Unusual SSHD Child Process

Last updated 3 months ago on 2025-10-17

Created a year ago on 2024-12-16

About

This rule detects the creation of an unusual SSHD child process through the usage of the `new_terms` rule type. Attackers may abuse SSH to maintain persistence on a compromised system, or to establish a backdoor for remote access, potentially resulting in an unusual SSHD child process being created.

Tags

Domain: EndpointOS: LinuxUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: PersistenceData Source: Elastic DefendData Source: CrowdstrikeLanguage: kuery

Severity

medium

Risk Score

MITRE ATT&CK™

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

↳ Event Triggered Execution (T1546)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Lateral Movement (TA0008)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Remote Services (T1021)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Remote Service Session Hijacking (T1563)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Command and Control (TA0011)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

License

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

Definition

Rule Type

New Terms Rule

Integration Pack

Prebuilt Security Detection Rules

Index Patterns

logs-endpoint.events.process*logs-crowdstrike.fdr*

Related Integrations

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

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

Query

✄𐘗text code block:
✄𐘗event.category:process and host.os.type:linux and event.type:start and event.action:(exec or ProcessRollup2) and
process.parent.name:(ssh or sshd) and process.args_count:2 and
not (
  process.command_line:(-bash or -zsh or -sh) or
  process.name:(ractrans or exectask or tty or tput or ferny-askpass or id or ip)
)

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Unusual SSHD Child 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(external, opens in a new tab or window).