Network Connection via Sudo Binary

Last updated 4 months ago on 2025-02-04

Created a year ago on 2024-01-15

About

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.

Tags

Domain: EndpointOS: LinuxUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Privilege EscalationData Source: Elastic DefendData Source: Elastic EndgameLanguage: eql

Severity

low

Risk Score

MITRE ATT&CK™

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

↳ Process Injection (T1055)(opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism (T1548)(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-endpoint.events.network*logs-endpoint.events.process*
Related Integrations: endpoint(opens in a new tab or window)
Query

sequence by host.id, process.entity_id with maxspan=5s
  [process where host.os.type == "linux" and event.type == "start" and event.action == "exec"]
  [network where host.os.type == "linux" and event.type == "start" and
  event.action in ("connection_attempted", "ipv4_connection_attempt_event") and process.name == "sudo" and not (
    destination.ip == null or destination.ip == "0.0.0.0" or cidrmatch(
      destination.ip, "10.0.0.0/8", "127.0.0.0/8", "169.254.0.0/16", "172.16.0.0/12", "192.0.0.0/24", "192.0.0.0/29",
      "192.0.0.8/32", "192.0.0.9/32", "192.0.0.10/32", "192.0.0.170/32", "192.0.0.171/32", "192.0.2.0/24",
      "192.31.196.0/24", "192.52.193.0/24", "192.168.0.0/16", "192.88.99.0/24", "224.0.0.0/4", "100.64.0.0/10",
      "192.175.48.0/24","198.18.0.0/15", "198.51.100.0/24", "203.0.113.0/24", "240.0.0.0/4", "::1", "FE80::/10",
      "FF00::/8", "172.31.0.0/16"
    )
  )]

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Network Connection via Sudo Binary 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).