Admin Operations Center (AOC)

FastAPI microservice that ingests Microsoft Entra (Azure AD) and other admin audit logs into MongoDB, dedupes them, and exposes a UI/API to fetch, search, and review events.

Components

• FastAPI app under backend/ with routes to fetch audit logs and list stored events.
• MongoDB for persistence (provisioned via Docker Compose).
• Microsoft Graph client (client credentials) for retrieving directory audit events and Intune audit events.
• Office 365 Management Activity API client for Exchange/SharePoint/Teams admin audit logs.
• Frontend served from the backend for filtering/searching events and viewing raw entries.
• Optional OIDC bearer auth (Entra) to protect the API/UI and gate access by roles/groups.
• Natural language query (/api/ask) powered by LLM (OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, or any compatible API).
• MCP server for Claude Desktop / Cursor integration.

Prerequisites (macOS)

• Python 3.11
• Docker Desktop (for the quickest start) or a local MongoDB instance
• An Entra app registration with Application permission AuditLog.Read.All and admin consent granted
  • Also required to fetch other sources:
    • https://manage.office.com/.default (Audit API) with ActivityFeed.Read/ActivityFeed.ReadDlp (built into the app registration’s API permissions for Office 365 Management APIs)
    • Intune audit: DeviceManagementConfiguration.Read.All (or broader) for /deviceManagement/auditEvents
  • Optional API protection: configure AUTH_ENABLED=true and set AUTH_TENANT_ID/AUTH_CLIENT_ID (the audience) plus allowed roles/groups.

Configuration

Create a .env file at the repo root (copy .env.example) and fill in your Microsoft Graph app credentials. The provided MONGO_URI works with the bundled MongoDB container; change it if you use a different Mongo instance.

cp .env.example .env
# edit .env to add TENANT_ID, CLIENT_ID, CLIENT_SECRET (and MONGO_URI if needed)
# optional: enable auth & periodic fetch
# AUTH_ENABLED=true
# AUTH_TENANT_ID=...
# AUTH_CLIENT_ID=...
# AUTH_ALLOWED_ROLES=Admins,SecurityOps
# ENABLE_PERIODIC_FETCH=true
# FETCH_INTERVAL_MINUTES=60

# Optional: data retention (auto-expire old events via MongoDB TTL)
# RETENTION_DAYS=90

# Optional: CORS origins if the frontend is served separately
# CORS_ORIGINS=http://localhost:3000,https://app.example.com

# Optional: enable AI/natural-language features (/api/ask, MCP server)
# AI_FEATURES_ENABLED=true

# Optional: LLM configuration for natural language querying
# LLM_API_KEY=...
# LLM_BASE_URL=https://api.openai.com/v1
# LLM_MODEL=gpt-4o-mini
# LLM_TIMEOUT_SECONDS=30

Run with Docker Compose (recommended)

docker compose up --build

• API: http://localhost:8000
• Frontend: http://localhost:8000
• Health: http://localhost:8000/health
• Mongo: localhost:27017 (root/example)

Run locally without Docker

1. Start MongoDB (e.g. with Docker):
   docker run --rm -p 27017:27017 -e MONGO_INITDB_ROOT_USERNAME=root -e MONGO_INITDB_ROOT_PASSWORD=example mongo:7

2. Prepare the backend environment:

cd backend
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
export $(cat ../.env | xargs)   # or set env vars manually
uvicorn main:app --reload --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

API

• GET /health — health check with MongoDB connectivity status.
• GET /metrics — Prometheus metrics for request latency, fetch volume, and errors.
• GET /api/version — running version (baked into the Docker image at build time).
• GET /api/fetch-audit-logs — pulls the last 7 days by default (override with ?hours=N, capped to 30 days) of:
  • Entra directory audit logs (/auditLogs/directoryAudits)
  • Exchange/SharePoint/Teams admin audits (via Office 365 Management Activity API)
  • Intune audit logs (/deviceManagement/auditEvents) Dedupes on a stable key (source id or timestamp/category/operation/target). Returns count and per-source warnings.
  • Incremental fetch: each source remembers its last successful fetch time in MongoDB (watermarks collection). Subsequent calls fetch only new events since the watermark.
  • Alerting: if ALERTS_ENABLED=true, events are evaluated against stored rules during ingestion.
  • SIEM export: if SIEM_ENABLED=true, each ingested event is forwarded to SIEM_WEBHOOK_URL.
• GET /api/events — list stored events with filters:
  • service, actor, operation, result, start, end, search (free text over raw/summary/actor/targets)
  • Pagination: cursor-based (page_size defaults to 50, max 500). Pass cursor from next_cursor to paginate forward.
• GET /api/filter-options — best-effort distinct values for services, operations, results, actors (used by UI dropdowns).
• POST /api/webhooks/graph — receive Microsoft Graph change notifications. Echoes validationToken when present.
• GET /api/source-health — last fetch status for each ingestion source (directory, unified, intune).
• PATCH /api/events/{id}/tags — update tags on an event (e.g., investigating, false_positive).
• POST /api/events/{id}/comments — add a comment to an event.
• POST /api/events/{id}/explain — AI explanation of a single audit event with security context (requires LLM_API_KEY).
• POST /api/ask — natural language query. Returns a narrative answer + referenced events. Supports time ranges, entity names, and respects active UI filters. Only available when AI_FEATURES_ENABLED=true.
• GET /api/config/features — feature flags (ai_features_enabled).
• GET /api/rules — list alert rules.
• POST /api/rules — create an alert rule.
• PUT /api/rules/{id} — update an alert rule.
• DELETE /api/rules/{id} — delete an alert rule.

MCP Server

AOC exposes an MCP interface in two forms:

1. HTTP/SSE (production) — mounted at /mcp inside the FastAPI app, behind OIDC auth:

• GET /mcp/sse — establish SSE stream (requires Bearer token if AUTH_ENABLED=true)
• POST /mcp/messages/?session_id=... — send tool calls

This is the recommended way to use MCP against a remote deployment like aoc.cqre.net. Any MCP client that supports SSE transport (e.g. Cursor, Claude Desktop with an SSE bridge, or custom scripts) can connect using the same Entra token as the web UI.

2. stdio (local development) — python backend/mcp_server.py:

• Runs as a local subprocess for Claude Desktop
• Connects directly to MongoDB (bypasses FastAPI auth)
• Useful for local development when you have the repo cloned and MongoDB running locally

Available tools (both transports):

• search_events — filter by entity, service, operation, result, time range.
• get_event — retrieve raw event JSON by ID.
• get_summary — aggregated summary (service, operation, result, actor counts) for the last N days.
• ask — natural language query returning recent events.

Stored document shape (collection micro_soc.events):

{
  "id": "...",                // original source id
  "timestamp": "...",         // activityDateTime
  "service": "...",           // category
  "operation": "...",         // activityDisplayName
  "result": "...",
  "actor_display": "...",     // resolved user/app name
  "target_displays": [ ... ],
  "display_summary": "...",
  "dedupe_key": "...",        // used for upserts
  "actor": { ... },           // initiatedBy
  "targets": [ ... ],         // targetResources
  "raw": { ... },             // full source event
  "raw_text": "..."           // raw as string for text search
}

Development

Linting and formatting

We use ruff for linting and formatting.

cd backend
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt -r requirements-dev.txt
ruff check ..
ruff format ..

Running tests

cd backend
pytest -q

Quick smoke tests

With the server running:

curl http://localhost:8000/health
curl http://localhost:8000/api/events
curl http://localhost:8000/api/fetch-audit-logs

• Visit the UI at http://localhost:8000 to filter by user/service/action/result/time, search raw text, paginate, and view raw events.

Maintenance (Dockerized)

Use the backend image so you don’t need a local venv:

# ensure Mongo + backend network are up
docker compose up -d mongo
# re-run enrichment/normalization on stored events (uses .env for Graph/Mongo)
docker compose run --rm backend python maintenance.py renormalize --limit 500
# deduplicate existing events (optional)
docker compose run --rm backend python maintenance.py dedupe

Omit --limit to process all events. You can also run commands inside a running backend container with docker compose exec backend ....

Notes / Troubleshooting

• Ensure TENANT_ID, CLIENT_ID, and CLIENT_SECRET match an app registration with AuditLog.Read.All (application) permission and admin consent.
• Additional permissions: Office 365 Management Activity (ActivityFeed.Read), and Intune audit (DeviceManagementConfiguration.Read.All).
• Auth: if AUTH_ENABLED=true, issued tokens must be from AUTH_TENANT_ID, audience = AUTH_CLIENT_ID; access is granted if roles or groups overlap AUTH_ALLOWED_ROLES/AUTH_ALLOWED_GROUPS (if set).
• Backfill limits: Management Activity API typically exposes ~7 days of history via API (longer if your tenant has extended/Advanced Audit retention). Directory/Intune audit retention follows your tenant policy (commonly 30–90 days, longer with Advanced Audit).
• If you change Mongo credentials/ports, update MONGO_URI in .env (Docker Compose passes it through to the backend).
• The service uses the micro_soc database and events collection by default; adjust in backend/config.py if needed.