O365 Advanced Audit Disabled
The following analytic detects instances where the O365 advanced audit is disabled for a specific user within the Office 365 tenant. It uses O365 audit logs, focusing on events related to audit license changes in…
Description
The following analytic detects instances where the O365 advanced audit is disabled for a specific user within the Office 365 tenant. It uses O365 audit logs, focusing on events related to audit license changes in AzureActiveDirectory workloads. This activity is significant because the O365 advanced audit provides critical logging and insights into user and administrator activities. Disabling it can blind security teams to potential malicious actions. If confirmed malicious, attackers could operate within the user's mailbox or account with reduced risk of detection, leading to unauthorized data access, data exfiltration, or account compromise.
Detection logic
Detection requirements
- Platform
- IaaSIdentity ProviderOffice SuiteSaaS
The rule states no platform. This is derived from the ATT&CK technique it maps to.
- Log source category
- o365_change_user_license
Known benign triggers
- Administrators might temporarily disable the advanced audit for troubleshooting, performance reasons, or other administrative tasks. Filter as needed.
MITRE ATT&CK mappings
0 exclusive techniques.This is coverage no other published rule has; it is not this rule's total technique count.
References
| Reference | Cited by |
|---|---|
| attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1562/008/ | 12from 2 sources |
| www.csoonline.com/article/570381/microsoft-365-advanced-audit-what-you-need-to-know.html | Only this detection cites it |
| www.mandiant.com/sites/default/files/2022-08/remediation-hardening-strategies-for-m365-defend-against-apt29-white-paper.pdf | 3 |
From the source
- At source
- Open at source
- Upstream identifier
- 49862dd4-9cb2-4c48-a542-8c8a588d9361
- Tagged by the source as
- Office 365 Persistence MechanismsO365 TenantcloudSplunk CloudSplunk EnterpriseSplunk Enterprise Securityidentity
Licence
- Published under
- Apache License 2.0Read the licence
- Attribution
- Required
- Obtained under
- Apache-2.0Read the origin licence
Authorship
- Written by
- Published
- Aug 26, 2026
- Version
- 1