User impersonation by Identity Protection alerts

Severity: medium
Time window: 1d
Group by: AlertName, AlertSeverity, AlertTime, ProductName, SourceIpAddress, ipAddress
Source: github.com/Azure/Azure-Sentinel

'This detection focuses on identifying user-related events involving IAM roles, groups, user access, and password changes. It examines instances where the user's IP address matches and alerts generated by Identity Protection share the same IP address. The analysis occurs within a time window of 1 hour, helping to flag potential cases of user impersonation.'

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Privilege Escalation	`T1134` Access Token Manipulation

Rules detecting the same action

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

ASL AWS Create Access Key (Splunk)
ASL AWS IAM Failure Group Deletion (Splunk)
ASL AWS IAM Successful Group Deletion (Splunk)
ASL AWS New MFA Method Registered For User (Splunk)
AWS CreateAccessKey (Splunk)
AWS Lateral Movement from Kubernetes SA via AssumeRoleWithWebIdentity (Elastic)
AWS New MFA Method Registered For User (Splunk)
AWSCloudTrail - Creation of Access Key for IAM User (Kusto)

Rule body kusto

id: 11c3d541-5fa5-49df-8218-d1c98584473b
name: User impersonation by Identity Protection alerts
description: |
  'This detection focuses on identifying user-related events involving IAM roles, groups, user access, and password changes. It examines instances where the user's IP address matches and alerts generated by Identity Protection share the same IP address. The analysis occurs within a time window of 1 hour, helping to flag potential cases of user impersonation.'
severity: Medium
requiredDataConnectors:
  - connectorId: AWS
    dataTypes:
      - AWSCloudTrail
  - connectorId: AzureActiveDirectoryIdentityProtection
    dataTypes:
      - SecurityAlert (IPC)
queryFrequency: 1d
queryPeriod: 1d
triggerOperator: gt
triggerThreshold: 0
tactics:
  - PrivilegeEscalation
relevantTechniques:
  - T1134
query: |
 // Retrieve SecurityAlerts generated within the last day
  SecurityAlert 
  // Filter alerts for Azure Active Directory Identity Protection and High severity
  | where ProductName has "Azure Active Directory Identity Protection"
  | where AlertSeverity == "High"
  // Extract IP address entities from the 'Entities' field
  | extend ipAddress = extract(@'\b(?:\d{1,3}\.){3}\d{1,3}\b', 0, Entities)
  // Filter out alerts without IP address entities
  | where isnotempty(ipAddress)
  // Summarize entities per unique combination of attributes
  | summarize make_set(Entities)
      by
      AlertTime = TimeGenerated,
      ipAddress,
      AlertName,
      ProductName,
      AlertSeverity
  // Perform an inner join with AWS CloudTrail events
  | join kind=inner (
      AWSCloudTrail
      | where isempty(ErrorMessage)
      | extend UserType = tostring(parse_json(RequestParameters).userType) 
      | where EventName in~ ("CreateRole", "DeleteRole", "CreateUser", "CreateAccessKey", "DeleteAccessKey", "CreateGroup", "AddUserToGroup", "ChangePassword", "DeleteGroup", "DeleteUser", "RemoveUserFromGroup", "CreateVirtualMFADevice", "DeleteLoginProfile") 
      | summarize
          make_set(RequestParameters),
          make_set(ResponseElements)
          by
          SourceIpAddress,
          UserIdentityArn,
          UserIdentityType,
          EventName,
          EventTime = TimeGenerated
      )
      on $left.ipAddress == $right.SourceIpAddress  
  // Filter results based on temporal correlation
  | where AlertTime between ((EventTime - 1h) .. (EventTime + 1h))
entityMappings:
  - entityType: IP
    fieldMappings:
      - identifier: Address
        columnName: SourceIpAddress
customDetails:
   AWSUser: UserIdentityArn
   AlertIp : ipAddress
   AlertName: AlertName
kind: Scheduled
version: 1.0.0

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: `source`

SecurityAlert

Stage 2: `where`

| where ProductName has "Azure Active Directory Identity Protection"

Stage 3: `where`

| where AlertSeverity == "High"

Stage 4: `extend`

| extend ipAddress = extract(@'\b(?:\d{1,3}\.){3}\d{1,3}\b', 0, Entities)

Stage 5: `where`

| where isnotempty(ipAddress)

Stage 6: `summarize`

| summarize make_set(Entities)
     by
     AlertTime = TimeGenerated,
     ipAddress,
     AlertName,
     ProductName,
     AlertSeverity

Stage 7: `join`

| join kind=inner (
     AWSCloudTrail
     | where isempty(ErrorMessage)
     | extend UserType = tostring(parse_json(RequestParameters).userType) 
     | where EventName in~ ("CreateRole", "DeleteRole", "CreateUser", "CreateAccessKey", "DeleteAccessKey", "CreateGroup", "AddUserToGroup", "ChangePassword", "DeleteGroup", "DeleteUser", "RemoveUserFromGroup", "CreateVirtualMFADevice", "DeleteLoginProfile") 
     | summarize
         make_set(RequestParameters),
         make_set(ResponseElements)
         by
         SourceIpAddress,
         UserIdentityArn,
         UserIdentityType,
         EventName,
         EventTime = TimeGenerated
     )
     on $left.ipAddress == $right.SourceIpAddress

Stage 8: `where`

| where AlertTime between ((EventTime - 1h) .. (EventTime + 1h))

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
`AlertSeverity`	eq	`High` transforms: `cased`
`ErrorMessage`	is_null	(no value, null check)
`EventName`	in	`AddUserToGroup` `ChangePassword` `CreateAccessKey` `CreateGroup` `CreateRole` `CreateUser` `CreateVirtualMFADevice` `DeleteAccessKey` `DeleteGroup` `DeleteLoginProfile` `DeleteRole` `DeleteUser` `RemoveUserFromGroup`
`ProductName`	match	`Azure Active Directory Identity Protection` transforms: `term`
`ipAddress`	is_not_null	(no value, null check)

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
`AlertName`	`summarize`
`AlertSeverity`	`summarize`
`AlertTime`	`summarize`
`ProductName`	`summarize`
`ipAddress`	`summarize`

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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)

User impersonation by Identity Protection alerts

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Rules detecting the same action

Rule body kusto

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: `source`

Stage 2: `where`

Stage 3: `where`

Stage 4: `extend`

Stage 5: `where`

Stage 6: `summarize`

Stage 7: `join`

Stage 8: `where`

Indicators

Output fields

Keyboard shortcuts

Search operators

User impersonation by Identity Protection alerts

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Rules detecting the same action

Rule body kusto

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: source

Stage 2: where

Stage 3: where

Stage 4: extend

Stage 5: where

Stage 6: summarize

Stage 7: join

Stage 8: where

Indicators

Output fields

Stage 1: `source`

Stage 2: `where`

Stage 3: `where`

Stage 4: `extend`

Stage 5: `where`

Stage 6: `summarize`

Stage 7: `join`

Stage 8: `where`