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This rule monitors for at jobs being created or renamed. Linux at jobs are scheduled tasks that can be leveraged by system administrators to set up scheduled tasks, but may be abused by malicious actors for persistence, privilege escalation and command execution. By creating or modifying cron job configurations, attackers can execute malicious commands or scripts at predefined intervals, ensuring their continued presence and enabling unauthorized activities.
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This rule monitors for (ana)cron jobs being created or renamed. Linux cron jobs are scheduled tasks that can be leveraged by system administrators to set up scheduled tasks, but may be abused by malicious actors for persistence, privilege escalation and command execution. By creating or modifying cron job configurations, attackers can execute malicious commands or scripts at predefined intervals, ensuring their continued presence and enabling unauthorized activities.
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User Account Control (UAC) can help mitigate the impact of malware on Windows hosts. With UAC, apps and tasks always run in the security context of a non-administrator account, unless an administrator specifically authorizes administrator-level access to the system. This rule identifies registry value changes to bypass User Access Control (UAC) protection.
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Identifies parent process spoofing used to thwart detection. Adversaries may spoof the parent process identifier (PPID) of a new process to evade process-monitoring defenses or to elevate privileges.
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This rule identifies when a User Account starts the Active Directory Replication Process. Attackers can use the DCSync technique to get credential information of individual accounts or the entire domain, thus compromising the entire domain.
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This rule leverages the File Integrity Monitoring (FIM) integration to detect file modifications of files that are commonly used for persistence on Linux systems. The rule detects modifications to files that are commonly used for cron jobs, systemd services, message-of-the-day (MOTD), SSH configurations, shell configurations, runtime control, init daemon, passwd/sudoers/shadow files, Systemd udevd, and XDG/KDE autostart entries. To leverage this rule, the paths specified in the query need to be added to the FIM policy in the Elastic Security app.
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Potential Privilege Escalation via Sudoers File Modification
A sudoers file specifies the commands users or groups can run and from which terminals. Adversaries can take advantage of these configurations to execute commands as other users or spawn processes with higher privileges.
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Potential Sudo Hijacking
Identifies the creation of a sudo binary located at /usr/bin/sudo. Attackers may hijack the default sudo binary and replace it with a custom binary or script that can read the user's password in clear text to escalate privileges or enable persistence onto the system every time the sudo binary is executed.
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Privilege Escalation via SUID/SGID
Identifies instances where a process is executed with user/group ID 0 (root), and a real user/group ID that is not 0. This is indicative of a process that has been granted SUID/SGID permissions, allowing it to run with elevated privileges. Attackers may leverage a misconfiguration for exploitation in order to escalate their privileges to root, or establish a backdoor for persistence.
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Identifies Service Control (sc.exe) spawning from script interpreter processes to create, modify, or start services. This can potentially indicate an attempt to elevate privileges or maintain persistence.
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Shadow File Modification
This rule monitors for Linux Shadow file modifications. These modifications are indicative of a potential password change or user addition event. Threat actors may attempt to create new users or change the password of a user account to maintain access to a system.
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Sudoers File Modification
A sudoers file specifies the commands that users or groups can run and from which terminals. Adversaries can take advantage of these configurations to execute commands as other users or spawn processes with higher privileges.
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SUID/SGID Bit Set
An adversary may add the setuid or setgid bit to a file or directory in order to run a file with the privileges of the owning user or group. An adversary can take advantage of this to either do a shell escape or exploit a vulnerability in an application with the setuid or setgid bit to get code running in a different user’s context. Additionally, adversaries can use this mechanism on their own malware to make sure they're able to execute in elevated contexts in the future.
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SUID/SGUID Enumeration Detected
This rule monitors for the usage of the "find" command in conjunction with SUID and SGUID permission arguments. SUID (Set User ID) and SGID (Set Group ID) are special permissions in Linux that allow a program to execute with the privileges of the file owner or group, respectively, rather than the privileges of the user running the program. In case an attacker is able to enumerate and find a binary that is misconfigured, they might be able to leverage this misconfiguration to escalate privileges by exploiting vulnerabilities or built-in features in the privileged program.
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Systemd Generator Created
This rule detects the creation of a systemd generator file. Generators are small executables executed by systemd at bootup and during configuration reloads. Their main role is to convert non-native configuration and execution parameters into dynamically generated unit files, symlinks, or drop-ins, extending the unit file hierarchy for the service manager. Systemd generators can be used to execute arbitrary code at boot time, which can be leveraged by attackers to maintain persistence on a Linux system.
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Systemd Service Created
This rule detects the creation or renaming of a new Systemd file in all of the common Systemd service locations for both root and regular users. Systemd service files are configuration files in Linux systems used to define and manage system services. Malicious actors can leverage systemd service files to achieve persistence by creating or modifying services to execute malicious commands or payloads during system startup or at a predefined interval by adding a systemd timer. This allows them to maintain unauthorized access, execute additional malicious activities, or evade detection.
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Systemd Service Started by Unusual Parent Process
Systemctl is a process used in Linux systems to manage systemd processes through service configuration files. Malicious actors can leverage systemd services to achieve persistence by creating or modifying service files to execute malicious commands or payloads during system startup. This allows them to maintain unauthorized access, execute additional malicious activities, or evade detection.
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Identifies Windows programs run from unexpected parent processes. This could indicate masquerading or other strange activity on a system.
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Windows Service Installed via an Unusual Client
Identifies the creation of a Windows service by an unusual client process. Services may be created with administrator privileges but are executed under SYSTEM privileges, so an adversary may also use a service to escalate privileges from administrator to SYSTEM.
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Identifies when a browser process navigates to the Microsoft Help page followed by spawning an elevated process. This may indicate a successful exploitation for privilege escalation abusing a vulnerable Windows Installer repair setup.
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User Added to the Admin Group
Identifies users being added to the admin group. This could be an indication of privilege escalation activity.
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Identifies a privilege escalation attempt via exploiting CVE-2022-38028 to hijack the print spooler service execution.
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Identifies when a user has updated a SAML provider in AWS. SAML providers are used to enable federated access to the AWS Management Console. This activity could be an indication of an attacker attempting to escalate privileges.
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Identifies when a user has assumed a role in AWS Security Token Service (STS). Users can assume a role to obtain temporary credentials and access AWS resources. Adversaries can use this technique for credential access and privilege escalation.
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Detects attempts to exploit privilege escalation vulnerabilities related to the Print Spooler service. For more information refer to the following CVE's - CVE-2020-1048, CVE-2020-1337 and CVE-2020-1300 and verify that the impacted system is patched.
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Detects the first occurrence of a modification to Group Policy Object Attributes to add privileges to user accounts or use them to add users as local admins.
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Process Injection by the Microsoft Build Engine
An instance of MSBuild, the Microsoft Build Engine, created a thread in another process. This technique is sometimes used to evade detection or elevate privileges.
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Detects the modification of Group Policy Object attributes to execute a scheduled task in the objects controlled by the GPO.
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Detects the modification of Group Policy Objects (GPO) to add a startup/logon script to users or computer objects.
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Detects attempts to exploit privilege escalation vulnerabilities related to the Print Spooler service including CVE-2020-1048 and CVE-2020-1337.
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Identify access to sensitive Active Directory object attributes that contains credentials and decryption keys such as unixUserPassword, ms-PKI-AccountCredentials and msPKI-CredentialRoamingTokens.
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Identifies User Account Control (UAC) bypass via eventvwr.exe. Attackers bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.
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First Time Seen NewCredentials Logon Process
Identifies a new credentials logon type performed by an unusual process. This may indicate the existence of an access token forging capability that are often abused to bypass access control restrictions.
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This rule identifies when a User Account starts the Active Directory Replication Process for the first time. Attackers can use the DCSync technique to get credential information of individual accounts or the entire domain, thus compromising the entire domain.
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Interactive Logon by an Unusual Process
Identifies interactive logon attempt with alternate credentials and by an unusual process. Adversaries may create a new token to escalate privileges and bypass access controls.
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Identifies the modification of an account's Kerberos pre-authentication options. An adversary with GenericWrite/GenericAll rights over the account can maliciously modify these settings to perform offline password cracking attacks such as AS-REP roasting.
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Identify the modification of the msPKIAccountCredentials attribute in an Active Directory User Object. Attackers can abuse the credentials roaming feature to overwrite an arbitrary file for privilege escalation. ms-PKI-AccountCredentials contains binary large objects (BLOBs) of encrypted credential objects from the credential manager store, private keys, certificates, and certificate requests.
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Detects the successful hijack of Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser scheduled task to establish persistence with an integrity level of system.
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Identifies a suspicious computer account name rename event, which may indicate an attempt to exploit CVE-2021-42278 to elevate privileges from a standard domain user to a user with domain admin privileges. CVE-2021-42278 is a security vulnerability that allows potential attackers to impersonate a domain controller via samAccountName attribute spoofing.
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Identifies a privilege escalation attempt via named pipe impersonation. An adversary may abuse this technique by utilizing a framework such Metasploit's meterpreter getsystem command.
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Process Creation via Secondary Logon
Identifies process creation with alternate credentials. Adversaries may create a new process with a different token to escalate privileges and bypass access controls.
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Identifies the remote update to a computer account's DnsHostName attribute. If the new value set is a valid domain controller DNS hostname and the subject computer name is not a domain controller, then it's highly likely a preparation step to exploit CVE-2022-26923 in an attempt to elevate privileges from a standard domain user to domain admin privileges.
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SeDebugPrivilege Enabled by a Suspicious Process
Identifies the creation of a process running as SYSTEM and impersonating a Windows core binary privileges. Adversaries may create a new process with a different token to escalate privileges and bypass access controls.
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Identifies a suspicious local successful logon event where the Logon Package is Kerberos, the remote address is set to localhost, followed by a sevice creation from the same LogonId. This may indicate an attempt to leverage a Kerberos relay attack variant that can be used to elevate privilege locally from a domain joined user to local System privileges.
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Identifies an attempt to bypass User Account Control (UAC) by masquerading as a Microsoft trusted Windows directory. Attackers may bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.
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Identifies User Account Control (UAC) bypass via hijacking DiskCleanup Scheduled Task. Attackers bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.
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Detects unusual Print Spooler service (spoolsv.exe) child processes. This may indicate an attempt to exploit privilege escalation vulnerabilities related to the Printing Service on Windows.
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Identifies modification of the Time Provider. Adversaries may establish persistence by registering and enabling a malicious DLL as a time provider. Windows uses the time provider architecture to obtain accurate time stamps from other network devices or clients in the network. Time providers are implemented in the form of a DLL file which resides in the System32 folder. The service W32Time initiates during the startup of Windows and loads w32time.dll.
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Identifies registry modifications to default services that could enable privilege escalation to SYSTEM. Attackers with privileges from groups like Server Operators may change the ImagePath of services to executables under their control or to execute commands.
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Identifies a privilege escalation attempt via a rogue Windows directory (Windir) environment variable. This is a known primitive that is often combined with other vulnerabilities to elevate privileges.
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Detects attempts to exploit a privilege escalation vulnerability (CVE-2020-1030) related to the print spooler service. Exploitation involves chaining multiple primitives to load an arbitrary DLL into the print spooler process running as SYSTEM.
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Identifies unusual DLLs loaded by the DNS Server process, potentially indicating the abuse of the ServerLevelPluginDll functionality. This can lead to privilege escalation and remote code execution with SYSTEM privileges.
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Identifies Component Object Model (COM) hijacking via registry modification. Adversaries may establish persistence by executing malicious content triggered by hijacked references to COM objects.
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Identifies port monitor and print processor registry modifications. Adversaries may abuse port monitor and print processors to run malicious DLLs during system boot that will be executed as SYSTEM for privilege escalation and/or persistence, if permissions allow writing a fully-qualified pathname for that DLL.
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Detects attempts to maintain persistence by creating registry keys using AppCert DLLs. AppCert DLLs are loaded by every process using the common API functions to create processes.
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Identifies when an EC2 instance interacts with the AWS IAM service via an assumed role. This is uncommon behavior and could indicate an attacker using compromised credentials to further exploit an environment. For example, an assumed role could be used to create new users for persistence or add permissions for privilege escalation. An EC2 instance assumes a role using their EC2 ID as the session name. This rule looks for the pattern "i-" which is the beginning pattern for assumed role sessions started by an EC2 instance.
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Potential Suspicious DebugFS Root Device Access
This rule monitors for the usage of the built-in Linux DebugFS utility to access a disk device without root permissions. Linux users that are part of the "disk" group have sufficient privileges to access all data inside of the machine through DebugFS. Attackers may leverage DebugFS in conjunction with "disk" permissions to read sensitive files owned by root, such as the shadow file, root ssh private keys or other sensitive files that may allow them to further escalate privileges.
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Identifies the creation of a symbolic link to a suspicious file or location. A symbolic link is a reference to a file or directory that acts as a pointer or shortcut, allowing users to access the target file or directory from a different location in the file system. An attacker can potentially leverage symbolic links for privilege escalation by tricking a privileged process into following the symbolic link to a sensitive file, giving the attacker access to data or capabilities they would not normally have.
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Identifies when a new SSH public key is uploaded to an AWS EC2 instance using the EC2 Instance Connect service. This action could indicate an adversary attempting to maintain access to the instance. The rule also detects the
SendSerialConsoleSSHPublicKey
API action, which could be used for privilege escalation if the serial console is enabled. Monitoring these activities helps ensure unauthorized access attempts are detected and mitigated promptly.
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File System Debugger Launched Inside a Privileged Container
This rule detects the use of the built-in Linux DebugFS utility from inside a privileged container. DebugFS is a special file system debugging utility which supports reading and writing directly from a hard drive device. When launched inside a privileged container, a container deployed with all the capabilities of the host machine, an attacker can access sensitive host level files which could be used for further privilege escalation and container escapes to the host machine.
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Mount Launched Inside a Privileged Container
This rule detects the use of the mount utility from inside a privileged container. The mount command is used to make a device or file system accessible to the system, and then to connect its root directory to a specified mount point on the local file system. When launched inside a privileged container--a container deployed with all the capabilities of the host machine-- an attacker can access sensitive host level files which could be used for further privilege escalation and container escapes to the host machine. Any usage of mount inside a running privileged container should be further investigated.
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PowerShell Script with Token Impersonation Capabilities
Detects scripts that contain PowerShell functions, structures, or Windows API functions related to token impersonation/theft. Attackers may duplicate then impersonate another user's token to escalate privileges and bypass access controls.
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Detects network connections initiated by the "sudo" binary. This behavior is uncommon and may occur in instances where reverse shell shellcode is injected into a process run with elevated permissions via "sudo". Attackers may attempt to inject shellcode into processes running as root, to escalate privileges.
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Potential Shell via Wildcard Injection Detected
This rule monitors for the execution of a set of linux binaries, that are potentially vulnerable to wildcard injection, with suspicious command line flags followed by a shell spawn event. Linux wildcard injection is a type of security vulnerability where attackers manipulate commands or input containing wildcards (e.g., *, ?, []) to execute unintended operations or access sensitive data by tricking the system into interpreting the wildcard characters in unexpected ways.
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Privilege Escalation via CAP_SETUID/SETGID Capabilities
Identifies instances where a process (granted CAP_SETUID and/or CAP_SETGID capabilities) is executed, after which the user's access is elevated to UID/GID 0 (root). In Linux, the CAP_SETUID and CAP_SETGID capabilities allow a process to change its UID and GID, respectively, providing control over user and group identity management. Attackers may leverage a misconfiguration for exploitation in order to escalate their privileges to root.
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Monitors for the elevation of regular user permissions to root permissions through a previously unknown executable. Attackers may attempt to evade detection by hijacking the execution flow and hooking certain functions/syscalls through a rootkit in order to provide easy access to root via a special modified command.
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Docker Escape via Nsenter
This rule identifies a UID change event via
nsenter
. Thensenter
command is used to enter a namespace, which is a way to isolate processes and resources. Attackers can usensenter
to escape from a container to the host, which can lead to privilege escalation and lateral movement.
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Identifies the loading of a non Microsoft signed DLL that is missing on a default Windows install (phantom DLL) or one that can be loaded from a different location by a native Windows process. This may be abused to persist or elevate privileges via privileged file write vulnerabilities.
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An adversary with access to a set of compromised credentials may attempt to persist or escalate privileges by creating a new set of credentials for an existing user. This rule looks for use of the IAM
CreateAccessKey
API operation to create new programatic access keys for another IAM user.
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Identifies the modification of the master password for an AWS RDS DB instance or cluster. DB instances may contain sensitive data that can be abused if accessed by unauthorized actors. Amazon RDS API operations never return the password, so this operation provides a means to regain access if the password is lost. Adversaries with the proper permissions can take advantage of this to evade defenses and gain unauthorized access to a DB instance or cluster to support persistence mechanisms or privilege escalation.
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An adversary with access to a set of compromised credentials may attempt to persist or escalate privileges by attaching additional permissions to user groups the compromised user account belongs to. This rule looks for use of the IAM
AttachGroupPolicy
API operation to attach the highly permissiveAdministratorAccess
AWS managed policy to an existing IAM user group.
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An adversary with access to a set of compromised credentials may attempt to persist or escalate privileges by attaching additional permissions to compromised IAM roles. This rule looks for use of the IAM
AttachRolePolicy
API operation to attach the highly permissiveAdministratorAccess
AWS managed policy to an existing IAM role.
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An adversary with access to a set of compromised credentials may attempt to persist or escalate privileges by attaching additional permissions to compromised user accounts. This rule looks for use of the IAM
AttachUserPolicy
API operation to attach the highly permissiveAdministratorAccess
AWS managed policy to an existing IAM user.
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Unusual Sudo Activity
Looks for sudo activity from an unusual user context. An unusual sudo user could be due to troubleshooting activity or it could be a sign of credentialed access via compromised accounts.
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Unusual Windows User Privilege Elevation Activity
A machine learning job detected an unusual user context switch, using the runas command or similar techniques, which can indicate account takeover or privilege escalation using compromised accounts. Privilege elevation using tools like runas are more commonly used by domain and network administrators than by regular Windows users.
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A suspicious WerFault child process was detected, which may indicate an attempt to run via the SilentProcessExit registry key manipulation. Verify process details such as command line, network connections and file writes.
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This rule detects the use of the setcap utility to set capabilities on a process. The setcap utility is used to set the capabilities of a binary to allow it to perform privileged operations without needing to run as root. This can be used by attackers to establish persistence by creating a backdoor, or escalate privileges by abusing a misconfiguration on a system.
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Detects the creation or modification of a new Group Policy based scheduled task or service. These methods are used for legitimate system administration, but can also be abused by an attacker with domain admin permissions to execute a malicious payload remotely on all or a subset of the domain joined machines.
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New or Modified Federation Domain
Identifies a new or modified federation domain, which can be used to create a trust between O365 and an external identity provider.
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Identifies when the SYSTEM account uses an account discovery utility. This could be a sign of discovery activity after an adversary has achieved privilege escalation.
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Identifies attempts to modify an AWS IAM Assume Role Policy. An adversary may attempt to modify the AssumeRolePolicy of a misconfigured role in order to gain the privileges of that role.
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Identifies attempts to login to AWS as the root user without using multi-factor authentication (MFA). Amazon AWS best practices indicate that the root user should be protected by MFA.
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Identifies the suspicious use of GetSessionToken. Tokens could be created and used by attackers to move laterally and escalate privileges.
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Azure Kubernetes Rolebindings Created
Identifies the creation of role binding or cluster role bindings. You can assign these roles to Kubernetes subjects (users, groups, or service accounts) with role bindings and cluster role bindings. An adversary who has permissions to create bindings and cluster-bindings in the cluster can create a binding to the cluster-admin ClusterRole or to other high privileges roles.
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Detects when the Console Window Host (conhost.exe) process is spawned by a suspicious parent process, which could be indicative of code injection.
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Credential Manipulation - Detected - Elastic Endgame
Elastic Endgame detected Credential Manipulation. Click the Elastic Endgame icon in the event.module column or the link in the rule.reference column for additional information.
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Credential Manipulation - Prevented - Elastic Endgame
Elastic Endgame prevented Credential Manipulation. Click the Elastic Endgame icon in the event.module column or the link in the rule.reference column for additional information.
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CyberArk Privileged Access Security Error
Identifies the occurrence of a CyberArk Privileged Access Security (PAS) error level audit event. The event.code correlates to the CyberArk Vault Audit Action Code.
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CyberArk Privileged Access Security Recommended Monitor
Identifies the occurrence of a CyberArk Privileged Access Security (PAS) non-error level audit event which is recommended for monitoring by the vendor. The event.code correlates to the CyberArk Vault Audit Action Code.
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Execution with Explicit Credentials via Scripting
Identifies execution of the security_authtrampoline process via a scripting interpreter. This occurs when programs use AuthorizationExecute-WithPrivileges from the Security.framework to run another program with root privileges. It should not be run by itself, as this is a sign of execution with explicit logon credentials.
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Identifies an attempt to load a revoked or expired driver. Adversaries may bring outdated drivers with vulnerabilities to gain code execution in kernel mode or abuse revoked certificates to sign their drivers.
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Exploit - Detected - Elastic Endgame
Elastic Endgame detected an Exploit. Click the Elastic Endgame icon in the event.module column or the link in the rule.reference column for additional information.
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Exploit - Prevented - Elastic Endgame
Elastic Endgame prevented an Exploit. Click the Elastic Endgame icon in the event.module column or the link in the rule.reference column for additional information.
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Identifies the load of a driver with an original file name and signature values that were observed for the first time during the last 30 days. This rule type can help baseline drivers installation within your environment.
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This detection rule identifies the usage of kexec, helping to uncover unauthorized kernel replacements and potential compromise of the system's integrity. Kexec is a Linux feature that enables the loading and execution of a different kernel without going through the typical boot process. Malicious actors can abuse kexec to bypass security measures, escalate privileges, establish persistence or hide their activities by loading a malicious kernel, enabling them to tamper with the system's trusted state, allowing e.g. a VM Escape.
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This rule detects a container deployed with one or more dangerously permissive Linux capabilities. An attacker with the ability to deploy a container with added capabilities could use this for further execution, lateral movement, or privilege escalation within a cluster. The capabilities detected in this rule have been used in container escapes to the host machine.
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This rule detects when a pod is created with a sensitive volume of type hostPath. A hostPath volume type mounts a sensitive file or folder from the node to the container. If the container gets compromised, the attacker can use this mount for gaining access to the node. There are many ways a container with unrestricted access to the host filesystem can escalate privileges, including reading data from other containers, and accessing tokens of more privileged pods.
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This rule detects an attempt to create or modify a pod using the host IPC namespace. This gives access to data used by any pod that also use the hosts IPC namespace. If any process on the host or any processes in a pod uses the hosts inter-process communication mechanisms (shared memory, semaphore arrays, message queues, etc.), an attacker can read/write to those same mechanisms. They may look for files in /dev/shm or use ipcs to check for any IPC facilities being used.
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This rules detects an attempt to create or modify a pod attached to the host network. HostNetwork allows a pod to use the node network namespace. Doing so gives the pod access to any service running on localhost of the host. An attacker could use this access to snoop on network activity of other pods on the same node or bypass restrictive network policies applied to its given namespace.
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This rule detects an attempt to create or modify a pod attached to the host PID namespace. HostPID allows a pod to access all the processes running on the host and could allow an attacker to take malicious action. When paired with ptrace this can be used to escalate privileges outside of the container. When paired with a privileged container, the pod can see all of the processes on the host. An attacker can enter the init system (PID 1) on the host. From there, they could execute a shell and continue to escalate privileges to root.
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This rule detects when a user creates a pod/container running in privileged mode. A highly privileged container has access to the node's resources and breaks the isolation between containers. If compromised, an attacker can use the privileged container to gain access to the underlying host. Gaining access to the host may provide the adversary with the opportunity to achieve follow-on objectives, such as establishing persistence, moving laterally within the environment, or setting up a command and control channel on the host.
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This rule detects a request to attach a controller service account to an existing or new pod running in the kube-system namespace. By default, controllers running as part of the API Server utilize admin-equivalent service accounts hosted in the kube-system namespace. Controller service accounts aren't normally assigned to running pods and could indicate adversary behavior within the cluster. An attacker that can create or modify pods or pod controllers in the kube-system namespace, can assign one of these admin-equivalent service accounts to a pod and abuse their powerful token to escalate privileges and gain complete cluster control.
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Identifies modification of the dynamic linker preload shared object (ld.so.preload). Adversaries may execute malicious payloads by hijacking the dynamic linker used to load libraries.
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Identifies suspicious usage of unshare to manipulate system namespaces. Unshare can be utilized to escalate privileges or escape container security boundaries. Threat actors have utilized this binary to allow themselves to escape to the host and access other resources or escalate privileges.
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Permission Theft - Detected - Elastic Endgame
Elastic Endgame detected Permission Theft. Click the Elastic Endgame icon in the event.module column or the link in the rule.reference column for additional information.
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Permission Theft - Prevented - Elastic Endgame
Elastic Endgame prevented Permission Theft. Click the Elastic Endgame icon in the event.module column or the link in the rule.reference column for additional information.
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Identifies the creation or modification of a PowerShell profile. PowerShell profile is a script that is executed when PowerShell starts to customize the user environment, which can be abused by attackers to persist in a environment where PowerShell is common.
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Identifies potential hijacking of the Microsoft Update Orchestrator Service to establish persistence with an integrity level of SYSTEM.
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Detects potential buffer overflow attacks by querying the "Segfault Detected" pre-built rule signal index, through a threshold rule, with a minimum number of 100 segfault alerts in a short timespan. A large amount of segfaults in a short time interval could indicate application exploitation attempts.
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Potential Chroot Container Escape via Mount
Monitors for the execution of a file system mount followed by a chroot execution. Given enough permissions, a user within a container is capable of mounting the root file system of the host, and leveraging chroot to escape its containarized environment. This behavior pattern is very uncommon and should be investigated.
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Potential Container Escape via Modified notify_on_release File
This rule detects modification of the cgroup notify_on_release file from inside a container. When the notify_on_release flag is enabled (1) in a cgroup, then whenever the last task in the cgroup exits or attaches to another cgroup, the command specified in the release_agent file is run and invoked from the host. A privileged container with SYS_ADMIN capabilities, enables a threat actor to mount a cgroup directory and modify the notify_on_release flag in order to take advantage of this feature, which could be used for further privilege escalation and container escapes to the host machine.
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Potential Container Escape via Modified release_agent File
This rule detects modification of the CGroup release_agent file from inside a privileged container. The release_agent is a script that is executed at the termination of any process on that CGroup and is invoked from the host. A privileged container with SYS_ADMIN capabilities, enables a threat actor to mount a CGroup directory and modify the release_agent which could be used for further privilege escalation and container escapes to the host machine.
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Potential Exploitation of an Unquoted Service Path Vulnerability
Adversaries may leverage unquoted service path vulnerabilities to escalate privileges. By placing an executable in a higher-level directory within the path of an unquoted service executable, Windows will natively launch this executable from its defined path variable instead of the benign one in a deeper directory, thus leading to code execution.
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Adversaries can use the autostart mechanism provided by the Local Security Authority (LSA) authentication packages for privilege escalation or persistence by placing a reference to a binary in the Windows registry. The binary will then be executed by SYSTEM when the authentication packages are loaded.
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Identifies use of the Secure Copy Protocol (SCP) to copy files locally by abusing the auto addition of the Secure Shell Daemon (sshd) to the authorized application list for Full Disk Access. This may indicate attempts to bypass macOS privacy controls to access sensitive files.
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Potential Privilege Escalation through Writable Docker Socket
This rule monitors for the usage of Docker runtime sockets to escalate privileges on Linux systems. Docker sockets by default are only be writable by the root user and docker group. Attackers that have permissions to write to these sockets may be able to create and run a container that allows them to escalate privileges and gain further access onto the host file system.
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Potential Privilege Escalation via Container Misconfiguration
This rule monitors for the execution of processes that interact with Linux containers through an interactive shell without root permissions. Utilities such as runc and ctr are universal command-line utilities leveraged to interact with containers via root permissions. On systems where the access to these utilities are misconfigured, attackers might be able to create and run a container that mounts the root folder or spawn a privileged container vulnerable to a container escape attack, which might allow them to escalate privileges and gain further access onto the host file system.
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This rule detects potential privilege escalation attempts through Looney Tunables (CVE-2023-4911). Looney Tunables is a buffer overflow vulnerability in GNU C Library's dynamic loader's processing of the GLIBC_TUNABLES environment variable.
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Identifies a potential exploitation of InstallerTakeOver (CVE-2021-41379) default PoC execution. Successful exploitation allows an unprivileged user to escalate privileges to SYSTEM.
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Identifies an attempt to exploit a local privilege escalation (CVE-2023-2640 and CVE-2023-32629) via a flaw in Ubuntu's modifications to OverlayFS. These flaws allow the creation of specialized executables, which, upon execution, grant the ability to escalate privileges to root on the affected machine.
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Identifies an attempt to exploit a local privilege escalation in polkit pkexec (CVE-2021-4034) via unsecure environment variable injection. Successful exploitation allows an unprivileged user to escalate to the root user.
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Potential Privilege Escalation via Python cap_setuid
This detection rule monitors for the execution of a system command with setuid or setgid capabilities via Python, followed by a uid or gid change to the root user. This sequence of events may indicate successful privilege escalation. Setuid (Set User ID) and setgid (Set Group ID) are Unix-like OS features that enable processes to run with elevated privileges, based on the file owner or group. Threat actors can exploit these attributes to escalate privileges to the privileges that are set on the binary that is being executed.
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This rule monitors a sequence involving a program compilation event followed by its execution and a subsequent alteration of UID permissions to root privileges. This behavior can potentially indicate the execution of a kernel or software privilege escalation exploit.
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This rule monitors for the execution of the systemd-run command by a user with a UID that is larger than the maximum allowed UID size (INT_MAX). Some older Linux versions were affected by a bug which allows user accounts with a UID greater than INT_MAX to escalate privileges by spawning a shell through systemd-run.
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Identifies access to the /etc/shadow file via the commandline using standard system utilities. After elevating privileges to root, threat actors may attempt to read or dump this file in order to gain valid credentials. They may utilize these to move laterally undetected and access additional resources.
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This rule monitors for the execution of a suspicious sudo command that is leveraged in CVE-2019-14287 to escalate privileges to root. Sudo does not verify the presence of the designated user ID and proceeds to execute using a user ID that can be chosen arbitrarily. By using the sudo privileges, the command "sudo -u#-1" translates to an ID of 0, representing the root user. This exploit may work for sudo versions prior to v1.28.
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Potential Sudo Token Manipulation via Process Injection
This rule detects potential sudo token manipulation attacks through process injection by monitoring the use of a debugger (gdb) process followed by a successful uid change event during the execution of the sudo process. A sudo token manipulation attack is performed by injecting into a process that has a valid sudo token, which can then be used by attackers to activate their own sudo token. This attack requires ptrace to be enabled in conjunction with the existence of a living process that has a valid sudo token with the same uid as the current user.
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This rule monitors for the potential edit of a suspicious file. In Linux, when editing a file through an editor, a temporary .swp file is created. By monitoring for the creation of this .swp file, we can detect potential file edits of suspicious files. The execution of this rule is not a clear sign of the file being edited, as just opening the file through an editor will trigger this event. Attackers may alter any of the files added in this rule to establish persistence, escalate privileges or perform reconnaisance on the system.
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This rule monitors for the execution of the "chown" and "chmod" commands with command line flags that could indicate a wildcard injection attack. Linux wildcard injection is a type of security vulnerability where attackers manipulate commands or input containing wildcards (e.g., *, ?, []) to execute unintended operations or access sensitive data by tricking the system into interpreting the wildcard characters in unexpected ways.
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Privilege Escalation via Rogue Named Pipe Impersonation
Identifies a privilege escalation attempt via rogue named pipe impersonation. An adversary may abuse this technique by masquerading as a known named pipe and manipulating a privileged process to connect to it.
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Privilege Escalation via Root Crontab File Modification
Identifies modifications to the root crontab file. Adversaries may overwrite this file to gain code execution with root privileges by exploiting privileged file write or move related vulnerabilities.
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Privileges Elevation via Parent Process PID Spoofing
Identifies parent process spoofing used to create an elevated child process. Adversaries may spoof the parent process identifier (PPID) of a new process to evade process-monitoring defenses or to elevate privileges.
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Process Created with a Duplicated Token
Identifies the creation of a process impersonating the token of another user logon session. Adversaries may create a new process with a different token to escalate privileges and bypass access controls.
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Process Created with an Elevated Token
Identifies the creation of a process running as SYSTEM and impersonating a Windows core binary privileges. Adversaries may create a new process with a different token to escalate privileges and bypass access controls.
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Process Injection - Detected - Elastic Endgame
Elastic Endgame detected Process Injection. Click the Elastic Endgame icon in the event.module column or the link in the rule.reference column for additional information.
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Process Injection - Prevented - Elastic Endgame
Elastic Endgame prevented Process Injection. Click the Elastic Endgame icon in the event.module column or the link in the rule.reference column for additional information.
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Identifies the attempted use of a heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability for the Sudo binary in Unix-like systems (CVE-2021-3156). Successful exploitation allows an unprivileged user to escalate to the root user.
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Detects attempts to exploit privilege escalation vulnerabilities related to the Adobe Acrobat Reader PrivilegedHelperTool responsible for installing updates. For more information, refer to CVE-2020-9615, CVE-2020-9614 and CVE-2020-9613 and verify that the impacted system is patched.
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Monitors for the elevation of regular user permissions to root permissions through the kworker process. kworker, or kernel worker, processes are part of the kernel's workqueue mechanism. They are responsible for executing work that has been scheduled to be done in kernel space, which might include tasks like handling interrupts, background activities, and other kernel-related tasks. Attackers may attempt to evade detection by masquerading as a kernel worker process, and hijack the execution flow by hooking certain functions/syscalls through a rootkit in order to provide easy access to root via a special modified command.
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Monitors for the generation of a passwd password entry via openssl, followed by a file write activity on the "/etc/passwd" file. The "/etc/passwd" file in Linux stores user account information, including usernames, user IDs, group IDs, home directories, and default shell paths. Attackers may exploit a misconfiguration in the "/etc/passwd" file permissions or other privileges to add a new entry to the "/etc/passwd" file with root permissions, and leverage this new user account to login as root.
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Detects deletion of print driver files by an unusual process. This may indicate a clean up attempt post successful privilege escalation via Print Spooler service related vulnerabilities.
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Identifies User Account Control (UAC) bypass attempts by abusing an elevated COM Interface to launch a malicious program. Attackers may attempt to bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.
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Identifies attempts to bypass User Account Control (UAC) via DLL side-loading. Attackers may attempt to bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.
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Identifies attempts to bypass User Account Control (UAC) by abusing an elevated COM Interface to launch a rogue Windows ClipUp program. Attackers may attempt to bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.
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Identifies User Account Control (UAC) bypass attempts via the ICMLuaUtil Elevated COM interface. Attackers may attempt to bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.
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Identifies attempts to bypass User Account Control (UAC) by hijacking the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Windows Firewall snap-in. Attackers bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.
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Identifies unusual child processes of Service Host (svchost.exe) that traditionally do not spawn any child processes. This may indicate a code injection or an equivalent form of exploitation.
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Apple Scripting Execution with Administrator Privileges
Identifies execution of the Apple script interpreter (osascript) without a password prompt and with administrator privileges.
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Potential Admin Group Account Addition
Identifies attempts to add an account to the admin group via the command line. This could be an indication of privilege escalation activity.
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WPAD Service Exploit
Identifies probable exploitation of the Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Protocol (WPAD) service. Attackers who have access to the local network or upstream DNS traffic can inject malicious JavaScript to the WPAD service which can lead to a full system compromise.
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Identifies an attempt to exploit a local privilege escalation CVE-2022-37706 via a flaw in Linux window manager package Enlightenment. enlightenment_sys in Enlightenment before 0.25.4 allows local users to gain privileges because it is setuid root, and the system library function mishandles pathnames that begin with a /dev/.. substring.
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Identifies instances where a processes (granted CAP_CHOWN and/or CAP_FOWNER capabilities) is executed, after which the ownership of a suspicious file or binary is changed. In Linux, the CAP_CHOWN capability allows a process to change the owner of a file, while CAP_FOWNER permits it to bypass permission checks on operations that require file ownership (like reading, writing, and executing). Attackers may abuse these capabilities to obtain unauthorized access to files.
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Privilege Escalation via GDB CAP_SYS_PTRACE
Identifies instances where GDB (granted the CAP_SYS_PTRACE capability) is executed, after which the user's access is elevated to UID/GID 0 (root). In Linux, the CAP_SYS_PTRACE capability grants a process the ability to use the ptrace system call, which is typically used for debugging and allows the process to trace and control other processes. Attackers may leverage this capability to hook and inject into a process that is running with root permissions in order to escalate their privileges to root.
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Identifies instances where GDB (granted the CAP_SYS_PTRACE capability) is executed, after which an outbound network connection is initiated by UID/GID 0 (root). In Linux, the CAP_SYS_PTRACE capability grants a process the ability to use the ptrace system call, which is typically used for debugging and allows the process to trace and control other processes. Attackers may leverage this capability to hook and inject into a process that is running with root permissions in order to execute shell code and gain a reverse shell with root privileges.
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Potential Privilege Escalation via Linux DAC permissions
Identifies potential privilege escalation exploitation of DAC (Discretionary access control) file permissions. The rule identifies exploitation of DAC checks on sensitive file paths via suspicious processes whose capabilities include CAP_DAC_OVERRIDE (where a process can bypass all read write and execution checks) or CAP_DAC_READ_SEARCH (where a process can read any file or perform any executable permission on the directories).
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This rule detects the execution of a process where the LD_PRELOAD environment variable is set. LD_PRELOAD can be used to inject a shared library into a binary at or prior to execution. A threat actor may do this in order to load a malicious shared library for the purposes of persistence, privilege escalation, and defense evasion. This activity is not common and will potentially indicate malicious or suspicious behavior.
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