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splunk_escuAnomaly

Okta Successful Single Factor Authentication

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.

Detection Query

`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`

Author

Bhavin Patel, Splunk

Data Sources

Okta
Raw Content
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