Elastic Security Detection Rules

Sensitive Keys Or Passwords Searched For Inside A Container

Last updated 10 months ago on 2025-03-12
Created 10 months ago on 2025-03-12

About

This rule detects the use of system search utilities like grep and find to search for private SSH keys or passwords inside a container. Unauthorized access to these sensitive files could lead to further compromise of the container environment or facilitate a container breakout to the underlying host machine.
Tags
Domain: ContainerOS: LinuxUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Credential AccessData Source: Elastic DefendLanguage: eql
Severity
medium
Risk Score
47
MITRE ATT&CK™

Credential Access (TA0006)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Unsecured Credentials (T1552)(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.process*
Related Integrations

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

Query
text code block:
process where host.os.type == "linux" and event.type == "start" and event.action == "exec" and
process.entry_leader.entry_meta.type == "container" and
process.name in ("grep", "egrep", "fgrep", "find", "locate", "mlocate") and
process.command_line like~ (
  "*BEGIN PRIVATE*", "*BEGIN OPENSSH PRIVATE*", "*BEGIN RSA PRIVATE*", "*BEGIN DSA PRIVATE*", "*BEGIN EC PRIVATE*",
  "*pass*", "*ssh*", "*user*", "*id_rsa*", "*id_dsa*"
)

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Sensitive Keys Or Passwords Searched For Inside A Container 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).