Azure PIM Role Activation Without MFA Alert (noMfaOnRoleActivationAlertIncident)

Alerts when Azure PIM signals role activation occurred without MFA.

FreeReviewedSigma · High · v5

Product: azure
Service: pim
Author: Mark Morowczynski '@markmorow', Gloria Lee, '@gleeiamglo' (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published: 2023-09-14
Updated: 2026-07-31

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 Privileged Identity Management role activation events flagged as not requiring MFA. Attackers may attempt stealthy privilege escalation by activating roles without additional authentication prompts. The detection relies on PIM risk event telemetry using the specific riskEventType value noMfaOnRoleActivationAlertIncident. Investigate whether the user is performing MFA at sign-in to rule out benign scenarios.

Reporting behind it

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Azure PIM Role Activation Without MFA Alert (noMfaOnRoleActivationAlertIncident)

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-pim-role-activation-without-mfa-alert-nomfaonroleactivationalertincident-94a66f46

title: Azure PIM Role Activation Without MFA Alert (noMfaOnRoleActivationAlertIncident)
id: d93768c9-7ecd-4f28-ab05-5371a296bbab
status: test
description: Identifies Privileged Identity Management role activation events flagged as not requiring MFA. Attackers may attempt stealthy privilege escalation by activating roles without additional authentication prompts. The detection relies on PIM risk event telemetry using the specific riskEventType value noMfaOnRoleActivationAlertIncident. Investigate whether the user is performing MFA at sign-in to rule out benign scenarios.
references:
  - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/id-governance/privileged-identity-management/pim-how-to-configure-security-alerts#roles-dont-require-multi-factor-authentication-for-activation
  - https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/master/rules/cloud/azure/privileged_identity_management/azure_pim_role_no_mfa_required.yml
author: Mark Morowczynski '@markmorow', Gloria Lee, '@gleeiamglo', Huntrule Team
date: 2023-09-14
tags:
  - attack.initial-access
  - attack.stealth
  - attack.t1078
  - attack.persistence
  - attack.privilege-escalation
logsource:
  product: azure
  service: pim
detection:
  selection:
    riskEventType: noMfaOnRoleActivationAlertIncident
  condition: selection
falsepositives:
  - Investigate if user is performing MFA at sign-in.
level: high
license: DRL-1.1
related:
  - id: 94a66f46-5b64-46ce-80b2-75dcbe627cc0
    type: derived

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