Elastic Security Detection Rules

FortiGate SSO Login Followed by Administrator Account Creation

Last updated 6 days ago on 2026-01-28
Created 6 days ago on 2026-01-28

About

This rule detects a FortiCloud SSO login followed by administrator account creation on the same FortiGate device within 15 minutes. This sequence is a high-confidence indicator of the FG-IR-26-060 attack pattern, where threat actors authenticate via SAML-based SSO bypass and immediately create local administrator accounts for persistence.
Tags
Use Case: Threat DetectionTactic: PersistenceDomain: NetworkDomain: IdentityData Source: FortinetData Source: Fortinet FortiGateLanguage: eql
Severity
high
Risk Score
73
MITRE ATT&CK™

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

↳ Create Account (T1136)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

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

Definition

Rule Type
Event Correlation Rule
Integration Pack
Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Index Patterns
logs-fortinet_fortigate.*
Related Integrations

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

Query
text code block:
sequence by observer.name with maxspan=15m
  [authentication where event.dataset == "fortinet_fortigate.log" and
    event.action == "login" and event.outcome == "success" and
    (fortinet.firewall.method == "sso" or fortinet.firewall.ui like~ "sso*")]
  [any where event.dataset == "fortinet_fortigate.log" and
    event.code == "0100044547" and
    fortinet.firewall.cfgpath == "system.admin" and
    fortinet.firewall.action == "Add"]

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect FortiGate SSO Login Followed by Administrator Account Creation 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).