Kubernetes and Cloud Credential Path Access via Process Arguments

Last updated 13 days ago on 2026-04-29
Created 13 days ago on 2026-04-29

About

Flags Linux process executions whose arguments reference high-value Kubernetes service-account material, kubeconfig or node PKI paths, or common cloud and SSH credential files, when invoked via typical file-reading utilities or from ephemeral directories. Useful for spotting in-cluster and hybrid credential theft early.
Tags
Data Source: Auditd ManagerData Source: Elastic DefendDomain: EndpointDomain: KubernetesOS: LinuxUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Credential AccessLanguage: kuery
Severity
high
Risk Score
73
MITRE ATT&CK™

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

False Positive Examples
Legitimate backup, compliance scanners, or admin scripts that enumerate paths under /home or /var/run/secrets may match. Tune by parent process, image, or automation identity.
License
Elastic License v2(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Definition

Rule Type
Query (Kibana Query Language)
Integration Pack
Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Index Patterns
auditbeat-*logs-auditd_manager.auditd-*logs-endpoint.events.process*
Related Integrations

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

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

Query
text code block:
host.os.type:linux and event.category:process and event.action:(exec or executed) and ( process.name:( busybox or cat or head or tail or more or less or sed or awk or find or grep or ls or whereis or cp or mv or ln or curl or wget or scp or rsync or tar or zip or gzip or base64 or xxd or od or dd or tee or strings or xargs or jq or yq or openssl or ssh or sftp or nc or ncat or netcat or socat or python* or perl* or ruby* or node or php* or lua* or .* ) or process.args:( cat or head or tail or more or less or sed or awk or find or grep or cp or mv or curl or wget or base64 or tar or scp or dd or strings or xargs ) or process.executable:(/tmp/* or /var/tmp/* or /dev/shm/* or /home/* or /run/user/*) ) and process.args:( "/var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/token" or "/var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/ca.crt" or "/var/run/secrets/eks.amazonaws.com/serviceaccount/token" or "/var/run/secrets/azure/tokens/azure-identity-token" or "/var/run/secrets/tokens/azure-identity-token" or "/var/lib/kubelet/kubeconfig" or "/etc/kubernetes/admin.conf" or "/etc/kubernetes/pki/ca.key" or "/etc/kubernetes/pki/apiserver-kubelet-client.key" or "/var/lib/kubelet/pki/kubelet-client-current.pem" or "/etc/rancher/k3s/k3s.yaml" or "/etc/shadow" or */.ssh/id_rsa or */root/.ssh/id_ed25519 or */.ssh/id_ecdsa or */.aws/credentials or */.aws/cli/cache/*.json or */.aws/sso/cache/*.json or */.azure/accessTokens.json or */.azure/azureProfile.json or */.azure/msal_token_cache.json or */.config/gcloud/application_default_credentials.json or */.config/gcloud/credentials.db or */.config/gcloud/access_tokens.db or */.config/gcloud/legacy_credentials or */.kube/config or */.docker/config.json )

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Kubernetes and Cloud Credential Path Access via Process Arguments 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).