Okta ThreatInsight Suspected Bruteforce Attack

Severity: medium
Type: Alert
Time window: 1h
Match by: userid
Author: Google Cloud Security
Source: github.com/chronicle/detection-rules

Okta ThreatInsight detects multiple login failures from the same IP across one or more Okta orgs.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Credential Access	`T1110.001` Brute Force: Password Guessing

References

https://help.okta.com/en-us/Content/Topics/Security/threat-insight/configure-threatinsight-system-log.htm

Event coverage

Provider	Event
Okta-security	security.threat.detected

Rules detecting the same action

Other rules on this platform that filter on the same API call or operation.

Device Registration from Malicious IP (Kusto)
Okta Security Threat Detected (Sigma)
Okta ThreatInsight Login Failure With High Unknown Users (YARA-L)
Okta ThreatInsight Suspected Password Spray Attack (YARA-L)
Okta ThreatInsight Threat Detected (Splunk)
Okta ThreatInsight Threat Suspected Promotion (Elastic)

Rule body yaral

/*
 * Copyright 2023 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 okta_threatinsight_suspected_brute_force_attack {

  meta:
    author = "Google Cloud Security"
    description = "Okta ThreatInsight detects multiple login failures from the same IP across one or more Okta orgs."
    rule_id = "mr_9537e888-7af7-491f-a5e2-3623e1798aba"
    rule_name = "Okta ThreatInsight Suspected Bruteforce Attack"
    reference = "https://help.okta.com/en-us/Content/Topics/Security/threat-insight/configure-threatinsight-system-log.htm"
    mitre_attack_tactic = "Credential Access"
    mitre_attack_technique = "Brute Force: Password Guessing"
    mitre_attack_url = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1110/001/"
    mitre_attack_version = "v13.1"
    type = "Alert"
    data_source = "Okta"
    severity = "Medium"
    priority = "Medium"

  events:
    $bruteforce.metadata.product_name = "Okta"
    $bruteforce.metadata.vendor_name = "Okta"
    $bruteforce.metadata.event_type = "USER_UNCATEGORIZED"
    $bruteforce.metadata.product_event_type = "security.threat.detected"
    $bruteforce.security_result.category_details = "Login Failures"
    $bruteforce.principal.user.userid = $userid

  match:
    $userid over 1h

  outcome:
    $risk_score = max(
        35 +
        // If the IP Address is marked as suspicious IP address by Okta ThreatInsight
        if($bruteforce.security_result.detection_fields["threatSuspected"] = "true", 30) +
        // Unauthorized target geographies
        if($bruteforce.principal.ip_geo_artifact.location.country_or_region = "Cuba", 20) +
        if($bruteforce.principal.ip_geo_artifact.location.country_or_region = "Iran", 20) +
        if($bruteforce.principal.ip_geo_artifact.location.country_or_region = "North Korea", 20) +
        if($bruteforce.principal.ip_geo_artifact.location.country_or_region = "Russia", 20) +
        if($bruteforce.principal.ip_geo_artifact.location.country_or_region = "Syria", 20)
    )
    $mitre_attack_tactic = "Credential Access"
    $mitre_attack_technique = "Brute Force: Password Guessing"
    $target_user_agent = array_distinct($bruteforce.network.http.user_agent)
    $principal_ip = array_distinct($bruteforce.principal.ip)
    $principal_ip_country = array_distinct($bruteforce.principal.ip_geo_artifact.location.country_or_region)
    $principal_ip_state = array_distinct($bruteforce.principal.ip_geo_artifact.location.state)
    $principal_ip_city = array_distinct($bruteforce.principal.location.city)
    $security_result_summary = array_distinct($bruteforce.security_result.summary)

  condition:
    $bruteforce
}

Detection logic

Fires when at least one $bruteforce event in the 1h window.

Events

`$bruteforce` `USER_UNCATEGORIZED`

metadata.product_event_type = "security.threat.detected"
security_result.category_details = "Login Failures"

Correlation

Match key: $userid (principal.user.userid)
Within: 1h

Outcome

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

Field	Expression
`risk_score`	max( 35 + if($bruteforce.security_result.detection_fields["threatSuspected"] = "true", 30) + if($bruteforce.principal.ip_geo_artifact.location.country_or_region = "Cuba", 20) + if($bruteforce.principal.ip_geo_artifact.location.country_or_region = "Iran", 20) + if($bruteforce.principal.ip_geo_artifact.location.country_or_region = "North Korea", 20) + if($bruteforce.principal.ip_geo_artifact.location.country_or_region = "Russia", 20) + if($bruteforce.principal.ip_geo_artifact.location.country_or_region = "Syria", 20) )
`target_user_agent`	`array_distinct($bruteforce.network.http.user_agent)`
`principal_ip`	`array_distinct($bruteforce.principal.ip)`
`principal_ip_country`	`array_distinct($bruteforce.principal.ip_geo_artifact.location.country_or_region)`
`principal_ip_state`	`array_distinct($bruteforce.principal.ip_geo_artifact.location.state)`
`principal_ip_city`	`array_distinct($bruteforce.principal.location.city)`
`security_result_summary`	`array_distinct($bruteforce.security_result.summary)`

`j` / `k`	Scroll down / up
`d` / `u`	Half-page down / up
`gg` / `G`	Top / bottom
`h` / `l`	History back / forward
`f`	Follow link (`Shift` = new tab)
`/`	Focus search
`?`	Toggle this help
`↑` / `↓`	Navigate search results
`Enter`	Open highlighted result
`Esc`	Close results / dialog

`type:`	`events` / `rules` / `providers`
`vendor:`	`sigma` / `elastic` / `splunk` / `kusto` / `chronicle` (vendor name alone also works: `sigma:`, `kql:`, `secops:`…)
`tactic:`	TA-id, slug, or name: `credential_access`, `TA0006`
`technique:`	technique or sub-technique ID: `T1003`, `T1003.001` (alias `tech:`)
`severity:`	`critical` / `high` / `medium` / `low` / `informational` (alias `sev:`)
`risk_score`	Numeric comparison on the Elastic risk score (0 to 100): `risk_score>50`, `risk_score<=20`, `risk_score=99` (alias `risk`; Elastic rules only)
`stages:`	Rules with exactly N pipeline stages
`correlation:`	`single_event` / `sequence` / `alternatives` / `alternatives_cross_log` / `all_required` / `correlated`
`with:`	Co-occurrence event-id; stacks (`with:4624 with:4769`) to require all, while a comma list in one occurrence (`with:4624,4769`) is an either-or group. Implies multi-event
`like:`	Structural neighbors of a rule slug (equivalents + subsumption stricter / broader): `like:comsvcs_lsass_memory_dump-splunk-sysmon`
`groupby:`	Entity-grouping substring match against `group_by_keys`: `groupby:user`, `groupby:host`
`uses:`	Rules whose predicate tree touches the field (any kind, any value): `uses:CommandLine`
`excludes:`	Rules with top-level `not()` clauses on the field (FP whitelists): `excludes:ParentImage`
`field:` / `value:`	Predicate search; narrows rule cards to those with a matching leaf and drives the indicator tier. Unquoted = substring, wildcards allowed (`value:mimikatz`)
`indicator:`	Shorthand for `field:F value:V`: `indicator:Image=*\powershell.exe`
`kind:`	Filter by predicate kind. Narrows rule cards to those carrying a matching predicate leaf (`vendor:elastic kind:cidr_match`) and drives the indicator tier: `contains` / `starts_with` / `ends_with` / `regex` / `cidr` / `eq` / `in` … (operator aliases `op:`/`match:`)
`has:` / `no:`	`sample`, `field`, `notes`, `refs`, `trace`, `thirdparty`, `rule`, `pattern`, `timewindow`, `threshold`, `newterms`, `sigma`/`elastic`/`splunk`/`kusto`/`chronicle`
`-op:val`	Exclude matches; works on most operators but not `type:`/`like:`/`has:`/`no:` (use `no:<flag>` to exclude a rule flag): `tactic:execution -vendor:splunk`. Standalone `-kind:`/`-field:`/`-value:` drop every rule carrying a matching predicate leaf (`type:rules -kind:is_null`)
`field:"…"` / `value:"…"`	Quoted value = anchored exact match (also allows spaces): `value:"net user"`
`a,b`	Comma = OR inside one operator (`vendor:sigma,elastic`, `severity:high,critical`); repeating a facet merges the same way. `field:`/`value:` never split (literal commas)
`vendors:` / `stage:`	Singular and plural spellings fold to the canonical operator and value: `tactics:` = `tactic:`, `type:event` = `type:events`, `correlation:sequences` = `correlation:sequence`, `has:thresholds` = `has:threshold`
`"quoted phrase"`	Exact-match a multi-word phrase (free text)

Okta ThreatInsight Suspected Bruteforce Attack

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

References

Event coverage

Rules detecting the same action

Rule body yaral

Detection logic

Events

`$bruteforce` `USER_UNCATEGORIZED`

Correlation

Outcome

Keyboard shortcuts

Search operators

Okta ThreatInsight Suspected Bruteforce Attack

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

References

Event coverage

Rules detecting the same action

Rule body yaral

Detection logic

Events

$bruteforce USER_UNCATEGORIZED

Correlation

Outcome

`$bruteforce` `USER_UNCATEGORIZED`