Elastic Security Detection Rules

Potential Process Name Stomping with Prctl

Last updated 9 days ago on 2025-05-05
Created 4 months ago on 2025-01-09

About

This rule leverages Auditd data to detect the use of the `prctl` syscall to potentially hide a process by changing its name. The `prctl` syscall is used to control various process attributes. Attackers can use this syscall to change the name of a process to a hidden directory or file, making it harder to detect. The query looks for the `prctl` syscall with the `PR_SET_NAME` argument set to `f` (PR_SET_NAME is used to set the name of a process).
Tags
Data Source: Auditd ManagerDomain: EndpointOS: LinuxUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Defense EvasionLanguage: eql
Severity
medium
Risk Score
47
MITRE ATT&CK™

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

↳ Masquerading (T1036)(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
logs-auditd_manager.auditd-*auditbeat-*
Related Integrations

auditd_manager(opens in a new tab or window)

Query
process where host.os.type == "linux" and auditd.data.syscall == "prctl" and auditd.data.a0 == "f" and
process.executable like (
  "/boot/*", "/dev/shm/*", "/etc/cron.*/*", "/etc/init.d/*", "/var/run/*", "/etc/update-motd.d/*",
  "/tmp/*", "/var/log/*", "/var/tmp/*", "/home/*", "/run/shm/*", "/run/*", "./*"
)

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Potential Process Name Stomping with Prctl 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).