Description
'Often times after the initial compromise the attackers create inbox rules to delete emails that contain certain keywords.
This is done so as to limit ability to warn compromised users that they've been compromised. Below is a sample query that tries to detect this.
Reference: https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/7kyp0a/recent_phishing_attempts_my_experience_and_what/'
- Rule type
- Scheduled
- Version
- 2.0.4
- Declared status
- Available
- Query frequency
- 1d
- Query period
- 1d
- Trigger
- gt 0
Declared MITRE coverage
Declared sources
Metadata from the source file. No dependencies inferred from KQL.
Connectors
Data types
KQL query
Original query, unchanged.
let Keywords = dynamic(["helpdesk", " alert", " suspicious", "fake", "malicious", "phishing", "spam", "do not click", "do not open", "hijacked", "Fatal"]);
OfficeActivity
| where OfficeWorkload =~ "Exchange"
| where Operation =~ "New-InboxRule" and (ResultStatus =~ "True" or ResultStatus =~ "Succeeded")
| where Parameters has "Deleted Items" or Parameters has "Junk Email" or Parameters has "DeleteMessage"
| extend Events=todynamic(Parameters)
| parse Events with * "SubjectContainsWords" SubjectContainsWords '}'*
| parse Events with * "BodyContainsWords" BodyContainsWords '}'*
| parse Events with * "SubjectOrBodyContainsWords" SubjectOrBodyContainsWords '}'*
| where SubjectContainsWords has_any (Keywords)
or BodyContainsWords has_any (Keywords)
or SubjectOrBodyContainsWords has_any (Keywords)
| extend ClientIPAddress = case( ClientIP has ".", tostring(split(ClientIP,":")[0]), ClientIP has "[", tostring(trim_start(@'[[]',tostring(split(ClientIP,"]")[0]))), ClientIP )
| extend Keyword = iff(isnotempty(SubjectContainsWords), SubjectContainsWords, (iff(isnotempty(BodyContainsWords),BodyContainsWords,SubjectOrBodyContainsWords )))
| extend RuleDetail = case(OfficeObjectId contains '/' , tostring(split(OfficeObjectId, '/')[-1]) , tostring(split(OfficeObjectId, '\\')[-1]))
| summarize count(), StartTimeUtc = min(TimeGenerated), EndTimeUtc = max(TimeGenerated) by Operation, UserId, ClientIPAddress, ResultStatus, Keyword, OriginatingServer, OfficeObjectId, RuleDetail
| extend AccountName = tostring(split(UserId, "@")[0]), AccountUPNSuffix = tostring(split(UserId, "@")[1])
| extend OriginatingServerName = tostring(split(OriginatingServer, " ")[0])
Declared entities
Related content
Links established from declared identifiers and solution manifests.
Source provenance
GitHubDisplayed values come from files in Azure/Azure-Sentinel. They describe the published template, not your workspace configuration.
- Commit
9800e51↗- Source identifier
7b907bf7-77d4-41d0-a208-5643ff75bf9a
GSTEP / CATALOG TRACKING
Added to catalog : 16 Sept 2026 · 05:49 UTC
Last change observed : 16 Sept 2026 · 05:49 UTC