Abdelhamid Abaaoud was killed in a pre-dawn police raid on an apartment in northern Paris on Thursday.
He grew up in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek and had dual Belgian and Moroccan citizenship.
French police suspected him of orchestrating last week's coordinated bombings and shootings in the French capital.
Paris prosecutor Francois Molins has now confirmed it was Abdelhamid Abaaoud's bullet-ridden body found in the St Denis apartment after a seven-hour police siege.
The 28 year-old died along with a woman who blew herself up with a suicide belt when elite police forces stormed the building.
Eight other people were arrested in the raids.
The prosecutor later added that it is unclear whether Abdelhamid Abaaoud had also detonated a suicide belt, but handprint analysis was used to confirm the identity of the militant's body.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls broke the news in parliament to applause from politicians.
"Most of you already know this but thanks to the operation that was led yesterday, the raid by the BRI, the French prosecutor has just confirmed that we now know that Abaaoud, the mastermind of the attacks - or one of the masterminds should I say, we should remain prudent, we know the extent of the threat - was found amongst those who were killed. I would like to pay tribute once again to the incredible work done by our intelligence services and the police."
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve says Abdelhamid Abaaoud may also be connected to four of the six recent attacks foiled by French intelligence services.
He says the militant has been linked to an attempted attack on a church near Paris earlier this year.
"His responsibility had been established in the attack attempt by Sid Ahmed Ghlam against Villejuif churches in last April which claimed one life, that of Aurelie Chatelain, who we are thinking of today."
Mr Cazeneuve says French authorities did not receive any information that Abdelhamid Abaaoud had entered Europe until days after the coordinated attacks.
"No information coming from a European country, where he could have transited before arriving in France, was given to us, suggesting that he must have got into Europe and then continued to France. It was only on November 16, after the Paris attacks, that an intelligence service from a non-European country signalled that it had been aware of his presence in Greece."
This development is focusing more attention on European security services who, ahead of last week's attacks, had thought Abdelhamid Abaaoud was still in Syria.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has called for Europe to adopt measures on sharing information about airline passengers as a way of protecting collective security.
The French National Assembly, meanwhile, has approved the President's request to extend France's state of emergency by three months.
Assembly President Claude Bartolone announced the results of the vote.
"The ballot is now open... Voting is now closed. Here are the results of the vote. Number of eligible voters 558, those who voted 557, majority needed 279. The results are, in favour 551 and those against 6. The National Assembly has voted for the law."
The law will adapt, modernise and reinforce a 1955 law regarding the declaration of a state of emergency.
It outlines measures to reinforce house arrest and the searching of properties.
Most notably it accelerates the procedures of dissolution of Salafist mosques.
Another amendment which was passed allows authorities to block social media sites and websites which promote and condone acts of terrorism.
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