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Disabled MFA to Bypass Authentication Mechanisms

Detection for when multi factor authentication has been disabled, which might indicate a malicious activity to bypass authentication mechanisms.

MITRE ATT&CK

T1556

credential-accesspersistence

Detection Query

selection:
  operationName: Disable Strong Authentication
  properties.result: success
condition: selection

Author

@ionsor

Created

2022-02-08

Data Sources

azureauditlogs

Platforms

azure

References

Tags

attack.credential-accessattack.persistenceattack.defense-impairmentattack.t1556

Raw Content

title: Disabled MFA to Bypass Authentication Mechanisms
id: 7ea78478-a4f9-42a6-9dcd-f861816122bf
status: test
description: Detection for when multi factor authentication has been disabled, which might indicate a malicious activity to bypass authentication mechanisms.
references:
    - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/authentication/howto-mfa-userstates
    - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/monitoring-health/reference-audit-activities#core-directory
    - https://research.splunk.com/cloud/482dd42a-acfa-486b-a0bb-d6fcda27318e/
    - https://analyticsrules.exchange/analyticrules/65c78944-930b-4cae-bd79-c3664ae30ba7/
    - https://www.elastic.co/docs/reference/security/prebuilt-rules/rules/integrations/azure/persistence_entra_id_mfa_disabled_for_user
author: '@ionsor'
date: 2022-02-08
modified: 2026-04-30
tags:
    - attack.credential-access
    - attack.persistence
    - attack.defense-impairment
    - attack.t1556
logsource:
    product: azure
    service: auditlogs
detection:
    selection:
        operationName: 'Disable Strong Authentication'
        properties.result: 'success'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Authorized modification by administrators
level: medium