EXPLORE DETECTIONS
Entra ID User Added as Service Principal Owner
Identifies when a user is added as an owner for an Azure service principal. The service principal object defines what the application can do in the specific tenant, who can access the application, and what resources the app can access. A service principal object is created when an application is given permission to access resources in a tenant. An adversary may add a user account as an owner for a service principal and use that account in order to define what an application can do in the Azure AD tenant.
Entra ID User Reported Suspicious Activity
Identifies suspicious activity reported by users in Microsoft Entra ID where users have reported suspicious activity related to their accounts, which may indicate potential compromise or unauthorized access attempts. Reported suspicious activity typically occurs during the authentication process and may involve various authentication methods, such as password resets, account recovery, or multi-factor authentication challenges. Adversaries may attempt to exploit user accounts by leveraging social engineering techniques or other methods to gain unauthorized access to sensitive information or resources.
Entra ID User Sign-in Brute Force Attempted
Identifies potential brute-force attacks targeting user accounts by analyzing failed sign-in patterns in Microsoft Entra ID Sign-In Logs. This detection focuses on a high volume of failed interactive or non-interactive authentication attempts within a short time window, often indicative of password spraying, credential stuffing, or password guessing. Adversaries may use these techniques to gain unauthorized access to applications integrated with Entra ID or to compromise valid user accounts.
Entra ID User Sign-in with Unusual Authentication Type
Identifies rare instances of authentication requirements for Azure Entra ID principal users. An adversary with stolen credentials may attempt to authenticate with unusual authentication requirements, which is a rare event and may indicate an attempt to bypass conditional access policies (CAP) and multi-factor authentication (MFA) requirements. The authentication requirements specified may not be commonly used by the user based on their historical sign-in activity.
Entra ID User Sign-in with Unusual Client
Detects rare non-interactive sign-ins where an Entra ID client application authenticates on behalf of a principal user using an application (client) ID that is not commonly associated with that user’s historical sign-in behavior. Adversaries with stolen credentials or OAuth tokens may abuse Entra ID–managed or first-party client IDs to perform on-behalf-of (OBO) authentication, blending into legitimate cloud traffic while avoiding traditional interactive sign-in flows. This technique is commonly observed in OAuth phishing, token theft, and access broker operations, and may precede lateral movement, persistence, or data access via Microsoft Graph or other cloud resources. The rule uses a New Terms approach to identify first-seen combinations of the UPN and Client ID within a defined history window, helping surface unexpected client usage that may indicate compromised identities, malicious automation, or unauthorized application impersonation.
Entra ID User Sign-in with Unusual Non-Managed Device
Identifies when a Microsoft Entra ID user signs in from a device that is not typically used by the user and is not managed, which may indicate potential compromise or unauthorized access attempts. This rule detects unusual sign-in activity by comparing the device used for the sign-in against the user's typical device usage patterns. Adversaries may create and register a new device to obtain a Primary Refresh Token (PRT) and maintain persistent access.
Enumerating Domain Trusts via DSQUERY.EXE
Identifies the use of dsquery.exe for domain trust discovery purposes. Adversaries may use this command-line utility to enumerate trust relationships that may be used for Lateral Movement opportunities in Windows multi-domain forest environments.
Enumerating Domain Trusts via NLTEST.EXE
Identifies the use of nltest.exe for domain trust discovery purposes. Adversaries may use this command-line utility to enumerate domain trusts and gain insight into trust relationships, as well as the state of Domain Controller (DC) replication in a Microsoft Windows NT Domain.
Enumeration Command Spawned via WMIPrvSE
Identifies native Windows host and network enumeration commands spawned by the Windows Management Instrumentation Provider Service (WMIPrvSE).
Enumeration of Administrator Accounts
Identifies instances of lower privilege accounts enumerating Administrator accounts or groups using built-in Windows tools.
Enumeration of Privileged Local Groups Membership
Identifies instances of an unusual process enumerating built-in Windows privileged local groups membership like Administrators or Remote Desktop users.
Enumeration of Users or Groups via Built-in Commands
Identifies the execution of macOS built-in commands related to account or group enumeration. Adversaries may use account and group information to orient themselves before deciding how to act.
Environment Variable Enumeration Detected via Defend for Containers
This rule detects the execution of the "env" or "printenv" commands inside a container. The "env" command is used to display all the environment variables for the current shell, and the "printenv" command is used to print the values of environment variables. These commands are used to enumerate the environment variables of the container, which can be used by an adversary to gain information about the container and the services running inside it.
ESXI Discovery via Find
Identifies instances where the 'find' command is started on a Linux system with arguments targeting specific VM-related paths, such as "/etc/vmware/", "/usr/lib/vmware/", or "/vmfs/*". These paths are associated with VMware virtualization software, and their presence in the find command arguments may indicate that a threat actor is attempting to search for, analyze, or manipulate VM-related files and configurations on the system.
ESXI Discovery via Grep
Identifies instances where a process named 'grep', 'egrep', or 'pgrep' is started on a Linux system with arguments related to virtual machine (VM) files, such as "vmdk", "vmx", "vmxf", "vmsd", "vmsn", "vswp", "vmss", "nvram", or "vmem". These file extensions are associated with VM-related file formats, and their presence in grep command arguments may indicate that a threat actor is attempting to search for, analyze, or manipulate VM files on the system.
ESXI Timestomping using Touch Command
Identifies instances where the 'touch' command is executed on a Linux system with the "-r" flag, which is used to modify the timestamp of a file based on another file's timestamp. The rule targets specific VM-related paths, such as "/etc/vmware/", "/usr/lib/vmware/", or "/vmfs/*". These paths are associated with VMware virtualization software, and their presence in the touch command arguments may indicate that a threat actor is attempting to tamper with timestamps of VM-related files and configurations on the system.
Excessive AWS S3 Object Encryption with SSE-C
Identifies a high-volume of AWS S3 objects stored in a bucket using using Server-Side Encryption with Customer-Provided Keys (SSE-C). Adversaries with compromised AWS credentials can encrypt objects in an S3 bucket using their own encryption keys, rendering the objects unreadable or recoverable without the key. This can be used as a form of ransomware to extort the bucket owner for the decryption key. This is a Threshold rule that triggers when this behavior is observed multiple times for a specific bucket in a short time-window.
Exchange Mailbox Export via PowerShell
Detects PowerShell script block content that creates Exchange mailbox export requests via New-MailboxExportRequest, commonly writing PST files. Adversaries can abuse export requests to collect and stage email content for exfiltration.
Executable Bit Set for Potential Persistence Script
This rule monitors for the addition of an executable bit for scripts that are located in directories which are commonly abused for persistence. An alert of this rule is an indicator that a persistence mechanism is being set up within your environment. Adversaries may create these scripts to execute malicious code at start-up, or at a set interval to gain persistence onto the system.
Executable File Creation with Multiple Extensions
Masquerading can allow an adversary to evade defenses and better blend in with the environment. One way it occurs is when the name or location of a file is manipulated as a means of tricking a user into executing what they think is a benign file type but is actually executable code.
Executable File Download via Wget
Detects executable file downloads via wget to suspicious locations such as /tmp or /Users/Shared. Threat actors commonly use wget to download malicious payloads and additional tools for post-exploitation.
Executable Masquerading as Kernel Process
Monitors for kernel processes with associated process executable fields that are not empty. Unix kernel processes such as kthreadd and kworker typically do not have process.executable fields associated to them. Attackers may attempt to hide their malicious programs by masquerading as legitimate kernel processes.
Execution from a Removable Media with Network Connection
Identifies process execution from a removable media and by an unusual process. Adversaries may move onto systems, possibly those on disconnected or air-gapped networks, by copying malware to removable media and taking advantage of Autorun features when the media is inserted into a system and executes.
Execution from Unusual Directory - Command Line
Identifies process execution from suspicious default Windows directories. This may be abused by adversaries to hide malware in trusted paths.