Detection rules › Kusto

First access credential added to Application or Service Principal where no credential was present

Status
available
Severity
high
Time window
1h
Source
github.com/Azure/Azure-Sentinel

This will alert when an admin or app owner account adds a new credential to an Application or Service Principal where there was no previous verify KeyCredential associated. If a threat actor obtains access to an account with sufficient privileges and adds the alternate authentication material triggering this event, the threat actor can now authenticate as the Application or Service Principal using this credential. Additional information on OAuth Credential Grants can be found in RFC 6749 Section 4.4 or https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/active-directory/develop/v2-oauth2-client-creds-grant-flow For further information on AuditLogs please see https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/active-directory/reports-monitoring/reference-audit-activities.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Event coverage

Rule body kusto

id: 2cfc3c6e-f424-4b88-9cc9-c89f482d016a
name: First access credential added to Application or Service Principal where no credential was present
description: |
  'This will alert when an admin or app owner account adds a new credential to an Application or Service Principal where there was no previous verify KeyCredential associated.
  If a threat actor obtains access to an account with sufficient privileges and adds the alternate authentication material triggering this event, the threat actor can now authenticate as the Application or Service Principal using this credential.
  Additional information on OAuth Credential Grants can be found in RFC 6749 Section 4.4 or https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/active-directory/develop/v2-oauth2-client-creds-grant-flow
  For further information on AuditLogs please see https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/active-directory/reports-monitoring/reference-audit-activities.'
severity: High
requiredDataConnectors:
  - connectorId: AzureActiveDirectory
    dataTypes:
      - AuditLogs
queryFrequency: 1h
queryPeriod: 1h
triggerOperator: gt
triggerThreshold: 0
status: Available
tactics:
  - DefenseEvasion
relevantTechniques:
  - T1550.001
tags:
  - Solorigate
  - NOBELIUM
query: |
  AuditLogs
  | where OperationName has ("Certificates and secrets management")
  | where Result =~ "success"
  | where tostring(InitiatedBy.user.userPrincipalName) has "@" or tostring(InitiatedBy.app.displayName) has "@"
  | mv-apply TargetResource = TargetResources on 
    (
        where TargetResource.type =~ "Application"
        | extend targetDisplayName = tostring(TargetResource.displayName),
                 targetId = tostring(TargetResource.id),
                 targetType = tostring(TargetResource.type),
                 keyEvents = TargetResource.modifiedProperties
    )
  | mv-apply Property = keyEvents on 
    (
        where Property.displayName =~ "KeyDescription"
        | extend new_value_set = parse_json(tostring(Property.newValue)),
                 old_value_set = parse_json(tostring(Property.oldValue))
    )
  | where old_value_set == "[]"
  | mv-expand new_value_set
  | parse new_value_set with * "KeyIdentifier=" keyIdentifier:string ",KeyType=" keyType:string ",KeyUsage=" keyUsage:string ",DisplayName=" keyDisplayName:string "]" *
  | where keyUsage =~ "Verify"
  | mv-apply AdditionalDetail = AdditionalDetails on 
    (
        where AdditionalDetail.key =~ "User-Agent"
        | extend InitiatingUserAgent = tostring(AdditionalDetail.value)
    )
  | project-away new_value_set, old_value_set, TargetResource, Property, AdditionalDetail
  | extend InitiatingAppName = tostring(InitiatedBy.app.displayName)
  | extend InitiatingAppServicePrincipalId = tostring(InitiatedBy.app.servicePrincipalId)
  | extend InitiatingUserPrincipalName = tostring(InitiatedBy.user.userPrincipalName)
  | extend InitiatingAadUserId = tostring(InitiatedBy.user.id)
  | extend InitiatingIpAddress = tostring(iff(isnotempty(InitiatedBy.user.ipAddress), InitiatedBy.user.ipAddress, InitiatedBy.app.ipAddress))
  | project-reorder TimeGenerated, OperationName, InitiatingUserPrincipalName, InitiatingAadUserId, InitiatingAppName, InitiatingAppServicePrincipalId, InitiatingIpAddress, InitiatingUserAgent, 
  targetDisplayName, targetId, targetType, keyDisplayName, keyType, keyUsage, keyIdentifier, CorrelationId, TenantId
  | extend Name = split(InitiatingUserPrincipalName, "@")[0], UPNSuffix = split(InitiatingUserPrincipalName, "@")[1]
entityMappings:
  - entityType: Account
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: FullName
        columnName: InitiatingUserPrincipalName
      - identifier: Name
        columnName: Name
      - identifier: UPNSuffix
        columnName: UPNSuffix
  - entityType: Account
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: AadUserId
        columnName: InitiatingAadUserId
  - entityType: Account
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: AadUserId
        columnName: InitiatingAppServicePrincipalId
  - entityType: IP
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: Address
        columnName: InitiatingIpAddress
  - entityType: CloudApplication
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: Name
        columnName: targetDisplayName
version: 1.1.5
kind: Scheduled

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: source

AuditLogs

Stage 2: where

| where OperationName has ("Certificates and secrets management")

Stage 3: where

| where Result =~ "success"

Stage 4: where

| where tostring(InitiatedBy.user.userPrincipalName) has "@" or tostring(InitiatedBy.app.displayName) has "@"

Stage 5: kusto:mv-apply

| mv-apply TargetResource = TargetResources on 
  (
      where TargetResource.type =~ "Application"
      | extend targetDisplayName = tostring(TargetResource.displayName),
               targetId = tostring(TargetResource.id),
               targetType = tostring(TargetResource.type),
               keyEvents = TargetResource.modifiedProperties
  )

Stage 6: kusto:mv-apply

| mv-apply Property = keyEvents on 
  (
      where Property.displayName =~ "KeyDescription"
      | extend new_value_set = parse_json(tostring(Property.newValue)),
               old_value_set = parse_json(tostring(Property.oldValue))
  )

Stage 7: where

| where old_value_set == "[]"

Stage 8: mv-expand

| mv-expand new_value_set

Stage 9: parse

| parse new_value_set with * "KeyIdentifier=" keyIdentifier:string ",KeyType=" keyType:string ",KeyUsage=" keyUsage:string ",DisplayName=" keyDisplayName:string "]" *

Stage 10: where

| where keyUsage =~ "Verify"

Stage 11: kusto:mv-apply

| mv-apply AdditionalDetail = AdditionalDetails on 
  (
      where AdditionalDetail.key =~ "User-Agent"
      | extend InitiatingUserAgent = tostring(AdditionalDetail.value)
  )

Stage 12: project-away

| project-away new_value_set, old_value_set, TargetResource, Property, AdditionalDetail

Stage 13: extend (5 consecutive steps)

| extend InitiatingAppName = tostring(InitiatedBy.app.displayName)
| extend InitiatingAppServicePrincipalId = tostring(InitiatedBy.app.servicePrincipalId)
| extend InitiatingUserPrincipalName = tostring(InitiatedBy.user.userPrincipalName)
| extend InitiatingAadUserId = tostring(InitiatedBy.user.id)
| extend InitiatingIpAddress = tostring(iff(isnotempty(InitiatedBy.user.ipAddress), InitiatedBy.user.ipAddress, InitiatedBy.app.ipAddress))

Stage 14: project-reorder

| project-reorder TimeGenerated, OperationName, InitiatingUserPrincipalName, InitiatingAadUserId, InitiatingAppName, InitiatingAppServicePrincipalId, InitiatingIpAddress, InitiatingUserAgent, 
targetDisplayName, targetId, targetType, keyDisplayName, keyType, keyUsage, keyIdentifier, CorrelationId, TenantId

Stage 15: extend

| extend Name = split(InitiatingUserPrincipalName, "@")[0], UPNSuffix = split(InitiatingUserPrincipalName, "@")[1]

Indicators

Each row is a field, operator, and value that the rule matches. The corpus column counts how many other rules in the catalog look for the same combination: high numbers point to widely-used, community-vetted indicators. Blank or 1 shows that the indicator is specific to this rule.

FieldKindValues
OperationNamematch
  • Certificates and secrets management transforms: term
Resulteq
  • success
displayNameeq
  • KeyDescription
displayNamematch
  • @ transforms: tostring, term
keyeq
  • User-Agent
keyUsageeq
  • Verify
old_value_seteq
  • [] transforms: cased
typeeq
  • Application
userPrincipalNamematch
  • @ transforms: tostring, term

Output fields

Fields the rule emits when it matches. Chronicle authors list these in the outcome block; they appear on the detection and $risk_score drives alerting. Sentinel / Defender XDR rules build them up through project / summarize / extend stages. Sentinel maps these into alert fields via entityMappings and customDetails; Defender XDR custom detections surface them as alert fields directly.

FieldSource
InitiatingAppNameextend
InitiatingAppServicePrincipalIdextend
InitiatingUserPrincipalNameextend
InitiatingAadUserIdextend
InitiatingIpAddressextend
Nameextend
UPNSuffixextend