Detection: GitHub Organizations Disable 2FA Requirement

Updated Date: 2025-01-17 ID: 3ed0d6ba-4791-4fa8-a1ef-403e438c7033 Author: Patrick Bareiss, Splunk Type: Anomaly Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

The following analytic detects when two-factor authentication (2FA) requirements are disabled in GitHub Organizations. The detection monitors GitHub Organizations audit logs for 2FA requirement changes by tracking actor details, organization information, and associated metadata. For a SOC, identifying disabled 2FA requirements is critical as it could indicate attempts to weaken account security controls. Two-factor authentication is a fundamental security control that helps prevent unauthorized access even if passwords are compromised. Disabling 2FA requirements could allow attackers to more easily compromise accounts through password-based attacks. The impact of disabled 2FA includes increased risk of account takeover, potential access to sensitive code and intellectual property, and compromise of the software supply chain. This activity could be part of a larger attack chain where an adversary first disables security controls before attempting broader account compromises.

1`github_organizations` vendor_action=org.disable_two_factor_requirement 
2| fillnull 
3| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime by actor, actor_id, actor_ip, actor_is_bot, actor_location.country_code, business, business_id, org, org_id, user_agent, vendor_action 
4| eval user=actor 
5| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
6| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
7| `github_organizations_disable_2fa_requirement_filter`

Data Source

Name Platform Sourcetype Source
GitHub Organizations Audit Logs N/A 'github:cloud:audit' 'github'

Macros Used

Name Value
github_organizations sourcetype=github:cloud:audit
github_organizations_disable_2fa_requirement_filter search *
github_organizations_disable_2fa_requirement_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
T1562.001 Disable or Modify Tools Defense Evasion
T1195 Supply Chain Compromise Initial Access
Delivery
Exploitation
DE.AE
CIS 13

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 Risk Event True
This configuration file applies to all detections of type anomaly. These detections will use Risk Based Alerting.

Implementation

You must ingest GitHub Organizations logs using Splunk Add-on for Github using a Personal Access Token https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/AddOns/released/GitHub/Configureinputs .

Known False Positives

unknown

Associated Analytic Story

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message:

$user$ disabled 2FA requirement in GitHub Organizations

Risk Object Risk Object Type Risk Score Threat Objects
user user 25 user_agent

References

Detection Testing

Test Type Status Dataset Source Sourcetype
Validation ✅ Passing N/A N/A N/A
Unit ✅ Passing Dataset github github:cloud:audit
Integration ✅ Passing Dataset github github:cloud:audit

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: 1