Azure AD Sign-in Attempts to Disabled Accounts

Alerts on Azure AD sign-in attempts that fail because the target account is disabled.

FreeReviewedSigma · Medium · v5

Product: azure
Service: signinlogs
Author: AlertIQ (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published: 2021-10-10
Updated: 2026-07-31

ATT&CK techniques

Initial Access → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
- T1078.004Cloud Accounts
Execution
Persistence
- T1078.004Cloud Accounts
Priv Esc
- T1078.004Cloud Accounts
Defense Evasion
- T1078.004Cloud Accounts
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule flags sign-in log events where the directory reports the target user account is disabled. Attackers may repeatedly attempt authentication against disabled accounts to probe for misconfigurations or to trigger account recovery-related behaviors. Detection relies on Azure sign-in telemetry fields indicating an account-disabled condition, including the specific result type and its description.

Reporting behind it

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Azure AD Sign-in Attempts to Disabled Accounts

Pivot detection · T1078.004 · 9 related

Changelog

v5
Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
v4
Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
v3
Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
v2
Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
v1
No changelog recorded for this version.2026-07-30

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.

azure-ad-sign-in-attempts-to-disabled-accounts-908655e0

title: Azure AD Sign-in Attempts to Disabled Accounts
id: 8f826078-84b5-4817-ac00-ae7747e4d52b
status: test
description: This rule flags sign-in log events where the directory reports the target user account is disabled. Attackers may repeatedly attempt authentication against disabled accounts to probe for misconfigurations or to trigger account recovery-related behaviors. Detection relies on Azure sign-in telemetry fields indicating an account-disabled condition, including the specific result type and its description.
references:
  - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/architecture/security-operations-privileged-accounts
  - https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/master/rules/cloud/azure/signin_logs/azure_login_to_disabled_account.yml
author: AlertIQ, Huntrule Team
date: 2021-10-10
modified: 2022-12-25
tags:
  - attack.privilege-escalation
  - attack.persistence
  - attack.initial-access
  - attack.stealth
  - attack.t1078.004
logsource:
  product: azure
  service: signinlogs
detection:
  selection:
    ResultType: 50057
    ResultDescription: User account is disabled. The account has been disabled by an administrator.
  condition: selection
falsepositives:
  - Unknown
level: medium
license: DRL-1.1
related:
  - id: 908655e0-25cf-4ae1-b775-1c8ce9cf43d8
    type: derived

Convert

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