Elastic Security Detection Rules

Linux User Account Creation

Last updated 6 months ago on 2025-02-03
Created 3 years ago on 2023-02-13

About

Identifies attempts to create new users. Attackers may add new users to establish persistence on a system.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: LinuxUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: PersistenceLanguage: eql
Severity
low
Risk Score
21
MITRE ATT&CK™

Persistence (TA0003)(opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Create Account (T1136)(opens in a new tab or window)

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

Definition

Rule Type
Event Correlation Rule
Integration Pack
Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Index Patterns
filebeat-*logs-system.auth-*
Related Integrations

system(opens in a new tab or window)

Query
iam where host.os.type == "linux" and (event.type == "user" and event.type == "creation") and
process.name in ("useradd", "adduser") and user.name != null

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Linux User Account Creation 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(opens in a new tab or window).