, can tune this further as needed;
      additional ranges may need to be added, but this provides an example on how this can be done. */
    NOT net.ip_in_range_cidr($api.principal.ip, "2a01:0111:f100:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000/40")
    $api.principal.ip = $ip
    $api.network.session_id = $session

  match:
    $ip, $session over 5m

  outcome:
    $risk_score = 35
    $event_count = count_distinct($api.metadata.id)
    $requesting_user_guid = array_distinct($api.principal.user.userid)
    $requesting_ip = array_distinct($api.principal.ip)
    $user_agent = array_distinct($api.network.http.user_agent)
    $location = array_distinct($api.principal.location.name)
    $target_application_id_guid = array_distinct($api.target.resource.product_object_id)
    $session_id = array_distinct($api.network.session_id)

  condition:
    //Can be modified to add a threshold for how many estimate access events is considered accesptable
    $api // and $event_count > 10
}

Detection logic

Fires when at least one $api event in the 5m window.

Events

$api NETWORK_HTTP

  • metadata.product_event_type = "Microsoft Graph Activity"
  • target.url = "https://graph.microsoft.com/beta/roleManagement/directory/estimateAccess"
  • network.http.method = "POST"
  • network.http.response_code = "200"
  • principal.ip cidr_match "20.228.0.0/18"
  • principal.ip cidr_match "20.228.64.0/18"
  • principal.ip cidr_match "20.228.128.0/17"
  • principal.ip cidr_match "2a01:0111:f100:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000/40"

Correlation

Match key
$ip (principal.ip), $session (network.session_id)
Within
5m

Outcome

Fields the detection emits on a match. $risk_score drives alerting; Chronicle surfaces the rest on the detection.

FieldExpression
risk_score35
event_countcount_distinct($api.metadata.id)
requesting_user_guidarray_distinct($api.principal.user.userid)
requesting_iparray_distinct($api.principal.ip)
user_agentarray_distinct($api.network.http.user_agent)
locationarray_distinct($api.principal.location.name)
target_application_id_guidarray_distinct($api.target.resource.product_object_id)
session_idarray_distinct($api.network.session_id)