Detection: O365 OAuth App Mailbox Access via EWS

Updated Date: 2024-09-30 ID: e600cf1a-0bef-4426-b42e-00176d610a4d Author: Mauricio Velazco, Splunk Type: TTP Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

The following analytic detects when emails are accessed in Office 365 Exchange via Exchange Web Services (EWS) using OAuth-authenticated applications. It leverages the ClientInfoString field to identify EWS interactions and aggregates metrics such as access counts, timing, and client IP addresses, categorized by user, ClientAppId, OperationCount, and AppId. Monitoring OAuth applications accessing emails through EWS is crucial for identifying potential abuse or unauthorized data access. If confirmed malicious, this activity could lead to unauthorized email access, data exfiltration, or further compromise of sensitive information.

Search

1`o365_management_activity` Workload=Exchange Operation=MailItemsAccessed AppId=* ClientAppId=* 
2| regex ClientInfoString="^Client=WebServices;ExchangeWebServices" 
3|  stats count earliest(_time) as firstTime latest(_time) as lastTime values(ClientIPAddress) as src_ip by user ClientAppId OperationCount AppId ClientInfoString 
4| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
5| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
6| `o365_oauth_app_mailbox_access_via_ews_filter`

Data Source

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

Macros Used

Name	Value
o365_management_activity	`sourcetype=o365:management:activity`
o365_oauth_app_mailbox_access_via_ews_filter	`search *`

o365_oauth_app_mailbox_access_via_ews_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
T1114.002	Remote Email Collection	Collection

KillChainPhase.EXPLOITAITON

NistCategory.DE_CM

Cis18Value.CIS_10

APT1

APT28

APT29

Chimera

Dragonfly

FIN4

HAFNIUM

Ke3chang

Kimsuky

Leafminer

Magic Hound

Star Blizzard

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 the Splunk Microsoft Office 365 Add-on and ingest Office 365 management activity events.

Known False Positives

OAuth applications may access mailboxes for legitimate purposes, you can use the src_ip to add trusted sources to an allow list.

Associated Analytic Story

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message	Risk Score	Impact	Confidence
An OAuth application identified with id $ClientAppId$ accesed mailboxes through the Graph API.	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