Potential Privilege Escalation through Writable Docker Socket

Last updated 2 months ago on 2025-10-17

Created 2 years ago on 2023-07-25

About

This rule monitors for the usage of Docker runtime sockets to escalate privileges on Linux systems. Docker sockets by default are only be writable by the root user and docker group. Attackers that have permissions to write to these sockets may be able to create and run a container that allows them to escalate privileges and gain further access onto the host file system.

Tags

Domain: EndpointOS: LinuxUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Privilege EscalationDomain: ContainerData Source: Elastic DefendData Source: CrowdstrikeLanguage: eql

Severity

medium

Risk Score

MITRE ATT&CK™

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

↳ Escape to Host (T1611)(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*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:
✄𐘗process where host.os.type == "linux" and event.type == "start" and event.action in ("exec", "ProcessRollup2") and
(
  (process.name == "docker" and process.args : "run" and process.args : "-it"  and
   process.args : ("unix://*/docker.sock", "unix://*/dockershim.sock")) or
  (process.name == "socat" and process.args : ("UNIX-CONNECT:*/docker.sock", "UNIX-CONNECT:*/dockershim.sock"))
) and not user.Ext.real.id : "0" and not group.Ext.real.id : "0"

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Potential Privilege Escalation through Writable Docker Socket 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).