Detection rules › Splunk

O365 User Consent Blocked for Risky Application

Status
production
Severity
medium
Group by
Scope, aws::recipientAccountId, dest, object, reason, signature, src, user, vendor_product
Author
Mauricio Velazco, Splunk
Source
github.com/splunk/security_content

The following analytic identifies instances where Office 365 has blocked a user's attempt to grant consent to an application deemed risky or potentially malicious. This detection leverages O365 audit logs, specifically focusing on failed user consent actions due to system-driven blocks. Monitoring these blocked consent attempts is crucial as it highlights potential threats early on, indicating that a user might be targeted or that malicious applications are attempting to infiltrate the organization. If confirmed malicious, this activity suggests that O365's security measures successfully prevented a harmful application from accessing organizational data, warranting immediate investigation.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

TacticTechniques
Credential AccessT1528 Steal Application Access Token

Rules detecting the same action

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

Rule body splunk

name: O365 User Consent Blocked for Risky Application
id: 242e4d30-cb59-4051-b0cf-58895e218f40
version: 9
creation_date: '2023-12-06'
modification_date: '2026-05-13'
author: Mauricio Velazco, Splunk
status: production
type: TTP
description: The following analytic identifies instances where Office 365 has blocked a user's attempt to grant consent to an application deemed risky or potentially malicious. This detection leverages O365 audit logs, specifically focusing on failed user consent actions due to system-driven blocks. Monitoring these blocked consent attempts is crucial as it highlights potential threats early on, indicating that a user might be targeted or that malicious applications are attempting to infiltrate the organization. If confirmed malicious, this activity suggests that O365's security measures successfully prevented a harmful application from accessing organizational data, warranting immediate investigation.
data_source:
    - O365 Consent to application.
search: "`o365_management_activity` Workload=AzureActiveDirectory Operation=\"Consent to application.\" ResultStatus=Failure | eval permissions =mvindex('ModifiedProperties{}.NewValue', 4) | eval reason =mvindex('ModifiedProperties{}.NewValue', 5) | search reason = \"Risky application detected\" | rex field=permissions \"Scope: (?<Scope>[^,]+)\" | fillnull | stats max(_time) as lastTime by user, reason, object, Scope, dest, src, vendor_account, vendor_product, signature | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` | `o365_user_consent_blocked_for_risky_application_filter`"
how_to_implement: You must install the Splunk Microsoft Office 365 Add-on and ingest Office 365 management activity events.
known_false_positives: Microsofts algorithm to identify risky applications is unknown and may flag legitimate applications.
references:
    - https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1528/
    - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/2022/09/22/malicious-oauth-applications-used-to-compromise-email-servers-and-spread-spam/
    - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/manage-apps/protect-against-consent-phishing
    - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/defender-cloud-apps/investigate-risky-oauth
    - https://www.alteredsecurity.com/post/introduction-to-365-stealer
    - https://github.com/AlteredSecurity/365-Stealer
drilldown_searches:
    - name: View the detection results for - "$user$"
      search: '%original_detection_search% | search  user = "$user$"'
      earliest_offset: $info_min_time$
      latest_offset: $info_max_time$
    - name: View risk events for the last 7 days for - "$user$"
      search: '| from datamodel Risk.All_Risk | search normalized_risk_object IN ("$user$") | stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime values(search_name) as "Search Name" values(risk_message) as "Risk Message" values(analyticstories) as "Analytic Stories" values(annotations._all) as "Annotations" values(annotations.mitre_attack.mitre_tactic) as "ATT&CK Tactics" by normalized_risk_object | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`'
      earliest_offset: 7d
      latest_offset: "0"
finding:
    title: O365 has blocked $user$ attempt to grant to consent to an application deemed risky.
    entity:
        field: user
        type: user
        score: 50
analytic_story:
    - Office 365 Account Takeover
asset_type: O365 Tenant
mitre_attack_id:
    - T1528
product:
    - Splunk Enterprise
    - Splunk Enterprise Security
    - Splunk Cloud
category: cloud
security_domain: identity
tests:
    - name: True Positive Test
      attack_data:
        - data: https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/splunk/attack_data/master/datasets/attack_techniques/T1528/o365_user_consent_blocked/o365_user_consent_blocked.log
          source: o365
          sourcetype: o365:management:activity
      test_type: unit

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: search

`o365_management_activity` Workload=AzureActiveDirectory Operation="Consent to application." ResultStatus=Failure

Stage 2: eval

| eval permissions =mvindex('ModifiedProperties{}.NewValue', 4)

Stage 3: eval

| eval reason =mvindex('ModifiedProperties{}.NewValue', 5)

Stage 4: search

| search reason = "Risky application detected"

Stage 5: rex

| rex field=permissions "Scope: (?<Scope>[^,]+)"

Stage 6: fillnull

| fillnull

Stage 7: stats

| stats max(_time) as lastTime by user, reason, object, Scope, dest, src, vendor_account, vendor_product, signature

Stage 8: search

| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`

Stage 9: search

| `o365_user_consent_blocked_for_risky_application_filter`

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
Operationeq
  • "Consent to application."
ResultStatuseq
  • Failure
Workloadeq
  • AzureActiveDirectory
reasoneq
  • "Risky application detected"
sourcetypeeq
  • o365:management:activity