Suspicious Process Execution by Zoom

Last updated 2 days ago on 2026-08-20
Created 10 days ago on 2026-08-12

About

Identifies suspicious process execution associated with the Zoom desktop client on macOS and Linux. The rule detects shells, script interpreters, downloaders, and network utilities spawned by Zoom on either platform. On Linux, it also detects Zoom replacing its own process image with an executable outside the Zoom installation directory. These behaviors may indicate successful exploitation of a Zoom client vulnerability, including CVE-2026-53413.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: LinuxOS: macOSUse Case: Threat DetectionUse Case: VulnerabilityTactic: ExecutionData Source: Elastic DefendRule Type: Event Correlation (EQL)Language: eql
Severity
high
Risk Score
73
MITRE ATT&CK™

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

False Positive Examples
Legitimate support, diagnostic, accessibility, update, or enterprise management workflows may cause Zoom to launch command-line utilities. Verify the executable path, command line, code signature, and surrounding user activity before adding exceptions.
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
text code block:
process where event.type == "start" and event.action == "exec" and ( ( host.os.type == "linux" and process.previous.executable : "*/zoom" and not process.executable : "*/zoom" and not process.parent.name : "zoom" ) or ( host.os.type in ("macos", "linux") and ( (host.os.type == "macos" and process.parent.executable : "*/zoom.us.app/Contents/MacOS/zoom.us") or (host.os.type == "linux" and process.parent.name : "zoom") ) and process.name : ( "sh", "bash", "zsh", "dash", "ksh", "fish", "ash", "mksh", "tsh", "tcsh", "pwsh", "python*", "perl*", "ruby*", "php*", "lua*", "node", "nodejs", "osascript", "curl", "nscurl", "wget", "nc", "ncat", "netcat", "netcat.openbsd", "netcat.traditional", "nc.openbsd", "nc.traditional", "socat", "openssl", "chmod", "xattr" ) and not ( host.os.type == "linux" and process.name in ("sh", "bash") and process.args : ( "lspci", "pacmd --version", "pacmd list-sinks |grep 'name:\\|module:'", "pipewire --version", "ls /usr/share/xdg-desktop-portal/portals/", "/usr/libexec/xdg-desktop-portal --version", "cat /proc/sys/kernel/pid_max" ) ) ) )

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Suspicious Process Execution by Zoom 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).