Potential Privilege Escalation via SUID/SGID Proxy Execution

Last updated a month ago on 2025-11-11

Created 2 months ago on 2025-10-30

About

Detects potential privilege escalation via SUID/SGID proxy execution on Linux systems. Attackers may exploit binaries with the SUID/SGID bit set to execute commands with elevated privileges. This rule identifies instances where a process is executed with root privileges (user ID 0 or group ID 0) while the real user or group ID is non-root, indicating potential misuse of SUID/SGID binaries.

Tags

Domain: EndpointOS: LinuxUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Privilege EscalationTactic: PersistenceTactic: Defense EvasionData Source: Elastic DefendLanguage: eql

Severity

low

Risk Score

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)

↳ Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism (T1548)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Persistence (TA0003)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

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

↳ System Binary Proxy Execution (T1218)(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

✄𐘗text code block:
✄𐘗process where host.os.type == "linux" and event.type == "start" and event.action == "exec" and (
  (process.user.id == "0" and process.real_user.id != "0") or
  (process.group.id == "0" and process.real_group.id != "0")
) and process.args in (
  "/bin/su", "/usr/bin/su",
  "/usr/bin/sudo",
  "/bin/mount", "/usr/bin/mount",
  "/bin/umount", "/usr/bin/umount",
  "/usr/bin/fusermount3",
  "/bin/passwd", "/usr/bin/passwd",
  "/bin/chfn", "/usr/bin/chfn",
  "/bin/chsh", "/usr/bin/chsh",
  "/bin/gpasswd", "/usr/bin/gpasswd",
  "/bin/newgrp", "/usr/bin/newgrp",
  "/sbin/unix_chkpwd", "/usr/sbin/unix_chkpwd",
  "/usr/bin/newuidmap", "/usr/bin/newgidmap",
  "/usr/lib/dbus-1.0/dbus-daemon-launch-helper", "/usr/libexec/dbus-daemon-launch-helper",
  "/usr/lib/openssh/ssh-keysign", "/usr/libexec/openssh/ssh-keysign",
  "/usr/bin/pkexec", "/usr/libexec/pkexec", "/usr/lib/polkit-1/pkexec",
  "/usr/lib/polkit-1/polkit-agent-helper-1", "/usr/libexec/polkit-agent-helper-1",
  "/usr/lib/snapd/snap-confine"
) and process.parent.args_count == 1

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Potential Privilege Escalation via SUID/SGID Proxy Execution 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).