Direct Process Execution via Background Utility

Last updated a month ago on 2026-08-03

Created 2 months ago on 2026-07-30

About

This is a New Terms rule that identifies the first occurrence of setsid or nohup being used to directly execute a process on a host. Attackers may leverage these tools to execute commands in a new session and/or to ignore signals.

Tags

Domain: EndpointOS: LinuxUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: ExecutionTactic: Defense EvasionData Source: Elastic DefendData Source: Elastic EndgameData Source: SentinelOneData Source: Auditd ManagerLanguage: kuery

Severity

low

Risk Score

MITRE ATT&CK™

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

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

Defense Evasion (TA0005)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Masquerading (T1036)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Hide Artifacts (T1564)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

License

Elastic License v2(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Definition

Rule Type

New Terms Rule

Integration Pack

Prebuilt Security Detection Rules

Index Patterns

endgame-*logs-endpoint.events.process*logs-sentinel_one_cloud_funnel.*auditbeat-*logs-auditd_manager.auditd-*

Related Integrations

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

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

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

Query

✄𐘗text code block:
✄𐘗host.os.type:linux and event.category:process and
event.action:("exec" or "exec_event" or "executed" or "process_started" or "start") and
process.name:("setsid" or "nohup" or "disown") and process.args_count:2

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Direct Process Execution via Background Utility 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).