Sudoers File Modification

Last updated 6 months ago on 2025-07-14

Created 6 years ago on 2020-04-13

About

A sudoers file specifies the commands that users or groups can run and from which terminals. Adversaries can take advantage of these configurations to execute commands as other users or spawn processes with higher privileges.

Tags

Domain: EndpointOS: LinuxOS: macOSUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Privilege EscalationData Source: Elastic DefendLanguage: eql

Severity

medium

Risk Score

MITRE ATT&CK™

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

↳ Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism (T1548)(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: auditbeat-*logs-endpoint.events.*
Related Integrations: endpoint(external, opens in a new tab or window)
Query

✄𐘗text code block:
✄𐘗file where host.os.type in ("linux", "macos") and event.type in ("creation", "change") and
file.path like ("/etc/sudoers*", "/private/etc/sudoers*") and not (
  process.name in ("dpkg", "platform-python", "puppet", "yum", "dnf") or
  process.executable in ("/opt/chef/embedded/bin/ruby", "/opt/puppetlabs/puppet/bin/ruby", "/usr/bin/dockerd")
)

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Sudoers File Modification 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).