Elastic Security Detection Rules

Potential Privilege Escalation in Container via Runc Init

Last updated 20 days ago on 2026-04-22
Created 20 days ago on 2026-04-22

About

Identifies audit events for runc init child processes where the effective user is root and the login user ID is not root. This pattern can indicate privilege escalation or credential separation abuse inside container runtimes, where a process executes with elevated effective privileges while retaining a non-root audit identity.
Tags
Domain: EndpointDomain: ContainerOS: LinuxUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Privilege EscalationData Source: Auditd ManagerLanguage: kuery
Severity
high
Risk Score
73
MITRE ATT&CK™

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

↳ Escape to Host (T1611)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

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

Definition

Rule Type
Query (Kibana Query Language)
Integration Pack
Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Index Patterns
auditbeat-*logs-auditd_manager.auditd-*
Related Integrations

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

Query
text code block:
host.os.type:linux and event.category:process and 
event.action:(executed or exec) and 
process.title:"runc init" and user.effective.id:0 and user.id:(* and not 0)

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Potential Privilege Escalation in Container via Runc Init 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).