Elastic Security Detection Rules

Suspicious Named Pipe Creation

Last updated 14 days ago on 2025-04-30
Created 14 days ago on 2025-04-30

About

This rule detects the creation of unusually labeled named pipes (FIFOs) by the mkfifo command, which is often used by attackers to establish persistence on a target system or to execute commands in the background. Through the new_terms rule type, this rule can identify uncommon process command lines that may indicate the presence of a malicious named pipe.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: LinuxUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: ExecutionTactic: Command and ControlData Source: Elastic DefendLanguage: kuery
Severity
low
Risk Score
21
MITRE ATT&CK™

Execution (TA0002)(opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Command and Scripting Interpreter (T1059)(opens in a new tab or window)

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

↳ Application Layer Protocol (T1071)(opens in a new tab or window)

License
Elastic License v2(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*
Related Integrations

endpoint(opens in a new tab or window)

Query
host.os.type:linux and event.category:process and event.type:start and event.action:exec and process.name:mkfifo and
process.parent.name:(bash or csh or dash or fish or ksh or sh or tcsh or zsh) and
process.args:((/dev/shm/* or /tmp/* or /var/tmp/*) and not /*fifo*)

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Suspicious Named Pipe Creation 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).