Elastic Security Detection Rules

Potential Privilege Escalation via Recently Compiled Executable

Last updated a year ago on 2025-02-04
Created 2 years ago on 2023-08-28

About

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.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: LinuxUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Privilege EscalationUse Case: VulnerabilityData Source: Elastic DefendLanguage: eql
Severity
medium
Risk Score
47
MITRE ATT&CK™

Privilege Escalation (TA0004)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

License
Elastic License v2(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Definition

Rule Type
Event Correlation Rule
Integration Pack
Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Index Patterns
logs-endpoint.events.file*logs-endpoint.events.process*
Related Integrations

endpoint(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Query
text code block:
sequence by host.id with maxspan=1m
  [process where host.os.type == "linux" and event.type == "start" and event.action == "exec" and
   process.name in ("gcc", "g++", "cc") and user.id != "0"] by process.args
  [file where host.os.type == "linux" and event.action == "creation" and event.type == "creation" and
   process.name == "ld" and user.id != "0"] by file.name
  [process where host.os.type == "linux" and event.type == "start" and event.action == "exec" and
   user.id != "0"] by process.name
  [process where host.os.type == "linux" and event.action in ("uid_change", "guid_change") and event.type == "change" and
   user.id == "0"] by process.name

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Potential Privilege Escalation via Recently Compiled Executable in the Elastic Security detection engine by installing this rule into your Elastic Stack.

To setup this rule, check out the installation guide for Prebuilt Security Detection Rules(external, opens in a new tab or window).