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Kubernetes Pod Exec with Curl or Wget to HTTPS
Sep 22, 2026 · Data Source: Kubernetes Data Source: Kubernetes API Server Audit Logs Domain: Kubernetes Platform: Kubernetes Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Execution Tactic: Command and Control Resources: Investigation Guide Noise: Unknown Performance: Normal Profile: Recommended Threat: Download Tool Abuse Rule Type: ES|QL Domain: Containers Domain: Cloud ·Detects pod or attach exec API calls where the decoded request query implies curl or wget fetching an https URL. Attackers with permission to exec into workloads often run one-liners to stage tooling, pull scripts or binaries, or exfiltrate data over HTTPS—activity that should be rare compared to shells, debuggers, or expected health checks. The rule decodes the audit requestURI, reconstructs a readable command string from repeated command parameters, and applies noise filters for common cluster health and OIDC/JWKS endpoints so benign automation is less likely to alert.
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Curl Execution via Shell Profile
Sep 19, 2026 · Domain: Endpoint OS: macOS Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Persistence Tactic: Command and Control Data Source: Elastic Defend Resources: Investigation Guide Noise: Low Performance: Normal Profile: Recommended Threat: Download Tool Abuse Rule Type: Event Correlation (EQL) Platform: macOS ·Detects when curl is executed via a shell profile upon login. This indicates a curl command was added to the user's shell profile (like .zshrc or .bashrc) and is executed automatically at login, which could be used for persistence and payload delivery.
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Curl or Wget Egress Network Connection via LoLBin
Sep 19, 2026 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Linux Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Tactic: Execution Tactic: Command and Control Tactic: Exfiltration Data Source: Elastic Defend Resources: Investigation Guide Noise: Medium Performance: Normal Profile: Recommended Threat: Living off the Land Threat: Download Tool Abuse Rule Type: Event Correlation (EQL) Platform: Linux ·This rule detects the execution of curl or wget binaries through a GTFOBin (living-off-the-land) technique in Linux environments. Attackers may exploit these utilities to download and execute malicious files from the internet while attempting to evade detection. The rule specifically targets binaries that are capable of executing shell commands directly from the proxied binary, rather than just spawning a shell.
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Curl or Wget Execution from Container Context
Sep 19, 2026 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Linux Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Command and Control Tactic: Execution Domain: Containers Data Source: Auditd Manager Resources: Investigation Guide Noise: Low Performance: Normal Profile: Recommended Threat: Download Tool Abuse Rule Type: Custom Query (KQL) Platform: Linux ·Detects execution of curl or wget from processes whose title aligns with
runc init, a common fingerprint for workloads running inside OCI/runc-backed containers on Linux hosts instrumented with Auditd Manager. After breaking out of an application container or abusing a privileged workload, attackers often pull ingress tooling (stagers, scripts, implants) or stage exfiltration with minimal HTTP clients. Those utilities are also used benignly in images, so context matters; therunc initanchor narrows the signal to the container runtime boundary where unexpected download clients are more worthy of review than the same binaries on a bare-metal admin shell.
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Curl or Wget Spawned via Node.js
Sep 19, 2026 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Linux OS: Windows OS: macOS Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Command and Control Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Data Source: Auditd Manager Noise: Medium Performance: Normal Profile: Recommended Threat: Supply Chain Threat: Download Tool Abuse Rule Type: Event Correlation (EQL) Platform: Windows Platform: Linux Platform: macOS ·This rule detects when Node.js, directly or via a shell, spawns the curl or wget command. This may indicate command and control behavior. Adversaries may use Node.js to download additional tools or payloads onto the system.
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This rule detects the use of the "curl" command-line tool with SOCKS proxy options, launched from an unusual parent process. Attackers may use "curl" to establish a SOCKS proxy connection to bypass network restrictions and exfiltrate data or communicate with C2 servers.
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Curl SOCKS Proxy Detected via Defend for Containers
Sep 19, 2026 · Data Source: Elastic Defend for Containers Domain: Containers OS: Linux Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Command and Control Resources: Investigation Guide Noise: Unknown Performance: Fast Profile: Recommended Threat: Download Tool Abuse Rule Type: Event Correlation (EQL) Platform: Linux ·This rule detects the use of the "curl" command-line tool with SOCKS proxy options. Attackers may use "curl" to establish a SOCKS proxy connection to bypass network restrictions and exfiltrate data or communicate with C2 servers.
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Detects executable file downloads via wget to suspicious locations such as /tmp or /Users/Shared. Threat actors commonly use wget to download malicious payloads and additional tools for post-exploitation.
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Detects applications making a curl request to a known public IP address lookup web service. Malware commonly performs this action during reconnaissance to assess potential targets and identify the victim's external IP address.
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GKE Pod Exec with Curl or Wget to HTTPS
Sep 19, 2026 · Domain: Cloud Domain: Kubernetes Data Source: GCP Data Source: Google Cloud Platform Data Source: GCP Audit Logs Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Execution Tactic: Command and Control Resources: Investigation Guide Noise: Unknown Performance: Fast Profile: Recommended Threat: Download Tool Abuse Rule Type: Custom Query (KQL) Platform: GCP Domain: Containers Platform: Kubernetes ·Detects successful GKE pod exec sessions where the executed command implies curl or wget fetching an HTTPS URL. Attackers with pods/exec often run one-liners to stage tooling, pull scripts or binaries, or exfiltrate data over HTTPS—activity that should be rare compared to shells, debuggers, or expected health checks. Common cluster health, localhost, and OIDC/JWKS endpoint patterns are excluded to reduce benign automation noise. GKE records the command in gcp.audit.labels.command.gke.io/command when an explicit command is passed to exec.
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Ingress Tool Transfer Followed by Execution and Deletion Detected via Defend for Containers
Sep 19, 2026 · Data Source: Elastic Defend for Containers Domain: Containers OS: Linux Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Defense Evasion Tactic: Execution Resources: Investigation Guide Noise: Unknown Performance: Normal Profile: Recommended Threat: Download Tool Abuse Rule Type: Event Correlation (EQL) Platform: Linux ·This rule detects the creation, execution, and deletion of files inside a container, a common technique used by attackers to evade detection.
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Kubernetes Direct API Request via Curl or Wget
Sep 19, 2026 · Domain: Endpoint Domain: Containers Domain: Kubernetes OS: Linux OS: macOS OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Execution Tactic: Discovery Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Auditd Manager Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Crowdstrike Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Elastic Defend for Containers Resources: Investigation Guide Noise: Medium Performance: Normal Profile: Recommended Threat: Download Tool Abuse Rule Type: Event Correlation (EQL) Platform: Windows Platform: Linux Platform: macOS Platform: Kubernetes ·This rule monitors for the execution of curl or wget commands that directly access Kubernetes API endpoints, which may indicate an attempt to interact with Kubernetes resources in a potentially unauthorized manner. This technique is often used by adversaries to gather information about the Kubernetes environment, such as secrets, config maps, and other sensitive data, without using the official Kubernetes client tools such as "kubectl".
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Detects applications making a curl request to a known public IP address lookup web service. Malware tends to perform this action to assess potential targets.
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Potential Data Exfiltration Through Curl
Sep 19, 2026 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Linux OS: Windows OS: macOS Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Exfiltration Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Crowdstrike Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: Auditd Manager Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Noise: High Performance: Normal Profile: Aggressive Threat: Download Tool Abuse Rule Type: Event Correlation (EQL) Platform: Windows Platform: Linux Platform: macOS ·Detects the use of curl to upload files to an internet server. Threat actors often will collect and exfiltrate data on a system to their C2 server for review. Many threat actors have been observed using curl to upload the collected data. Use of curl in this way, while not inherently malicious, should be considered highly abnormal and suspicious activity.
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Potential Data Exfiltration Through Wget
Sep 19, 2026 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Linux Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Exfiltration Data Source: Auditd Manager Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Crowdstrike Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Elastic Endgame Resources: Investigation Guide Noise: Medium Performance: Normal Profile: Recommended Threat: Download Tool Abuse Rule Type: Event Correlation (EQL) Platform: Linux ·Detects the use of wget to upload files to an internet server. Threat actors often will collect data on a system and attempt to exfiltrate it back to their command and control servers. Use of wget in this way, while not inherently malicious, should be considered highly abnormal and suspicious activity.
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Potential File Transfer via Curl for Windows
Sep 19, 2026 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Command and Control Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender XDR Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Crowdstrike Data Source: Sysmon Resources: Investigation Guide Noise: High Performance: Normal Profile: Aggressive Threat: Download Tool Abuse Rule Type: Event Correlation (EQL) Platform: Windows ·Identifies Curl for Windows making an HTTP request. Adversaries could abuse Curl to download files or upload data to a remote URL.
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Remote File Download via Desktopimgdownldr Utility
Sep 19, 2026 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Command and Control Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender XDR Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: Crowdstrike Noise: Medium Performance: Normal Profile: Recommended Threat: Download Tool Abuse Rule Type: Event Correlation (EQL) Platform: Windows Resources: Osquery ·Identifies the desktopimgdownldr utility being used to download a remote file. An adversary may use desktopimgdownldr to download arbitrary files as an alternative to certutil.
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Remote File Download via PowerShell
Sep 19, 2026 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Command and Control Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Defend Noise: Medium Performance: Normal Profile: Recommended Threat: Download Tool Abuse Threat: Script-Based Execution Rule Type: Event Correlation (EQL) Platform: Windows Resources: Osquery ·Identifies PowerShell being used to download an executable file from an untrusted remote destination.
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Remote File Download via Script Interpreter
Sep 19, 2026 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Command and Control Tactic: Execution Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Sysmon Noise: Medium Performance: Normal Profile: Recommended Threat: Download Tool Abuse Threat: Script-Based Execution Rule Type: Event Correlation (EQL) Platform: Windows Resources: Osquery ·Identifies built-in Windows script interpreters (cscript.exe or wscript.exe) being used to download an executable file from a remote destination.
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Suspicious Curl from macOS Application
Detects the use of curl by a macOS application binary to connect to a raw IP URI and download a second stage payload. Threat actors often utilize a benign looking or legitimate application as a first stage dropper. Curl is commonly used as it doesn't enforce Gatekeeper checks.
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Detects the use of curl to a Google Script endpoint for the purpose of downloading a second stage payload or tool. Threat actors utilize exposed Google Script endpoints to host payloads as Google URLs are generally whitelisted and bypass security controls.
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Suspicious Curl to Jamf Endpoint
Sep 19, 2026 · Domain: Endpoint OS: macOS Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Lateral Movement Tactic: Execution Data Source: Elastic Defend Resources: Investigation Guide Noise: Low Performance: Normal Profile: Recommended Threat: Download Tool Abuse Rule Type: Event Correlation (EQL) Platform: macOS ·Detects curl requests to JAMF Pro endpoints from suspicious processes like unsigned binaries or scripting interpreters. This indicates potential abuse of stolen JAMF credentials for lateral movement in enterprise macOS environments.
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