O365 Excessive Authentication Failures Alert
The following analytic identifies an excessive number of authentication failures, including failed attempts against MFA prompt codes. It uses data from the `o365_management_activity` dataset, focusing on events where…
Description
The following analytic identifies an excessive number of authentication failures, including failed attempts against MFA prompt codes. It uses data from the `o365_management_activity` dataset, focusing on events where the authentication status is marked as failure. This behavior is significant as it may indicate a brute force attack or an attempt to compromise user accounts. If confirmed malicious, this activity could lead to unauthorized access, data breaches, or further exploitation within the environment.
Detection logic
Detection requirements
- Platform
- ContainersESXiIaaSIdentity ProviderLinuxmacOSNetwork DevicesOffice SuiteSaaSWindows
The rule states no platform. This is derived from the ATT&CK technique it maps to.
Known benign triggers
- The threshold for alert is above 10 attempts and this should reduce the number of false positives.
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/T1110/ | 8from 2 sources |
From the source
- At source
- Open at source
- Upstream identifier
- d441364c-349c-453b-b55f-12eccab67cf9
- Tagged by the source as
- Office 365 Account TakeoverO365 TenantcloudSplunk CloudSplunk EnterpriseSplunk Enterprise Securitythreat
Licence
- Published under
- Apache License 2.0Read the licence
- Attribution
- Required
- Obtained under
- Apache-2.0Read the origin licence
Authorship
- Published
- Aug 26, 2026
- Version
- 1