Direct Interactive Kubernetes API Request by Common Utilities

Last updated 7 days ago on 2026-01-27
Created 13 days ago on 2026-01-21

About

This rule leverages a combination of Defend for Containers and Kubernetes audit logs to detect the execution of direct interactive Kubernetes API requests. An adversary may need to execute direct interactive Kubernetes API requests to gain access to the Kubernetes API server or other resources within the cluster. These requests are often used to enumerate the Kubernetes API server or other resources within the cluster, and may indicate an attempt to move laterally within the cluster. Note that this rule may not trigger if the authorization token of the request is expanded within the process argument list, as the length of the "process.args" field may lead to the field being ignored.
Tags
Data Source: Elastic Defend for ContainersData Source: KubernetesDomain: ContainerDomain: KubernetesOS: LinuxUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: ExecutionTactic: DiscoveryLanguage: eql
Severity
medium
Risk Score
47
MITRE ATT&CK™

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

Discovery (TA0007)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

False Positive Examples
There is a potential for false positives if the direct interactive Kubernetes API requests are used for legitimate purposes, such as debugging or troubleshooting. It is important to investigate any alerts generated by this rule to determine if they are indicative of malicious activity or part of legitimate container activity. There is a risk of false positives if there are several containers named the same, as the rule may correlate the request to the wrong container.
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-cloud_defend.process*logs-kubernetes.audit_logs-*
Related Integrations

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

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

Query
text code block:
sequence with maxspan=1s [process where host.os.type == "linux" and event.type == "start" and event.action == "exec" and ( process.name in ("wget", "curl", "openssl", "socat", "ncat", "kubectl") or ( /* Account for tools that execute utilities as a subprocess, in this case the target utility name will appear as a process arg */ process.name in ("bash", "dash", "sh", "tcsh", "csh", "zsh", "ksh", "fish", "busybox") and process.args in ( "wget", "/bin/wget", "/usr/bin/wget", "/usr/local/bin/wget", "ssl_client", "/bin/ssl_client", "/usr/bin/ssl_client", "/usr/local/bin/ssl_client", "curl", "/bin/curl", "/usr/bin/curl", "/usr/local/bin/curl", "openssl", "/bin/openssl", "/usr/bin/openssl", "/usr/local/bin/openssl", "socat", "/bin/socat", "/usr/bin/socat", "/usr/local/bin/socat", "ncat", "/bin/ncat", "/usr/bin/ncat", "/usr/local/bin/ncat", "kubectl", "/bin/kubectl", "/usr/bin/kubectl", "/usr/local/bin/kubectl" ) and /* default exclusion list to not FP on default multi-process commands */ not process.args in ( "which", "/bin/which", "/usr/bin/which", "/usr/local/bin/which", "man", "/bin/man", "/usr/bin/man", "/usr/local/bin/man", "chmod", "/bin/chmod", "/usr/bin/chmod", "/usr/local/bin/chmod", "chown", "/bin/chown", "/usr/bin/chown", "/usr/local/bin/chown" ) ) ) and process.interactive == true and container.id like "*" ] by orchestrator.resource.name [any where event.dataset == "kubernetes.audit_logs" and kubernetes.audit.stage in ("ResponseComplete", "ResponseStarted")] by `kubernetes.audit.user.extra.authentication.kubernetes.io/pod-name`

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Direct Interactive Kubernetes API Request by Common Utilities 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).