Entra ID Domain Federation Configuration Change

Last updated 12 days ago on 2026-03-03
Created 12 days ago on 2026-03-03

About

Detects when domain federation settings are configured or modified in an Entra ID tenant via the Microsoft Graph API. Adversaries with Global Administrator or Domain Administrator privileges may add a custom domain, verify ownership, and configure it to federate authentication with an attacker-controlled identity provider. Once federated, the adversary can forge SAML or WS-Federation tokens to authenticate as any user under that domain, bypassing MFA and conditional access policies. This technique, commonly known as Golden SAML, was used by UNC2452 (APT29) during the SolarWinds campaign for persistent, stealthy access to victim tenants.
Tags
Domain: CloudDomain: IdentityData Source: AzureData Source: Microsoft Entra IDData Source: Microsoft Entra ID Audit LogsUse Case: Identity and Access AuditTactic: PersistenceTactic: Privilege EscalationLanguage: kuery
Severity
high
Risk Score
73
MITRE ATT&CK™

Privilege Escalation (TA0004)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Persistence (TA0003)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

License
Elastic License v2(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Definition

Rule Type
Query (Kibana Query Language)
Integration Pack
Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Index Patterns
filebeat-*logs-azure.auditlogs-*
Related Integrations

azure(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Query
text code block:
event.dataset: azure.auditlogs and azure.auditlogs.properties.category: DirectoryManagement and event.action: ("Set domain authentication" or "Set federation settings on domain") and event.outcome: success

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Entra ID Domain Federation Configuration Change in the Elastic Security detection engine by installing this rule into your Elastic Stack.

To setup this rule, check out the installation guide for Prebuilt Security Detection Rules(external, opens in a new tab or window).