Guest Users Invited to Tenant by New Inviters

Severity: medium
Time window: 14d
Author: Microsoft Security Research
Source: github.com/Azure/Azure-Sentinel

Detects when a Guest User is added by a user account that has not been seen adding a guest in the previous 14 days. Monitoring guest accounts and the access they are provided is important to detect potential account abuse. Accounts added should be investigated to ensure the activity was legitimate. Ref: https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/active-directory/fundamentals/security-operations-user-accounts#monitoring-for-failed-unusual-sign-ins

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Persistence	`T1078.004` Valid Accounts: Cloud Accounts

Event coverage

Provider	Event
Entra-AuditLogs	Invite external user

Rule body kusto

id: 572e75ef-5147-49d9-9d65-13f2ed1e3a86
name: Guest Users Invited to Tenant by New Inviters
description: |
  'Detects when a Guest User is added by a user account that has not been seen adding a guest in the previous 14 days.
    Monitoring guest accounts and the access they are provided is important to detect potential account abuse.
    Accounts added should be investigated to ensure the activity was legitimate.
    Ref: https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/active-directory/fundamentals/security-operations-user-accounts#monitoring-for-failed-unusual-sign-ins'
severity: Medium
requiredDataConnectors:
  - connectorId: AzureActiveDirectory
    dataTypes:
      - AuditLogs
queryFrequency: 1d
queryPeriod: 14d
triggerOperator: gt
triggerThreshold: 0
tactics:
  - Persistence
relevantTechniques:
  - T1078.004
tags:
  - AADSecOpsGuide
query: |
  let inviting_users = (AuditLogs
    | where TimeGenerated between(ago(14d)..ago(1d))
    | where OperationName =~ "Invite external user"
    | where Result =~ "success"
    | extend InitiatingUserPrincipalName = tostring(parse_json(tostring(InitiatedBy.user)).userPrincipalName)
    | where isnotempty(InitiatingUserPrincipalName)
    | summarize by InitiatingUserPrincipalName);
    AuditLogs
    | where TimeGenerated > ago(1d)
    | where OperationName =~ "Invite external user"
    | where Result =~ "success"
    | extend InitiatingUserPrincipalName = tostring(parse_json(tostring(InitiatedBy.user)).userPrincipalName)
    | extend InitiatingAadUserId = tostring(InitiatedBy.user.id)
    | extend InitiatingIPAddress = tostring(InitiatedBy.user.ipAddress)
    | where isnotempty(InitiatingUserPrincipalName) and InitiatingUserPrincipalName !in (inviting_users)
    | extend TargetUserPrincipalName = tostring(TargetResources[0].userPrincipalName)
    | extend TargetAadUserId = tostring(TargetResources[0].id)
    | extend invitingUser = InitiatingUserPrincipalName, invitedUserPrincipalName = TargetUserPrincipalName
    | extend InitiatingAccountName = tostring(split(InitiatingUserPrincipalName, "@")[0]), InitiatingAccountUPNSuffix = tostring(split(InitiatingUserPrincipalName, "@")[1])
    | extend TargetAccountName = tostring(split(TargetUserPrincipalName, "@")[0]), TargetAccountUPNSuffix = tostring(split(TargetUserPrincipalName, "@")[1])
    | project-reorder TimeGenerated, OperationName, Result, TargetUserPrincipalName, TargetAadUserId, InitiatingUserPrincipalName, InitiatingAadUserId, InitiatingIPAddress
entityMappings:
  - entityType: Account
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: FullName
        columnName: InitiatingUserPrincipalName
      - identifier: Name
        columnName: InitiatingAccountName
      - identifier: UPNSuffix
        columnName: InitiatingAccountUPNSuffix
  - entityType: Account
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: FullName
        columnName: TargetUserPrincipalName
      - identifier: Name
        columnName: TargetAccountName
      - identifier: UPNSuffix
        columnName: TargetAccountUPNSuffix
  - entityType: Account
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: AadUserId
        columnName: InitiatingAadUserId
  - entityType: Account
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: AadUserId
        columnName: TargetAadUserId
  - entityType: IP
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: Address
        columnName: InitiatingIPAddress
version: 1.1.1
kind: Scheduled
metadata:
    source:
        kind: Community
    author:
        name: Microsoft Security Research
    support:
        tier: Community
    categories:
        domains: [ "Security - Others", "Identity" ]

Stages and Predicates

Let binding: `inviting_users`

let inviting_users = (AuditLogs
  | where TimeGenerated between(ago(14d)..ago(1d))
  | where OperationName =~ "Invite external user"
  | where Result =~ "success"
  | extend InitiatingUserPrincipalName = tostring(parse_json(tostring(InitiatedBy.user)).userPrincipalName)
  | where isnotempty(InitiatingUserPrincipalName)
  | summarize by InitiatingUserPrincipalName);

Stage 1: `source`

AuditLogs

Stage 2: `where`

| where TimeGenerated > ago(1d)

Stage 3: `where`

| where OperationName =~ "Invite external user"

Stage 4: `where`

| where Result =~ "success"

Stage 5: `extend` (3 consecutive steps)

| extend InitiatingUserPrincipalName = tostring(parse_json(tostring(InitiatedBy.user)).userPrincipalName)
| extend InitiatingAadUserId = tostring(InitiatedBy.user.id)
| extend InitiatingIPAddress = tostring(InitiatedBy.user.ipAddress)

Stage 6: `where`

| where isnotempty(InitiatingUserPrincipalName) and InitiatingUserPrincipalName !in (inviting_users)

References inviting_users (defined above).

Stage 7: `extend` (5 consecutive steps)

| extend TargetUserPrincipalName = tostring(TargetResources[0].userPrincipalName)
| extend TargetAadUserId = tostring(TargetResources[0].id)
| extend invitingUser = InitiatingUserPrincipalName, invitedUserPrincipalName = TargetUserPrincipalName
| extend InitiatingAccountName = tostring(split(InitiatingUserPrincipalName, "@")[0]), InitiatingAccountUPNSuffix = tostring(split(InitiatingUserPrincipalName, "@")[1])
| extend TargetAccountName = tostring(split(TargetUserPrincipalName, "@")[0]), TargetAccountUPNSuffix = tostring(split(TargetUserPrincipalName, "@")[1])

Stage 8: `project-reorder`

| project-reorder TimeGenerated, OperationName, Result, TargetUserPrincipalName, TargetAadUserId, InitiatingUserPrincipalName, InitiatingAadUserId, InitiatingIPAddress

Exclusions

Top-level NOT(...) conjuncts: predicates this rule actively suppresses.

Field	Kind	Excluded values
`InitiatingUserPrincipalName`	eq	`inviting_users`

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.

Field	Kind	Values
`InitiatingUserPrincipalName`	is_not_null	(no value, null check)
`OperationName`	eq	`Invite external user`
`Result`	eq	`success`

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.

Field	Source
`InitiatingUserPrincipalName`	`extend`
`InitiatingAadUserId`	`extend`
`InitiatingIPAddress`	`extend`
`TargetUserPrincipalName`	`extend`
`TargetAadUserId`	`extend`
`invitedUserPrincipalName`	`extend`
`invitingUser`	`extend`
`InitiatingAccountName`	`extend`
`InitiatingAccountUPNSuffix`	`extend`
`TargetAccountName`	`extend`
`TargetAccountUPNSuffix`	`extend`

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`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)

Guest Users Invited to Tenant by New Inviters

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Event coverage

Rule body kusto

Stages and Predicates

Let binding: `inviting_users`

Stage 1: `source`

Stage 2: `where`

Stage 3: `where`

Stage 4: `where`

Stage 5: `extend` (3 consecutive steps)

Stage 6: `where`

Stage 7: `extend` (5 consecutive steps)

Stage 8: `project-reorder`

Exclusions

Indicators

Output fields

Keyboard shortcuts

Search operators

Guest Users Invited to Tenant by New Inviters

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Event coverage

Rule body kusto

Stages and Predicates

Let binding: inviting_users

Stage 1: source

Stage 2: where

Stage 3: where

Stage 4: where

Stage 5: extend (3 consecutive steps)

Stage 6: where

Stage 7: extend (5 consecutive steps)

Stage 8: project-reorder

Exclusions

Indicators

Output fields

Let binding: `inviting_users`

Stage 1: `source`

Stage 2: `where`

Stage 3: `where`

Stage 4: `where`

Stage 5: `extend` (3 consecutive steps)

Stage 6: `where`

Stage 7: `extend` (5 consecutive steps)

Stage 8: `project-reorder`