MFA Disabled

Severity: high
Log types: Atlassian.Audit, GitHub.Audit, Zendesk.Audit, Okta.SystemLog
Tags: DataModel, Defense Evasion:Modify Authentication Process
Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-factor_authentication
Source: github.com/panther-labs/panther-analysis

Detects when Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is disabled

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Persistence	`T1556` Modify Authentication Process
Defense Impairment	`T1556` Modify Authentication Process
Credential Access	`T1556` Modify Authentication Process

Rule body yaml

AnalysisType: rule
Filename: mfa_disabled.py
RuleID: "Standard.MFADisabled"
DedupPeriodMinutes: 60
DisplayName: "MFA Disabled"
Enabled: true
LogTypes:
  - Atlassian.Audit
  - GitHub.Audit
  - Zendesk.Audit
  - Okta.SystemLog
Tags:
  - DataModel
  - Defense Evasion:Modify Authentication Process
Reports:
  MITRE ATT&CK:
    - TA0005:T1556
Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-factor_authentication
Severity: High
Description: Detects when Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is disabled
SummaryAttributes:
  - p_any_ip_addresses
Tests:
  - Name: GitHub - Org MFA Disabled
    ExpectedResult: true
    Log:
      {
        "actor": "cat",
        "action": "org.disable_two_factor_requirement",
        "created_at": 1621305118553,
        "org": "my-org",
        "p_log_type": "GitHub.Audit",
        "repository": "my-org/my-repo",
      }
  - Name: GitHub - Org MFA Enabled
    ExpectedResult: False
    Log:
      {
        "actor": "cat",
        "action": "org.enable_two_factor_requirement",
        "created_at": 1621305118553,
        "org": "my-org",
        "p_log_type": "GitHub.Audit",
        "repository": "my-org/my-repo",
      }
  - Name: Zendesk - Two-factor disabled
    ExpectedResult: true
    Log:
      {
        "url": "https://myzendek.zendesk.com/api/v2/audit_logs/111222333444.json",
        "id": 123456789123,
        "action_label": "Updated",
        "actor_id": 123,
        "source_id": 123,
        "source_type": "account_setting",
        "source_label": "Two-Factor authentication for all admins and agents",
        "action": "create",
        "change_description": "Disabled",
        "ip_address": "127.0.0.1",
        "created_at": "2021-05-28T18:39:50Z",
        "p_log_type": "Zendesk.Audit",
      }
  - Name: Zendesk - Alternate Two-factor disabled
    ExpectedResult: true
    Log:
      {
        "url": "https://myzendek.zendesk.com/api/v2/audit_logs/111222333444.json",
        "id": 123456789123,
        "action_label": "Updated",
        "actor_id": 123,
        "source_id": 123,
        "source_type": "account_setting",
        "source_label": "Require Two Factor",
        "action": "update",
        "change_description": "Disabled",
        "ip_address": "127.0.0.1",
        "created_at": "2021-05-28T18:39:50Z",
        "p_log_type": "Zendesk.Audit",
      }
  - Name: Zendesk - Two-factor Enabled
    ExpectedResult: false
    Log:
      {
        "url": "https://myzendek.zendesk.com/api/v2/audit_logs/111222333444.json",
        "id": 123456789123,
        "action_label": "Updated",
        "actor_id": 123,
        "source_id": 123,
        "source_type": "account_setting",
        "source_label": "Require Two Factor",
        "action": "create",
        "change_description": "Enabled",
        "ip_address": "127.0.0.1",
        "created_at": "2021-05-28T18:39:50Z",
        "p_log_type": "Zendesk.Audit",
      }
  - Name: Okta - User resets own MFA ( INFO severity detection for this in Okta rules )
    ExpectedResult: false
    Log:
      {
        "eventtype": "user.mfa.factor.deactivate",
        "version": "0",
        "severity": "INFO",
        "displaymessage": "Reset factor for user",
        "actor":
          {
            "alternateId": "homer@springfield.gov",
            "displayName": "Homer Simpson",
            "id": "11111111111",
            "type": "User",
          },
        "client":
          {
            "device": "Computer",
            "ipAddress": "1.1.1.1",
            "userAgent":
              {
                "browser": "CHROME",
                "os": "Mac OS X",
                "rawUserAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/96.0.4664.55 Safari/537.36",
              },
            "zone": "null",
          },
        "outcome":
          { "reason": "User reset FIDO_WEBAUTHN factor", "result": "SUCCESS" },
        "target":
          [
            {
              "alternateId": "homer@springfield.gov",
              "displayName": "Homer Simpson",
              "id": "1111111",
              "type": "User",
            },
          ],
        "authenticationcontext":
          { "authenticationStep": 0, "externalSessionId": "1111111" },
        "p_log_type": "Okta.SystemLog",
      }
  - Name: Okta - User disables MFA
    ExpectedResult: true
    Log:
      {
        "eventtype": "user.mfa.factor.deactivate",
        "version": "0",
        "severity": "INFO",
        "displaymessage": "Reset factor for user",
        "actor":
          {
            "alternateId": "homer@springfield.gov",
            "displayName": "Homer Simpson",
            "id": "11111111111",
            "type": "User",
          },
        "client":
          {
            "device": "Computer",
            "ipAddress": "1.1.1.1",
            "userAgent":
              {
                "browser": "CHROME",
                "os": "Mac OS X",
                "rawUserAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/96.0.4664.55 Safari/537.36",
              },
            "zone": "null",
          },
        "outcome": { "result": "SUCCESS" },
        "target":
          [
            {
              "alternateId": "homer@springfield.gov",
              "displayName": "Homer Simpson",
              "id": "1111111",
              "type": "User",
            },
          ],
        "authenticationcontext":
          { "authenticationStep": 0, "externalSessionId": "1111111" },
        "p_log_type": "Okta.SystemLog",
      }

  - Name: Okta - MFA Enabled
    ExpectedResult: false
    Log:
      {
        "eventtype": "user.mfa.factor.update",
        "version": "0",
        "severity": "INFO",
        "displaymessage": "Update factor for user",
        "actor":
          {
            "alternateId": "homer@springfield.gov",
            "displayName": "Homer Simpson",
            "id": "11111111111",
            "type": "User",
          },
        "client":
          {
            "device": "Computer",
            "ipAddress": "1.1.1.1",
            "userAgent":
              {
                "browser": "CHROME",
                "os": "Mac OS X",
                "rawUserAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/96.0.4664.55 Safari/537.36",
              },
            "zone": "null",
          },
        "outcome":
          { "reason": "User reset FIDO_WEBAUTHN factor", "result": "SUCCESS" },
        "target":
          [
            {
              "alternateId": "homer@springfield.gov",
              "displayName": "Homer Simpson",
              "id": "1111111",
              "type": "User",
            },
          ],
        "authenticationcontext":
          { "authenticationStep": 0, "externalSessionId": "1111111" },
        "p_log_type": "Okta.SystemLog",
      }

Detection logic

Condition

event_type eq "mfa_disabled"

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
`event_type`	eq	`mfa_disabled`

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
`p_log_type`
`actor_user`

`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)