Setcap setuid/setgid Capability Set

Last updated 5 months ago on 2025-03-20

Created 2 years ago on 2023-09-05

About

This rule monitors for the addition of the cap_setuid+ep or cap_setgid+ep capabilities via setcap. Setuid (Set User ID) and setgid (Set Group ID) are Unix-like OS features that enable processes to run with elevated privileges, based on the file owner or group. Threat actors can exploit these attributes to achieve persistence by creating malicious binaries, allowing them to maintain control over a compromised system with elevated permissions.

Tags

Domain: EndpointOS: LinuxUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: PersistenceData Source: Elastic DefendData Source: Elastic EndgameData Source: CrowdstrikeData Source: SentinelOneLanguage: eql

Severity

medium

Risk Score

MITRE ATT&CK™

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

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

↳ Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism (T1548)(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

endgame-*logs-crowdstrike.fdr*logs-endpoint.events.process*logs-sentinel_one_cloud_funnel.*

Related Integrations

endpoint(opens in a new tab or window)

crowdstrike(opens in a new tab or window)

sentinel_one_cloud_funnel(opens in a new tab or window)

Query

process where host.os.type == "linux" and event.type == "start" and
  event.action in ("exec", "exec_event", "start", "ProcessRollup2") and 
  process.name == "setcap" and process.args : "cap_set?id+ep" and not (
    process.parent.name in ("jem", "vzctl") or
    process.args like "/usr/bin/new?idmap"
  )

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Setcap setuid/setgid Capability Set 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).