Sigma rule: Impossible Travel

A detection rule from the SigmaHQ repository, shown as its author published it. Dataset version ref-1f2156d16638, updated 2023-09-03T00:00:00.000Z.

Rule

Title
Impossible Travel
Status
test
Level
high
Author
Mark Morowczynski '@markmorow', Gloria Lee, '@gleeiamglo'
Date
2023-09-03
File
rules/cloud/azure/identity_protection/azure_identity_protection_impossible_travel.yml
Commit
ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Identifies user activities originating from geographically distant locations within a time period shorter than the time it takes to travel from the first location to the second.

Log source

product
azure
service
riskdetection

Detection

selection:
    riskEventType: 'impossibleTravel'
condition: selection

False positives (as the rule lists them)

  • Connecting to a VPN, performing activity and then dropping and performing additional activity.

Tags

  • attack.stealth
  • attack.t1078
  • attack.persistence
  • attack.privilege-escalation
  • attack.initial-access

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

References

Read on 2026-11-03T00:58:21.399Z under licence sigma-drl-1.1@d5f4c36a from https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/cloud/azure/identity_protection/azure_identity_protection_impossible_travel.yml

Sources and licences

  • SigmaHQ

    "Impossible Travel" by Mark Morowczynski '@markmorow', Gloria Lee, '@gleeiamglo' (SigmaHQ). Rule: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/cloud/azure/identity_protection/azure_identity_protection_impossible_travel.yml.
    Licensed under the Detection Rule License (DRL) 1.1: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/Detection-Rule-License

    Detection Rule License (DRL) 1.1

Cite this page

Dragons Eye Ransomware Tracker, "Sigma rule: Impossible Travel",
entity page, dataset version ref-1f2156d16638, updated 2023-09-03T00:00:00.000Z,
https://ransomware-tracker.com/detections/sigma/b2572bf9-e20a-4594-b528-40bde666525a (accessed 2026-11-03).
Underlying source: SigmaHQ rule b2572bf9-e20a-4594-b528-40bde666525a, commit ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84.

Pages change. The dataset version identifies the data, but no archive of old versions is kept, so this citation cannot be replayed later.