diff --git a/internal/fields/testdata/fields/fields.yml b/internal/fields/testdata/fields/fields.yml
index 6df8ab44a..5ee7f1f41 100644
--- a/internal/fields/testdata/fields/fields.yml
+++ b/internal/fields/testdata/fields/fields.yml
@@ -92,3 +92,6 @@
     - array
 - name: user.group.id
   type: keyword
+- name: attributes
+  type: object
+  object_type: keyword
diff --git a/internal/fields/testdata/no-subobjects.json b/internal/fields/testdata/no-subobjects.json
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..823b3f758
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/fields/testdata/no-subobjects.json
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+{
+  "attributes.id": "foo",
+  "attributes.status": "ok"
+}
diff --git a/internal/fields/testdata/subobjects.json b/internal/fields/testdata/subobjects.json
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f6cba846b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/fields/testdata/subobjects.json
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+{
+  "attributes": {
+    "id": "42",
+    "status": "ok"
+  }
+}
diff --git a/internal/fields/validate.go b/internal/fields/validate.go
index 268e5f201..d7a6b518f 100644
--- a/internal/fields/validate.go
+++ b/internal/fields/validate.go
@@ -828,19 +828,13 @@ func isFieldTypeFlattened(key string, fieldDefinitions []FieldDefinition) bool {
 }
 
 func couldBeMultifield(key string, fieldDefinitions []FieldDefinition) bool {
-	lastDotIndex := strings.LastIndex(key, ".")
-	if lastDotIndex < 0 {
-		// Field at the root level cannot be a multifield.
-		return false
-	}
-	parentKey := key[:lastDotIndex]
-	parent := FindElementDefinition(parentKey, fieldDefinitions)
+	parent := findParentElementDefinition(key, fieldDefinitions)
 	if parent == nil {
 		// Parent is not defined, so not sure what this can be.
 		return false
 	}
 	switch parent.Type {
-	case "", "group", "nested", "group-nested", "object":
+	case "", "group", "nested", "object":
 		// Objects cannot have multifields.
 		return false
 	}
@@ -861,8 +855,8 @@ func isArrayOfObjects(val any) bool {
 	return false
 }
 
-func findElementDefinitionForRoot(root, searchedKey string, FieldDefinitions []FieldDefinition) *FieldDefinition {
-	for _, def := range FieldDefinitions {
+func findElementDefinitionForRoot(root, searchedKey string, fieldDefinitions []FieldDefinition) *FieldDefinition {
+	for _, def := range fieldDefinitions {
 		key := strings.TrimLeft(root+"."+def.Name, ".")
 		if compareKeys(key, def, searchedKey) {
 			return &def
@@ -878,6 +872,19 @@ func findElementDefinitionForRoot(root, searchedKey string, FieldDefinitions []F
 			return fd
 		}
 	}
+
+	if root == "" {
+		// No definition found, check if the parent is an object with object type.
+		parent := findParentElementDefinition(searchedKey, fieldDefinitions)
+		if parent != nil && parent.Type == "object" && parent.ObjectType != "" {
+			fd := *parent
+			fd.Name = searchedKey
+			fd.Type = parent.ObjectType
+			fd.ObjectType = ""
+			return &fd
+		}
+	}
+
 	return nil
 }
 
@@ -886,6 +893,16 @@ func FindElementDefinition(searchedKey string, fieldDefinitions []FieldDefinitio
 	return findElementDefinitionForRoot("", searchedKey, fieldDefinitions)
 }
 
+func findParentElementDefinition(key string, fieldDefinitions []FieldDefinition) *FieldDefinition {
+	lastDotIndex := strings.LastIndex(key, ".")
+	if lastDotIndex < 0 {
+		// Field at the root level cannot be a multifield.
+		return nil
+	}
+	parentKey := key[:lastDotIndex]
+	return FindElementDefinition(parentKey, fieldDefinitions)
+}
+
 // compareKeys checks if `searchedKey` matches with the given `key`. `key` can contain
 // wildcards (`*`), that match any sequence of characters in `searchedKey` different to dots.
 func compareKeys(key string, def FieldDefinition, searchedKey string) bool {
@@ -1100,7 +1117,7 @@ func (v *Validator) parseSingleElementValue(key string, definition FieldDefiniti
 			return fmt.Errorf("the IP %q is not one of the allowed test IPs (see: https://github.com/elastic/elastic-package/blob/main/internal/fields/_static/allowed_geo_ips.txt)", valStr)
 		}
 	// Groups should only contain nested fields, not single values.
-	case "group", "nested":
+	case "group", "nested", "object":
 		switch val := val.(type) {
 		case map[string]any:
 			// This is probably an element from an array of objects,
@@ -1124,7 +1141,19 @@ func (v *Validator) parseSingleElementValue(key string, definition FieldDefiniti
 			// The document contains a null, let's consider this like an empty array.
 			return nil
 		default:
-			return fmt.Errorf("field %q is a group of fields, it cannot store values", key)
+			switch {
+			case definition.Type == "object" && definition.ObjectType != "":
+				// This is the leaf element of an object without wildcards in the name, adapt the definition and try again.
+				definition.Name = definition.Name + ".*"
+				definition.Type = definition.ObjectType
+				definition.ObjectType = ""
+				return v.parseSingleElementValue(key, definition, val, doc)
+			case definition.Type == "object" && definition.ObjectType == "":
+				// Legacy mapping, ambiguous definition not allowed by recent versions of the spec, ignore it.
+				return nil
+			}
+
+			return fmt.Errorf("field %q is a group of fields of type %s, it cannot store values", key, definition.Type)
 		}
 	// Numbers should have been parsed as float64, otherwise they are not numbers.
 	case "float", "long", "double":
diff --git a/internal/fields/validate_test.go b/internal/fields/validate_test.go
index 1bcdd3b49..87edd54f4 100644
--- a/internal/fields/validate_test.go
+++ b/internal/fields/validate_test.go
@@ -64,6 +64,25 @@ func TestValidate_WithFlattenedFields(t *testing.T) {
 	require.Empty(t, errs)
 }
 
+func TestValidate_ObjectTypeWithoutWildcard(t *testing.T) {
+	validator, err := CreateValidatorForDirectory("testdata",
+		WithDisabledDependencyManagement())
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+	require.NotNil(t, validator)
+
+	t.Run("subobjects", func(t *testing.T) {
+		e := readSampleEvent(t, "testdata/subobjects.json")
+		errs := validator.ValidateDocumentBody(e)
+		require.Empty(t, errs)
+	})
+
+	t.Run("no-subobjects", func(t *testing.T) {
+		e := readSampleEvent(t, "testdata/no-subobjects.json")
+		errs := validator.ValidateDocumentBody(e)
+		require.Empty(t, errs)
+	})
+}
+
 func TestValidate_WithNumericKeywordFields(t *testing.T) {
 	validator, err := CreateValidatorForDirectory("testdata",
 		WithNumericKeywordFields([]string{