Elastic Security Detection Rules

Executable Masquerading as Kernel Process

Last updated 5 months ago on 2025-03-20
Created 2 years ago on 2024-02-01

About

Monitors for kernel processes with associated process executable fields that are not empty. Unix kernel processes such as kthreadd and kworker typically do not have process.executable fields associated to them. Attackers may attempt to hide their malicious programs by masquerading as legitimate kernel processes.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: LinuxUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Defense EvasionData Source: Elastic DefendData Source: Elastic EndgameData Source: CrowdstrikeData Source: SentinelOneLanguage: eql
Severity
low
Risk Score
21
MITRE ATT&CK™

Defense Evasion (TA0005)(opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Masquerading (T1036)(opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Hide Artifacts (T1564)(opens in a new tab or window)

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

Definition

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

endpoint(opens in a new tab or window)

crowdstrike(opens in a new tab or window)

sentinel_one_cloud_funnel(opens in a new tab or window)

Query
process where host.os.type == "linux" and event.type == "start" and event.action in ("exec", "exec_event", "start", "ProcessRollup2") and
process.name : ("kworker*", "kthread*") and process.executable != null

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Executable Masquerading as Kernel Process 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(opens in a new tab or window).