---

Table of contents:

1. Module description

2. Installation and prerequisites

   1. Using Docker
   2. Manual Installation

3. Managing the DFIR-O365RC application

   1. Creating the application
   2. Updating the application
   3. Removing the application

4. Permissions and license requirements

5. Functions included in the module

6. Files generated

DFIR-O365RC was presented at SSTIC 2021 (Symposium sur la sécurité des technologies de l'information et des communications). Slides and a recording of the presentation, in French, are available here.

⚠️ On March 31, 2024, Microsoft deprecated the authentication method we used for DFIR-O365RC. This led to the release of the version 2.0.0 in August 2024, with breaking changes regarding authentication and a global refactoring of the code. ⚠️

Module description

The DFIR-O365RC PowerShell module is a set of functions that allow a forensic analyst to collect logs relevant for Microsoft 365 compromises and conduct Entra ID investigations.

The logs are generated in JSON format and retrieved from two main data sources:

• Microsoft 365 Unified Audit Log ;
• Microsoft Entra sign-ins logs and audit logs.

Those two data sources can be queried from different endpoints:

Data source / Endpoint	Retention	Performance	Scope
Unified Audit Log / Exchange Online PowerShell	90 days	Poor	All Microsoft 365 logs (Entra included)
Unified Audit Log / Purview	180 days	Good	All Microsoft 365 logs (Entra included)
Unified Audit Log / Office 365 Management API *	7 days	Good	All Microsoft 365 logs (Entra included)
Microsoft Entra logs / Microsoft Graph PowerShell	30 days	Good	Entra sign-ins and audit logs only
Microsoft Entra logs / Microsoft Graph REST API	30 days	Good	Entra sign-ins and audit logs only

* The Office 365 Management API is intended to analyze data in real time with a SIEM. DFIR-O365RC is a forensic tool, its aim is not to monitor a Microsoft 365 environment in real time.

DFIR-O365RC will fetch data from:

• Microsoft Entra Logs using Microsoft Graph PowerShell because performance is good and it wraps around the Microsoft Graph REST API ;
• By default, Unified Audit Log using Exchange Online PowerShell: despite poor performance this is the only usable option for now ;
• Optionally, Unified Audit Log using Purview. The retention is 180 days, it has good performance but it is still in beta and bugs in the back-end make it unusable for now.

If you are investigating Microsoft 365 malicious activity, the Search-O365 (from Exchange Online PowerShell) will also fetch the Mailbox Audit Log, although the Search-MailboxAuditLog cmdlet is being deprecated.

If you are investigating other Azure resources, with DFIR-O365RC:

• you can get the Azure Monitor Activity log using the Az.Monitor PowerShell module, with a retention of 90 days. This log focuses on activities in Azure Resource Manager (related to an Azure subscription) ;
• you can get the Azure DevOps audit log using the Azure DevOps Services REST API, with a retention of 90 days. This log focuses on activities in Azure DevOps (related to an Azure DevOps organization).

Installation and prerequisites

Using Docker

This is the recommended way of using DFIR-O365RC

Just type :

sudo docker run --rm -v .:/mnt/host -it anssi/dfir-o365rc:latest

DFIR-O365RC is ready to use:

PowerShell 7.4.2
DFIR-O365RC: PowerShell module for Microsoft 365 and Entra ID log collection
https://github.com/ANSSI-FR/DFIR-O365RC
PS /mnt/host/output>

If you would like to build your Docker image manually, clone the repository and use docker compose (or the legacy docker-compose) to build the image, run the container and mount a volume (in the output/ folder):

sudo docker compose run dfir-o365rc
# using legacy Compose V1
sudo docker-compose run dfir-o365rc

Using PowerShell

You can install the module on PowerShell Desktop and PowerShell Core.

Please note that the Connect-ExchangeOnline cmdlet requires Microsoft .NET Framework 4.7.2 or later.

To install the module from the PowerShell Gallery :

Install-Module -Name DFIR-O365RC

You can also install the module manually by cloning the DFIR-O365RC repository, install the required dependencies (check DFIR-O365RC.psd1) and add the DFIR-O365RC directory in one of your PowerShell's modules path.

Managing the DFIR-O365RC application

Creating the application

Once the module is imported, you will need to create an Entra application, which will handle the log collection process for you.

To do so:

1. Create a self-signed certificate and get the base64-encoded public part:

   On Linux, using PowerShell Core or the Docker container:

   openssl req -new -x509 -newkey rsa:2048 -sha256 -days 365 -nodes -out exampleDFIRO365RC.crt -keyout exampleDFIRO365RC.key -batch
   openssl pkcs12 -inkey exampleDFIRO365RC.key -in exampleDFIRO365RC.crt -export -out exampleDFIRO365RC.pfx # Enter a password for the certificate
   openssl x509 -in exampleDFIRO365RC.crt -outform DER -out - | base64 | tr -d "\n"

   On Windows, using PowerShell:

   $certificate = New-SelfSignedCertificate -Subject "CN=exampleDFIRO365RC" -KeySpec KeyExchange -NotBefore (Get-Date) -NotAfter (Get-Date).AddDays(365)
   $certificatePassword = Read-Host -MaskInput "Please enter a password for the certificate"
   $certificateSecurePassword = ConvertTo-SecureString -String $certificatePassword -AsPlainText -Force
   Export-PfxCertificate -Cert $certificate -FilePath exampleDFIRO365RC.pfx -Password $certificateSecurePassword
   Write-Host ([System.Convert]::ToBase64String($certificate.GetRawCertData()))

2. Use the New-Application cmdlet from the DFIR-O365RC module:

   $certificateb64="<base64-encoded public part from step 1>"
   New-Application -certificateb64 $certificateb64

   Optionally, if you would like to be able to gather logs in the subscriptions of the tenant (not needed if you do not plan to use Get-AzRMActivityLogs):

   New-Application -certificateb64 $certificateb64 -subscriptions

   Optionally, if you would like to be able to gather logs in the Azure DevOps organizations of the tenant (this can take a long time and is not needed if you do not plan to use Get-AzDevOpsActivityLogs):

   New-Application -certificateb64 $certificateb64 -organizations

   To create the application, you will need to log in to Azure several times, using a highly privileged account.

   One the application is created, you will get an output similar to:

   Done creating the application with the required permissions
   Please use the following identifiers: 
   WARNING: AppID: xxxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
   WARNING: Tenant: example.onmicrosoft.com

Updating the application

Once the application is created, you can still, using the Update-Application cmdlet from the module, update its credentials and permissions:

• You can add a new certificate to the application:

  Update-Application -certificateb64 <base64-encoded public part>

• You can specify new subscriptions in which you would like to be able to gather logs:

  Update-Application -subscriptions

• You can specify new Azure DevOps organizations in which you would like to be able to gather logs:

  Update-Application -organizations

Removing the application

Once you are done with the log collection you can delete the application using the Remove-Application cmdlet from the module.

To remove the application, you will need to log in to Azure several times, using a highly privileged account.

If the application was able to gather logs of subscriptions or Azure DevOps organizations, you will need to add the -organizations and/or -subscriptions switches.

Permissions and license requirements

⚠️

Starting with version 2.0.0, the tool is now running in the context of a Service Principal with App-only access / Application permissions.

To use version 2.0.0 and up, you will need to create an application.

Once the application is created, the script will run using the application's credentials and permissions.

⚠️

The application will be created with the least possible required permission set:

• Exchange.ManageAsApp for the Office 365 Exchange Online API (required to be able to run Exchange Online PowerShell cmdlets)
• AuditLog.Read.All for the Microsoft Graph API (required for Microsoft Entra log collection)
• AuditLogsQuery.Read.All for the Microsoft Graph API (required for Unified Audit Log collection using Purview)
• Application.Read.All and DelegatedPermissionGrant.Read.All for the Microsoft Graph API (required for the enrichment of Microsoft Entra logs related to applications and service principals)
• Device.Read.All for the Microsoft Graph API (required for the enrichment of Microsoft Entra logs related to devices)
• Organization.Read.All for the Microsoft Graph API (required for getting general information on the tenant)
• View-only audit logs in Exchange Online (required to use the Search-UnifiedAuditLog cmdlet)

Optionally (if using the -subscriptions switch):

• For the selected subset of subscriptions: Reader role on Microsoft.Insights/eventtypes/* (required to get the Azure Monitor Activity log)

Optionally (if using the -organizations switch):

• For the selected subset of Azure DevOps subscriptions: View audit log (required to get the Azure DevOps audit log)

In order to retrieve Microsoft Entra logs with the Microsoft Graph API you need at least one user with a Microsoft Entra ID P1 license. This license can be purchased for a single user or can be included in some license plans such as the Microsoft 365 Business Premium plan.

Functions included in the module

The module has 9 functions:

Function	Data Source	Retention	Performance	Completeness	Details
Get-O365Full	Unified Audit Log	90 days / 180 days*	Poor	All Unified Audit Log	By default, retrieve the whole Unified Audit Log. This should only be used on a small tenant or a short period of time. You can also use this cmdlet to gather events for some specific record types.
Get-O365Light	Unified Audit Log	90 days / 180 days*	Good	A subset of Unified Audit Log only	Only a subset of operations, which are considered of interest, are retrieved.
Get-O365Defender	Unified Audit Log	90 days / 180 days*	Good	A subset of Unified Audit Log only	Retrieves Microsoft Defender for Microsoft 365 related events. Requires at least one Office 365 E5 license or a license plan which includes Microsoft Defender for Office 365.
Get-AADLogs	Microsoft Entra Logs	30 days	Good	All Microsoft Entra Logs	Get tenant information and all Microsoft Entra logs: sign-ins logs and audit logs.
Get-AADApps	Microsoft Entra Logs + Entra ID	30 days	Good	A subset of Microsoft Entra Logs only	Get Microsoft Entra audit logs related to Entra applications and service principals only. The logs are enriched with application or service principal object information.
Get-AADDevices	Microsoft Entra Logs + Entra ID	30 days	Good	A subset of Microsoft Entra Logs only	Get Microsoft Entra audit logs related to Entra ID joined or registered devices only. The logs are enriched with device object information.
Search-O365	Unified Audit Log / Mailbox Audit Log**	90 days / 180 days*	Poor	A subset of Unified Audit Log only	Search for activity related to specific users, IP addresses or free texts.
Get-AzRMActivityLogs	Azure Monitor Activity log	90 days	Good	All Azure Monitor Activity log	Get all Azure Monitor Activity log for a selected subset of subscriptions.
Get-AzDevOpsActivityLogs	Azure DevOps audit log	90 days	Good	All Azure DevOps audit log	Get all Azure DevOps audit log for a selected subset of Azure DevOps organizations.

* You can get 180 days of retention using Purview, compared to the default 90 days of retention using Exchange Online.

** When searching for users, the Search-O365 cmdlet will also search in the Mailbox Audit Log.

Each function as a comment-based help which you can invoke with the Get-Help cmdlet.

# Display comment-based help
PS> Get-Help Get-O365Full
# Display comment-based help with examples
PS> Get-Help Get-O365Full -Examples

Each function takes as a parameter:

• a start date (-startDate) ;
• an end date (-endDate) ;
• the application identifier of the application (-appId), which is obtained when creating the application ;
• the tenant name (-tenant) ;
• the path to the certificate in PFX format (-certificatePath), which is obtained when creating the application.

Examples:

For readability, we will assume that:

$appId = "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx"
$tenant = "example.onmicrosoft.com"
$certificatePath = "./example.pfx"

On a real case, those parameters are gathered when creating the application.

In order to retrieve Microsoft Entra Logs from the past 30 days as well as general information on the tenant:

$endDate = Get-Date
$startDate = $endDate.AddDays(-30)
Get-AADLogs -startDate $startDate -endDate $endDate -appId $appId -tenant $tenant -certificatePath $certificatePath

Get Microsoft Entra audit logs related to Entra applications and service principals from the past 30 days:

$endDate = Get-Date
$startDate = $endDate.AddDays(-30)
Get-AADApps -startDate $startDate -endDate $endDate -appId $appId -tenant $tenant -certificatePath $certificatePath

Get Microsoft Entra audit logs related to Entra ID joined or registered devices from the past 30 days:

$endDate = Get-Date
$startDate = $endDate.AddDays(-30)
Get-AADDevices -startDate $startDate -endDate $endDate -appId $appId -tenant $tenant -certificatePath $certificatePath

Retrieve Unified Audit log events considered of interest from the past 30 days, except those related to Entra ID, which were already retrieved by the first command:

$endDate = Get-Date
$startDate = $endDate.AddDays(-30)
Get-O365Light -startDate $startDate -endDate $endDate -appId $appId -tenant $tenant -certificatePath $certificatePath -operationsSet "allButAzureAD"

Retrieve Unified Audit log events considered of interest in a time window between -90 days and -30 days from now:

$endDate = (Get-Date).AddDays(-30)
$startDate = (Get-Date).AddDays(-90)
Get-O365Light -startDate $startDate -endDate $endDate -appId $appId -tenant $tenant -certificatePath $certificatePath

If mailbox audit is enabled you can also retrieve MailboxLogin operations using the dedicated switch:

Beware of a global limit of 50.000 events per search

Get-O365Light -startDate $startDate -endDate $endDate -appId $appId -tenant $tenant -certificatePath $certificatePath -mailboxLogin

If there are users with Office 365 E5 licenses or if there is a Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan in the tenant you can retrieve Microsoft Defender related logs from the past 90 days:

$endDate = Get-Date
$startDate = $endDate.AddDays(-90)
Get-O365Defender -startDate $startDate -endDate $endDate -appId $appId -tenant $tenant -certificatePath $certificatePath

To retrieve all Unified Audit Log events between Christmas Eve 2020 and Boxing day 2020:

Beware that performance using that cmdlet is poor

$endDate = Get-Date "12/26/2020"
$startdate = Get-Date "12/24/2020"
Get-O365Full -startDate $startDate -endDate $endDate -appId $appId -tenant $tenant -certificatePath $certificatePath

You can use the search function to look for IP addresses, activity related to specific users or perform a freetext search in the Unified Audit Log:

$endDate = Get-Date
$startDate = $endDate.AddDays(-90)

# Retrieve events which contains the "Python" or "Python3" free text
Search-O365 -startDate $startDate -endDate $endDate -appId $appId -tenant $tenant -certificatePath $certificatePath -freeTexts "Python","Python3"

# Retrieve events related to the IP adresses 8.8.8.8 and 4.4.4.4.
Search-O365 -startDate $startDate -endDate $endDate -appId $appId -tenant $tenant -certificatePath $certificatePath -IPAddresses "8.8.8.8","4.4.4.4"

# Retrieve events related to users [email protected] and [email protected]
Search-O365 -startDate $startDate -endDate $endDate -appId $appId -tenant $tenant -certificatePath $certificatePath -userIds "[email protected]","[email protected]"

When searching for specific users, Search-O365 will also search in the Mailbox Audit Log. That's because, depending on the user's license level and settings, some of the mailbox logs might not be present in the Unified Audit Log.

To retrieve all Azure Resource Manager activity logs from the subscriptions the application has access to:

$endDate = Get-Date
$startDate = $endDate.AddDays(-90)
Get-AzRMActivityLogs -startDate $startDate -endDate $endDate -appId $appId -tenant $tenant -certificatePath $certificatePath

To retrieve all Azure DevOps activity logs from the organizations the application has access to:

$endDate = Get-Date
$startDate = $endDate.AddDays(-90)
Get-AzDevOpsActivityLogs -startDate $startDate -endDate $endDate -appId $appId -tenant $tenant -certificatePath $certificatePath

Files generated

All files generated are in JSON format.

Launching several cmdlet which uses Purview and will write to the same output file can result in an invalid JSON because of a "naive" concatenation

• Get-AADApps will create in the azure_ad_apps folder:

  • a JSON file containing deleted applications: AADApps_example.onmicrosoft.com_deleted_applications_raw.json;
  • a JSON file containing existing applications: AADApps_example.onmicrosoft.com_existing_applications_raw.json;
  • a JSON file containing existing service principals: AADApps_example.onmicrosoft.com_service_principals_raw.json;
  • a JSON file containing the enriched events: AADApps_example.onmicrosoft.com.json.

• Get-AADDevices will create in the azure_ad_devices folder:

  • a JSON file containing joined or registered devices: AADDevices_example.onmicrosoft.com_devices_raw.json;
  • a JSON file containing the enriched events: AADDevices_example.onmicrosoft.com.json.

• Get-AADLogs will create:

  • in the azure_ad_tenant folder:

    • a JSON file containing general information on the tenant: AADTenant_example.onmicrosoft.com.json.

  • in the azure_ad_audit folder:

    • JSON files containing Microsoft Entra audit logs: AADAuditLog_example.onmicrosoft.com_YYYY-MM-DD.json.

  • in the azure_ad_signin folder:

    • JSON files containing Microsoft Entra sign-in logs: YYYY-MM-DD/AADSigninLog_example.onmicrosoft.com_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-00-00.json.

• Get-AzRMActivityLogs will create:

  • in the azure_rm_subscriptions folder:

    • a JSON file containing general information on the subscriptions: AzRMsubscriptions_example.onmicrosoft.com.json.

  • in the azure_rm_activity folder:

    • JSON files containing Azure Monitor Activity logs: YYYY-MM-DD/AzRM_example.onmicrosoft.com_%SubscriptionID%_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-00-00.json.

• Get-AzDevOpsActivityLogs will create:

  • in the azure_DevOps_orgs folder:

    • a JSON file containing general information on the Azure DevOps organizations: AzdevopsOrgs_example.onmicrosoft.com.json.

  • in the azure_DevOps_activity folder:

    • JSON files containing Azure DevOps audit logs: YYYY-MM-DD/AzDevOps_example.onmicrosoft.com_%AzureDevOpsOrg%_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-00-00.json.

• Get-O365Full will create in the O365_unified_audit_logs folder (respectively O365_unified_audit_logs_purview when using Purview):

  • JSON files containing Unified Audit logs: YYYY-MM-DD/UnifiedAuditLog_example.onmicrosoft.com_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-00-00.json (respectively */UnifiedAuditLogPurview_* when using Purview);
  • JSON files containing Unified Audit logs for specified RecordTypes: YYYY-MM-DD/UnifiedAuditLog_example.onmicrosoft.com_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-00-00_%RecordType%.json (respectively */UnifiedAuditLogPurview_* when using Purview).

• Get-O365Light will create in the O365_unified_audit_logs folder (respectively O365_unified_audit_logs_purview when using Purview):

  • JSON files containing Unified Audit logs for a subset of operations, which are considered of interest: YYYY-MM-DD/UnifiedAuditLog_example.onmicrosoft.com_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-00-00.json (respectively */UnifiedAuditLogPurview_* when using Purview).

• Get-O365Defender will create in the O365_unified_audit_logs folder (respectively O365_unified_audit_logs_purview when using Purview):

  • JSON files containing Unified Audit logs for the RecordTypes associated with Defender: YYYY-MM-DD/UnifiedAuditLog_example.onmicrosoft.com_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-00-00_%RecordType%.json (respectively */UnifiedAuditLogPurview_* when using Purview).

• Search-O365 will create:

  • in the O365_unified_audit_logs folder (respectively O365_unified_audit_logs_purview when using Purview):

    • JSON files containing Unified Audit logs for the specified RequestType (FreeText, IPAddresses, orUserIds): YYYY-MM-DD/UnifiedAuditLog_example.onmicrosoft.com_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-00-00_%RequestType%_YYYY-MM-DD-HH-MM-SS.json (respectively */UnifiedAuditLogPurview_* when using Purview). YYYY-MM-DD-HH-MM-SS represents the time when the collect was done. When searching for FreeText, an additional _%i is added at the end, which indicates this is the result from the search of the %i-th free text.

  • in the Exchange_mailbox_audit_logs folder:

    • JSON files containing Mailbox Audit logs (only when searching for UserIDs): YYYY-MM-DD/MailboxAuditLog_example.onmicrosoft.com_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-00-00_UserIds_YYYY-MM-DD-HH-MM-SS_%UserID%.json. YYYY-MM-DD-HH-MM-SS represents the time when the collect was done. %UserID% indicates this is the result from the search of this UserID.

Launching the various functions will generate a directory structure similar to this one:

output
│   Get-AADApps.log
│   Get-AADDevices.log
│   Get-AADLogs.log
│   Get-AzDevOpsActivityLogs.log
│   Get-AzRMActivityLogs.log
│   Get-O365Defender.log
│   Get-O365Full.log
│   Get-O365Light.log
│   Search-O365.log
│
├───azure_ad_apps
│       AADApps_example.onmicrosoft.com.json
│       AADApps_example.onmicrosoft.com_deleted_applications_raw.json
│       AADApps_example.onmicrosoft.com_existing_applications_raw.json
│       AADApps_example.onmicrosoft.com_service_principals_raw.json
│
├───azure_ad_audit
│       AADAuditLog_example.onmicrosoft.com_YYYY-MM-DD.json
│       [...]
│
├───azure_ad_devices
│       AADDevices_example.onmicrosoft.com.json
│       AADDevices_example.onmicrosoft.com_devices_raw.json
│
├───azure_ad_signin
│   ├───YYYY-MM-DD
│   │       AADSigninLog_example.onmicrosoft.com_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-00-00.json
│   │       [...]
│   │
│   ├───[...]
│
├───azure_ad_tenant
│       AADTenant_example.onmicrosoft.com.json
│
├───azure_DevOps_activity
│   ├───YYYY-MM-DD
│   │       AzDevOps_example.onmicrosoft.com_%AzureDevOpsOrg%_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-00-00.json
│   │       [...]
│   │
│   ├───[...]
│
├───azure_DevOps_orgs
│       AzdevopsOrgs_example.onmicrosoft.com.json
├───azure_rm_activity
│   ├───YYYY-MM-DD
│   │       AzRM_example.onmicrosoft.com_%SubscriptionID%_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-00-00.json
│   │       [...]
│   │
│   ├───[...]
│
├───azure_rm_subscriptions
│       AzRMsubscriptions_example.onmicrosoft.com.json
│
├───Exchange_mailbox_audit_logs
│   └───YYYY-MM-DD
│   │       MailboxAuditLog_example.onmicrosoft.com_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-00-00_UserIds_YYYY-MM-DD-HH-MM-SS_%UserID%.json
│   │       [...]
│   │
│   ├───[...]
│
├───O365_unified_audit_logs
│   ├───YYYY-MM-DD
│   │       UnifiedAuditLog_example.onmicrosoft.com_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-00-00.json
│   │       UnifiedAuditLog_example.onmicrosoft.com_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-00-00_%RecordType%.json
│   │       UnifiedAuditLog_example.onmicrosoft.com_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-00-00_UserIds_YYYY-MM-DD-HH-MM-SS.json
│   │       UnifiedAuditLog_example.onmicrosoft.com_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-00-00_IPAddresses_YYYY-MM-DD-HH-MM-SS.json
│   │       UnifiedAuditLog_example.onmicrosoft.com_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-00-00_FreeText_YYYY-MM-DD-HH-MM-SS_%i.json
│   │       [...]
│   │
│   ├───[...]
│
└───O365_unified_audit_logs_purview
│   ├───YYYY-MM-DD
│   │       UnifiedAuditLogPurview_example.onmicrosoft.com_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-00-00.json
│   │       UnifiedAuditLogPurview_example.onmicrosoft.com_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-00-00_%RecordType%.json
│   │       UnifiedAuditLogPurview_example.onmicrosoft.com_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-00-00_UserIds_YYYY-MM-DD-HH-MM-SS.json
│   │       UnifiedAuditLogPurview_example.onmicrosoft.com_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-00-00_IPAddresses_YYYY-MM-DD-HH-MM-SS.json
│   │       UnifiedAuditLogPurview_example.onmicrosoft.com_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-00-00_FreeText_YYYY-MM-DD-HH-MM-SS_%i.json
│   │       [...]
│   │
│   ├───[...]