O365 Email Send and Hard Delete Suspicious Behavior

name: O365 Email Send and Hard Delete Suspicious Behavior
id: c97b3d72-0a47-46f9-b742-b89f1cc2d551
version: 4
date: '2026-03-10'
author: Steven Dick
status: production
type: Anomaly
description: The following analytic identifies when an O365 email account sends and then hard deletes email with within a short period (within 1 hour). This behavior may indicate a compromised account where the threat actor is attempting to remove forensic artifacts or evidence of activity. Threat actors often use this technique to prevent defenders and victims from knowing the account has been compromised. --- Some account owner legitimate behaviors can trigger this alert, however these actions may not be aligned with organizational expectations / best practice behaviors.
data_source:
    - Office 365 Universal Audit Log
search: |-
    `o365_management_activity` Workload=Exchange (Operation IN ("Send*")) OR (Operation IN ("HardDelete") AND Folder.Path IN ("\\Sent Items","\\Recoverable Items\\Deletions"))
    | eval user = lower(UserId), sender = lower(CASE(isnotnull(SendAsUserSmtp),SendAsUserSmtp,isnotnull(SendOnBehalfOfUserSmtp),SendOnBehalfOfUserSmtp,true(),MailboxOwnerUPN)), subject = trim(CASE(Operation IN ("Send","SendAs","SendOnBehalf"),'Item.Subject',Operation IN ("SoftDelete","HardDelete"),'AffectedItems{}.Subject')), -time = _time,file_name = CASE(Operation IN ("Send","SendAs","SendOnBehalf"),split('Item.Attachments',"; "),Operation IN ("SoftDelete","HardDelete"),split('AffectedItems{}.Attachments',"; ")), file_size = CASE(Operation IN ("Send","SendAs","SendOnBehalf"),round(tonumber('Item.SizeInBytes')/1024/1024,2),true(),round(tonumber(replace(file_name, "(.+)\s\((\d+)(b\)$)", "\2"))/1024/1024,2))
    | eval sendtime = CASE(Operation IN ("Send","SendAs","SendOnBehalf"),_time)
    | eval deltime = CASE(Operation IN ("SoftDelete","HardDelete"),_time)
    | stats values(sender) as sender, values(ClientIPAddress) as src, values(ClientInfoString) as http_user_agent, values(Operation) as signature, values(file_name) as file_name, sum(file_size) as file_size, values(Folder.Path) as file_path, min(sendtime) as firstTime, max(deltime) as lastTime, dc(Operation) as opcount, count by subject,user
    | eval timediff = tonumber(lastTime) - tonumber(firstTime)
    | where opcount > 1 AND firstTime < lastTime  AND timediff < 3600
    | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
    | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
    | `o365_email_send_and_hard_delete_suspicious_behavior_filter`
how_to_implement: You must install the Splunk Microsoft Office 365 Add-on and ingest Office 365 management activity events.
known_false_positives: Users that habitually/proactively cleaning the recoverable items folder may trigger this alert.
references:
    - https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1114/
    - https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/help-desk-social-engineering-sector-alert-tlpclear.pdf
    - https://intelligence.abnormalsecurity.com/attack-library/threat-actor-convincingly-impersonates-employee-requesting-direct-deposit-update-in-likely-ai-generated-attack
drilldown_searches:
    - name: View the detection results for - "$user$"
      search: '%original_detection_search% | search [CHANGEME_FIELD] = "$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 ("$user$") starthoursago=168  | 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: $info_min_time$
      latest_offset: $info_max_time$
    - name: Investigate Email for $user$
      search: '`o365_management_activity` Workload=Exchange (Operation IN ("Send*")) OR (Operation IN ("HardDelete") AND Folder.Path IN ("\\Sent Items","\\Recoverable Items\\Deletions")) AND UserId = "$user$" AND "$subject$"'
      earliest_offset: $info_min_time$
      latest_offset: $info_max_time$
rba:
    message: The user $user$ sent and hard deleted an email within a short timeframe
    risk_objects:
        - field: user
          type: user
          score: 20
    threat_objects:
        - field: src
          type: ip_address
        - field: subject
          type: email_subject
tags:
    analytic_story:
        - Office 365 Account Takeover
        - Office 365 Collection Techniques
        - Suspicious Emails
        - Data Destruction
    asset_type: O365 Tenant
    mitre_attack_id:
        - T1114.001
        - T1070.008
        - T1485
    product:
        - Splunk Enterprise
        - Splunk Enterprise Security
        - Splunk Cloud
    security_domain: threat
tests:
    - name: True Positive Test
      attack_data:
        - data: https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/splunk/attack_data/master/datasets/attack_techniques/T1114/o365_suspect_email_actions/o365_exchange_suspect_events.log
          source: o365
          sourcetype: o365:management:activity