Detection: O365 Added Service Principal

Updated Date: 2024-05-27 ID: 1668812a-6047-11eb-ae93-0242ac130002 Author: Rod Soto, Splunk Type: TTP Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

The following analytic detects the addition of new service principal accounts in O365 tenants. It leverages data from the o365_management_activity dataset, specifically monitoring for operations related to adding or creating service principals. This activity is significant because attackers can exploit service principals to gain unauthorized access and perform malicious actions within an organization's environment. If confirmed malicious, this could allow attackers to interact with APIs, access resources, and execute operations on behalf of the organization, potentially leading to data breaches or further compromise.

Search

1`o365_management_activity` Workload=AzureActiveDirectory Operation="*Add service principal*" OR (Operation = "*principal*" AND action = "created") 
2| stats count values(ModifiedProperties{}.NewValue) as new_value by src_user src_user_type action Operation authentication_service Workload 
3| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
4| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
5| `o365_added_service_principal_filter`

Data Source

Name	Platform	Sourcetype	Source	Supported App
O365	N/A	`'o365:management:activity'`	`'o365'`	N/A

Macros Used

Name	Value
o365_management_activity	`sourcetype=o365:management:activity`
o365_added_service_principal_filter	`search *`

o365_added_service_principal_filter is an empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.

Annotations

- MITRE ATT&CK

+ Kill Chain Phases

+ NIST

+ CIS

- Threat Actors

ID	Technique	Tactic
T1136.003	Cloud Account	Persistence
T1136	Create Account	Persistence

KillChainPhase.INSTALLATION

NistCategory.DE_CM

Cis18Value.CIS_10

APT29

LAPSUS$

Indrik Spider

Scattered Spider

Default Configuration

This detection is configured by default in Splunk Enterprise Security to run with the following settings:

Setting	Value
Disabled	true
Cron Schedule	`0 * * * *`
Earliest Time	`-70m@m`
Latest Time	`-10m@m`
Schedule Window	`auto`
Creates Notable	Yes
Rule Title	`%name%`
Rule Description	`%description%`
Notable Event Fields	user, dest
Creates Risk Event	True

This configuration file applies to all detections of type TTP. These detections will use Risk Based Alerting and generate Notable Events.

Implementation

You must install splunk Microsoft Office 365 add-on. This search works with o365:management:activity

Known False Positives

The creation of a new Federation is not necessarily malicious, however these events need to be followed closely, as it may indicate federated credential abuse or backdoor via federated identities at a different cloud provider.

Associated Analytic Story

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message	Risk Score	Impact	Confidence
User $src_user$ has created new service principal $new_value$ in AzureActiveDirectory	42	70	60

The Risk Score is calculated by the following formula: Risk Score = (Impact * Confidence/100). Initial Confidence and Impact is set by the analytic author.

References

Detection Testing

Test Type	Status	Dataset	Source	Sourcetype
Validation	✅ Passing	N/A	N/A	N/A
Unit	✅ Passing	Dataset	`o365`	`o365:management:activity`
Integration	✅ Passing	Dataset	`o365`	`o365:management:activity`

Replay any dataset to Splunk Enterprise by using our replay.py tool or the UI. Alternatively you can replay a dataset into a Splunk Attack Range

Source: GitHub | Version: 4