Potential Privilege Escalation via a Parent Process Sequence

Last updated 2 days ago on 2026-07-02

Created 2 days ago on 2026-07-02

About

Detects a potential privilege escalation sequence via a parent process relationship. This rule checks for non-root execution of a process executable in a user or world-writable directory followed by a UID change event to 0 (root). This sequence is indicative of a potential local privilege escalation exploit.

Tags

Data Source: Elastic DefendDomain: EndpointOS: LinuxUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Privilege EscalationLanguage: eql

Severity

high

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: logs-endpoint.events.process*
Related Integrations: endpoint(external, opens in a new tab or window)
Query

✄𐘗text code block:
✄𐘗sequence by host.id, process.parent.entity_id with maxspan=15s
  [process where host.os.type == "linux" and event.type == "start" and event.action == "exec" and
  user.id != "0" and process.parent.user.id != "0" and process.parent.group.id != "0" and
  (
    process.executable like (".*", "/tmp/*", "/dev/shm/*", "/var/tmp/*", "/run/user/*", "/var/run/user/*", "/home/*/*") or
    process.parent.executable like (".*", "/tmp/*", "/dev/shm/*", "/var/tmp/*", "/home/*/*", "/run/user/*", "/var/run/user/*")
  )]
  [process where host.os.type == "linux" and event.type == "change" and event.action == "uid_change" and
  user.id == "0" and process.parent.user.id != "0" and process.parent.group.id != "0" and
  not process.executable in ("/usr/bin/sudo", "/bin/sudo")]

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Potential Privilege Escalation via a Parent Process Sequence 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).