Cloud Credential Search Detected via Defend for Containers

  1[metadata]
  2creation_date = "2023/05/12"
  3integration = ["cloud_defend"]
  4maturity = "production"
  5min_stack_comments = "Defend for Containers integration was re-introduced in 9.3.0"
  6min_stack_version = "9.3.0"
  7updated_date = "2026/03/24"
  8
  9[rule]
 10author = ["Elastic"]
 11description = """
 12This rule detects the use of system search utilities like grep and find to search for AWS credentials inside a
 13container. Unauthorized access to these sensitive files could lead to further compromise of the container
 14environment or facilitate a container breakout to the underlying cloud environment.
 15"""
 16from = "now-6m"
 17index = ["logs-cloud_defend.process*"]
 18interval = "5m"
 19language = "eql"
 20license = "Elastic License v2"
 21name = "Cloud Credential Search Detected via Defend for Containers"
 22references = ["https://sysdig.com/blog/threat-detection-aws-cloud-containers/"]
 23risk_score = 47
 24rule_id = "d0b0f3ed-0b37-44bf-adee-e8cb7de92767"
 25severity = "medium"
 26tags = [
 27    "Data Source: Elastic Defend for Containers",
 28    "Domain: Container",
 29    "OS: Linux",
 30    "Use Case: Threat Detection",
 31    "Tactic: Credential Access",
 32    "Resources: Investigation Guide",
 33]
 34timestamp_override = "event.ingested"
 35type = "eql"
 36query = '''
 37process where host.os.type == "linux" and event.type == "start" and event.action == "exec" and (
 38  process.name in ("grep", "egrep", "fgrep", "find", "locate", "mlocate", "cat", "sed", "awk") or
 39  (
 40    /* Account for tools that execute utilities as a subprocess, in this case the target utility name will appear as a process arg */
 41    process.name in ("bash", "dash", "sh", "tcsh", "csh", "zsh", "ksh", "fish", "busybox") and
 42    process.args in (
 43      "grep", "/bin/grep", "/usr/bin/grep", "/usr/local/bin/grep",
 44      "egrep", "/bin/egrep", "/usr/bin/egrep", "/usr/local/bin/egrep",
 45      "fgrep", "/bin/fgrep", "/usr/bin/fgrep", "/usr/local/bin/fgrep",
 46      "find", "/bin/find", "/usr/bin/find", "/usr/local/bin/find",
 47      "locate", "/bin/locate", "/usr/bin/locate", "/usr/local/bin/locate",
 48      "mlocate", "/bin/mlocate", "/usr/bin/mlocate", "/usr/local/bin/mlocate",
 49      "cat", "/bin/cat", "/usr/bin/cat", "/usr/local/bin/cat",
 50      "sed", "/bin/sed", "/usr/bin/sed", "/usr/local/bin/sed",
 51      "awk", "/bin/awk", "/usr/bin/awk", "/usr/local/bin/awk"
 52    ) and 
 53    /* default exclusion list to not FP on default multi-process commands */
 54    not process.args in (
 55      "which", "/bin/which", "/usr/bin/which", "/usr/local/bin/which",
 56      "man", "/bin/man", "/usr/bin/man", "/usr/local/bin/man",
 57      "chmod", "/bin/chmod", "/usr/bin/chmod", "/usr/local/bin/chmod",
 58      "chown", "/bin/chown", "/usr/bin/chown", "/usr/local/bin/chown"
 59    )
 60  )
 61)
 62and
 63process.args like~ (
 64  /* AWS Credentials */
 65  "*aws_access_key_id*", "*aws_secret_access_key*", "*aws_session_token*", "*accesskeyid*", "*secretaccesskey*",
 66  "*access_key*", "*.aws/credentials*",
 67
 68  /* Azure Credentials */
 69  "*AZURE_CLIENT_ID*", "*AZURE_TENANT_ID*", "*AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET*", "*AZURE_FEDERATED_TOKEN_FILE*",
 70  "*IDENTITY_ENDPOINT*", "*IDENTITY_HEADER*", "*MSI_ENDPOINT*", "*MSI_SECRET*",
 71  "*/.azure/*", "*/var/run/secrets/azure/*",
 72
 73  /* GCP Credentials */
 74  "*/.config/gcloud/*", "*application_default_credentials.json*",
 75  "*type: service_account*", "*client_email*", "*private_key_id*", "*private_key*",
 76  "*/var/run/secrets/google/*", "*GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS*"
 77) and process.interactive == true and container.id like "*" 
 78'''
 79
 80[[rule.threat]]
 81framework = "MITRE ATT&CK"
 82
 83[[rule.threat.technique]]
 84id = "T1552"
 85name = "Unsecured Credentials"
 86reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1552/"
 87
 88[[rule.threat.technique.subtechnique]]
 89id = "T1552.001"
 90name = "Credentials In Files"
 91reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1552/001/"
 92
 93[rule.threat.tactic]
 94id = "TA0006"
 95name = "Credential Access"
 96reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0006/"
 97
 98[[rule.threat]]
 99framework = "MITRE ATT&CK"
100
101[[rule.threat.technique]]
102id = "T1083"
103name = "File and Directory Discovery"
104reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1083/"
105
106[rule.threat.tactic]
107id = "TA0007"
108name = "Discovery"
109reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0007/"