Authentication Attempt From a Dormant Account

Cortex XDR Analytics Alert Reference by data source

Product
Cortex XDR
Last date published
2024-12-03
Category
Analytics Alert Reference
Order
data source

Synopsis

Activation Period

14 Days

Training Period

30 Days

Test Period

N/A (single event)

Deduplication Period

31 Days

Required Data

  • Requires one of the following data sources:
    • Palo Alto Networks Platform Logs
      OR
    • XDR Agent

Detection Modules

Detector Tags

ATT&CK Tactic

Defense Evasion (TA0005)

ATT&CK Technique

Valid Accounts (T1078)

Severity

Informational

Description

A dormant user account tried to authenticate to a service using a TGS, after having been unused for a year or more. This may indicate the account is misused by an attacker.

Attacker's Goals

Use a compromised user account which has not been used in a long time, and therefore less likely to be noticed.

Investigative actions

  • See whether the service authentication was successful.
  • Confirm that the activity is benign (e.g. the user returned from a long leave of absence).
  • Check whether you have issues with your Cloud Identity Engine failing to sync data from Active Directory.

Variations

Authentication Attempt From a Dormant Account to a sensitive server

Synopsis

ATT&CK Tactic

Defense Evasion (TA0005)

ATT&CK Technique

Valid Accounts (T1078)

Severity

Low

Description

A dormant user account tried to authenticate to a service using a TGS, after having been unused for a year or more. This may indicate the account is misused by an attacker on a sensitive server.

Attacker's Goals

Use a compromised user account which has not been used in a long time, and therefore less likely to be noticed.

Investigative actions

  • See whether the service authentication was successful.
  • Confirm that the activity is benign (e.g. the user returned from a long leave of absence).
  • Check whether you have issues with your Cloud Identity Engine failing to sync data from Active Directory.