Azure AD User Login Risk: Impossible Travel from Distant Locations

Flags Azure Entra risk events tagged as impossibleTravel indicating implausible geographic sign-in travel within a short time.

FreeReviewedSigma · High · v5

Product: azure
Service: riskdetection
Author: Mark Morowczynski '@markmorow', Gloria Lee, '@gleeiamglo' (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published: 2023-09-03
Updated: 2026-07-31

Analysis Detection

ATT&CK techniques

Initial Access → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
- T1078Valid Accounts
Execution
Persistence
- T1078Valid Accounts
Priv Esc
- T1078Valid Accounts
Defense Evasion
- T1078Valid Accounts
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

Identifies account activity flagged as an impossible travel risk event when sign-in activity is observed from geographically distant locations within an unrealistically short time window. This behavior matters because it can indicate credential theft or session compromise rather than legitimate user movement. The detection relies on Azure risk telemetry that produces risk events of type impossibleTravel.

Reporting behind it

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Suspicious Success Login Attempt on a Windows OpenSSH Server (via security)

Suspicious SQL Server - Connection Attempt Using a Disabled Account (via application)

Suspicious Lateral Movement Detection - Based on "special Groups" Feature (via security)

Suspicious Snowflake Anomalous Client Application Associated With UNC5537 (via cloud)

Malicious Network Login Performed to Multiple Targets (via security)

Malicious RDP Reconnaissance with Valid Credentials Performed on Multiple Hosts (via security)

Malicious Local Administrator Added by Atera RMM Agent

Azure AD User Login Risk: Impossible Travel from Distant Locations

Pivot detection · T1078 · 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-entra-risk-impossible-travel-sign-in-detection-impossibletravel-b2572bf9

title: "Azure AD User Login Risk: Impossible Travel from Distant Locations"
id: 74080b9d-95fc-4779-9630-8e1b91328ead
status: test
description: Identifies account activity flagged as an impossible travel risk event when sign-in activity is observed from geographically distant locations within an unrealistically short time window. This behavior matters because it can indicate credential theft or session compromise rather than legitimate user movement. The detection relies on Azure risk telemetry that produces risk events of type impossibleTravel.
references:
  - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/id-protection/concept-identity-protection-risks#impossible-travel
  - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/architecture/security-operations-user-accounts#unusual-sign-ins
  - https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/master/rules/cloud/azure/identity_protection/azure_identity_protection_impossible_travel.yml
author: Mark Morowczynski '@markmorow', Gloria Lee, '@gleeiamglo', Huntrule Team
date: 2023-09-03
tags:
  - attack.stealth
  - attack.t1078
  - attack.persistence
  - attack.privilege-escalation
  - attack.initial-access
logsource:
  product: azure
  service: riskdetection
detection:
  selection:
    riskEventType: impossibleTravel
  condition: selection
falsepositives:
  - Connecting to a VPN, performing activity and then dropping and performing additional activity.
level: high
license: DRL-1.1
related:
  - id: b2572bf9-e20a-4594-b528-40bde666525a
    type: derived

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