Okta Successful Single Factor Authentication

Status: production
Severity: low
Group by: action, dest, src_ip, user
Author: Bhavin Patel, Splunk
Source: github.com/splunk/security_content

The following analytic identifies successful single-factor authentication events against the Okta Dashboard for accounts without Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) enabled. It detects this activity by analyzing Okta logs for successful authentication events where "Okta Verify" is not used. This behavior is significant as it may indicate a misconfiguration, policy violation, or potential account takeover. If confirmed malicious, an attacker could gain unauthorized access to the account, potentially leading to data breaches or further exploitation within the environment.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Resource Development	`T1586.003` Compromise Accounts: Cloud Accounts
Initial Access	`T1078.004` Valid Accounts: Cloud Accounts
Persistence	`T1078.004` Valid Accounts: Cloud Accounts
Privilege Escalation	`T1078.004` Valid Accounts: Cloud Accounts
Stealth	`T1078.004` Valid Accounts: Cloud Accounts
Credential Access	`T1621` Multi-Factor Authentication Request Generation

Rules detecting the same action

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

First Occurrence of Okta User Session Started via Proxy (Elastic)
MFA Fatigue (OKTA) (Kusto)
Okta AiTM Phishing Attempt Blocked by FastPass (Panther)
Okta Fast Pass phishing Detection (Kusto)
Okta FastPass Phishing Detection (Sigma)
Okta FastPass Phishing Detection (Elastic)
Okta MFA Bruteforce Attack (YARA-L)
Okta Mismatch Between Source And Response For Verify Push Request (YARA-L)

Rule body splunk

name: Okta Successful Single Factor Authentication
id: 98f6ad4f-4325-4096-9d69-45dc8e638e82
version: 11
creation_date: '2024-04-17'
modification_date: '2026-05-13'
author: Bhavin Patel, Splunk
status: production
type: Anomaly
description: The following analytic identifies successful single-factor authentication events against the Okta Dashboard for accounts without Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) enabled. It detects this activity by analyzing Okta logs for successful authentication events where "Okta Verify" is not used. This behavior is significant as it may indicate a misconfiguration, policy violation, or potential account takeover. If confirmed malicious, an attacker could gain unauthorized access to the account, potentially leading to data breaches or further exploitation within the environment.
data_source:
    - Okta
search: |-
    `okta`  action=success src_user_type = User eventType = user.authentication.verify OR eventType = user.authentication.auth_via_mfa
      | stats dc(eventType) values(eventType) as eventType values(target{}.displayName) as targets values(debugContext.debugData.url) min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime values(authentication_method)
        BY src_ip user action
           dest
      | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
      | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
      | search targets !="Okta Verify"
      | `okta_successful_single_factor_authentication_filter`
how_to_implement: This detection utilizes logs from Okta environments and requires the ingestion of OktaIm2 logs through the Splunk Add-on for Okta Identity Cloud (https://splunkbase.splunk.com/app/6553).
known_false_positives: Although not recommended, certain users may be exempt from multi-factor authentication. Adjust the filter as necessary.
references:
    - https://sec.okta.com/everythingisyes
    - https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1078/004/
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"
intermediate_findings:
    entities:
        - field: user
          type: user
          score: 20
          message: A user [$user$] has successfully logged in to Okta Dashboard with single factor authentication from IP Address - [$src_ip$].
analytic_story:
    - Okta Account Takeover
asset_type: Okta Tenant
mitre_attack_id:
    - T1078.004
    - T1586.003
    - T1621
product:
    - Splunk Enterprise
    - Splunk Enterprise Security
    - Splunk Cloud
category: application
security_domain: identity
tests:
    - name: True Positive Test
      attack_data:
        - data: https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/splunk/attack_data/master/datasets/attack_techniques/T1078.004/okta_single_factor_auth/okta_single_factor_auth.log
          source: okta_log
          sourcetype: OktaIM2:log
      test_type: unit

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: `search`

`okta`  action=success src_user_type = User eventType = user.authentication.verify OR eventType = user.authentication.auth_via_mfa

Stage 2: `stats`

| stats dc(eventType) values(eventType) as eventType values(target{}.displayName) as targets values(debugContext.debugData.url) min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime values(authentication_method)
    BY src_ip user action
       dest

Stage 3: `search`

| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`

Stage 4: `search`

| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`

Stage 5: `search`

| search targets !="Okta Verify"

Stage 6: `search`

| `okta_successful_single_factor_authentication_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.

Field	Kind	Values
`action`	eq	`success`
`eventType`	eq	`user.authentication.auth_via_mfa` `user.authentication.verify`
`sourcetype`	eq	`OktaIM2:log`
`src_user_type`	eq	`User`
`targets`	ne	`"Okta Verify"`

`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)

Okta Successful Single Factor Authentication

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Rules detecting the same action

Rule body splunk

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: `search`

Stage 2: `stats`

Stage 3: `search`

Stage 4: `search`

Stage 5: `search`

Stage 6: `search`

Indicators

Keyboard shortcuts

Search operators

Okta Successful Single Factor Authentication

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Rules detecting the same action

Rule body splunk

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: search

Stage 2: stats

Stage 3: search

Stage 4: search

Stage 5: search

Stage 6: search

Indicators

Stage 1: `search`

Stage 2: `stats`

Stage 3: `search`

Stage 4: `search`

Stage 5: `search`

Stage 6: `search`