Azure AD Sign-in Logs: Detect ROPC Authentication Flow Use in Application Sign-ins

Flags Azure AD sign-ins where the message indicates an application is using the ROPC authentication flow.

FreeReviewedSigma · Medium · v5

Product: azure
Service: signinlogs
Author: Mark Morowczynski '@markmorow', Bailey Bercik '@baileybercik' (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published: 2022-06-01
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

This rule flags sign-in events in Azure AD sign-in logs where the sign-in message contains "ROPC", indicating use of the Resource Owner Password Credentials authentication flow. Attackers may prefer ROPC because it requires direct handling of user passwords by the application, increasing credential exposure risk. The detection relies on the presence of the "ROPC" indicator in the logged message field.

Reporting behind it

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Azure AD Sign-in Logs: Detect ROPC Authentication Flow Use in Application Sign-ins

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-sign-in-logs-detect-ropc-authentication-flow-use-in-applications-55695bc0

title: "Azure AD Sign-in Logs: Detect ROPC Authentication Flow Use in Application Sign-ins"
id: a9b97c75-ec51-4147-8820-116b845109b0
status: test
description: This rule flags sign-in events in Azure AD sign-in logs where the sign-in message contains "ROPC", indicating use of the Resource Owner Password Credentials authentication flow. Attackers may prefer ROPC because it requires direct handling of user passwords by the application, increasing credential exposure risk. The detection relies on the presence of the "ROPC" indicator in the logged message field.
references:
  - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/architecture/security-operations-applications#application-authentication-flows
  - https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/master/rules/cloud/azure/signin_logs/azure_app_ropc_authentication.yml
author: Mark Morowczynski '@markmorow', Bailey Bercik '@baileybercik', Huntrule Team
date: 2022-06-01
tags:
  - attack.stealth
  - attack.t1078
  - attack.persistence
  - attack.privilege-escalation
  - attack.initial-access
logsource:
  product: azure
  service: signinlogs
detection:
  selection:
    properties.message: ROPC
  condition: selection
falsepositives:
  - Applications that are being used as part of automated testing or a legacy application that cannot use any other modern authentication flow
level: medium
license: DRL-1.1
related:
  - id: 55695bc0-c8cf-461f-a379-2535f563c854
    type: derived

Convert

This rule as a query you can run. Uses no unlock credit.

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