Sigma Rule Library

Suspicious Email Delivered In Microsoft 365

Detects instances where an email, identified as malicious or suspicious by the Microsoft Defender for Office 365 (formerly ATP) engine, was delivered to a user's Inbox or Junk folder. It might indicate that a potential threat, such as a spearphishing attachment or links, has bypassed initial blocking mechanisms and reached an end-user, requiring further investigation and potential remediation.

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Detection logic

selection

Workload: ThreatIntelligence
Operation: TIMailData
Directionality: Inbound

filter_main_blocked

DeliveryAction: Blocked

Condition

selection and not 1 of filter_main_*

Raw YAML

title: Suspicious Email Delivered In Microsoft 365
id: 3569aefd-e535-4391-8c18-24bd01a21eaf
status: experimental
description: |
    Detects instances where an email, identified as malicious or suspicious by the Microsoft Defender for Office 365 (formerly ATP) engine, was delivered to a user's Inbox or Junk folder.
    It might indicate that a potential threat, such as a spearphishing attachment or links, has bypassed initial blocking mechanisms and reached an end-user, requiring further investigation and potential remediation.
references:
    - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/defender-office-365/threat-explorer-real-time-detections-about
    - https://research.splunk.com/cloud/605cc93a-70e4-4ee3-9a3d-1a62e8c9b6c2/
    - https://github.com/Bert-JanP/Hunting-Queries-Detection-Rules/blob/e7250648cb16d4a497ae8737943bf010ea96d2e6/Defender%20For%20Cloud%20Apps/MaliciousEmailDeliveredInMailbox.md
author: Marco Pedrinazzi (@pedrinazziM) (InTheCyber)
date: 2026-01-27
tags:
    - attack.initial-access
    - attack.t1566.001
    - attack.t1566.002
logsource:
    service: audit
    product: m365
detection:
    selection:
        Workload: 'ThreatIntelligence'
        Operation: 'TIMailData'
        Directionality: 'Inbound'
    filter_main_blocked:
        DeliveryAction: 'Blocked'
    condition: selection and not 1 of filter_main_*
falsepositives:
    - Unlikely
level: medium

False positives

  • Unlikely

References

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