ID | Technique | Tactic |
---|---|---|
T1548.003 | Sudo and Sudo Caching | Defense Evasion |
T1548 | Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism | Privilege Escalation |
Detection: Linux Auditd Doas Conf File Creation
Description
The following analytic detects the creation of the doas.conf file on a Linux host. This file is used by the doas utility to allow standard users to perform tasks as root, similar to sudo. The detection leverages Linux Auditd data, focusing on the creation of the doas.conf file. This activity is significant because it can indicate an attempt to gain elevated privileges, potentially by an adversary. If confirmed malicious, this could allow an attacker to execute commands with root commands with root privileges, leading to full system compromise.
Search
1`linux_auditd` type=PATH name ="/etc/doas.conf*"
2| rename host as dest
3| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime by name nametype OGID type dest
4| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
5| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
6| `linux_auditd_doas_conf_file_creation_filter`
Data Source
Name | Platform | Sourcetype | Source |
---|---|---|---|
Linux Auditd Path | Linux | 'linux:audit' |
'/var/log/audit/audit.log' |
Macros Used
Name | Value |
---|---|
linux_auditd | sourcetype="linux:audit" |
linux_auditd_doas_conf_file_creation_filter | search * |
linux_auditd_doas_conf_file_creation_filter
is an empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.
Annotations
Default Configuration
This detection is configured by default in Splunk Enterprise Security to run with the following settings:
Setting | Value |
---|---|
Disabled | true |
Cron Schedule | 0 * * * * |
Earliest Time | -70m@m |
Latest Time | -10m@m |
Schedule Window | auto |
Creates Notable | Yes |
Rule Title | %name% |
Rule Description | %description% |
Notable Event Fields | user, dest |
Creates Risk Event | True |
Implementation
To implement this detection, the process begins by ingesting auditd data, that consist SYSCALL, TYPE, EXECVE and PROCTITLE events, which captures command-line executions and process details on Unix/Linux systems. These logs should be ingested and processed using Splunk Add-on for Unix and Linux (https://splunkbase.splunk.com/app/833), which is essential for correctly parsing and categorizing the data. The next step involves normalizing the field names to match the field names set by the Splunk Common Information Model (CIM) to ensure consistency across different data sources and enhance the efficiency of data modeling. This approach enables effective monitoring and detection of linux endpoints where auditd is deployed
Known False Positives
Administrator or network operator can execute this command. Please update the filter macros to remove false positives.
Associated Analytic Story
Risk Based Analytics (RBA)
Risk Message | Risk Score | Impact | Confidence |
---|---|---|---|
A [$type$] event occured on host - [$dest$] to create a doas.conf file. | 64 | 80 | 80 |
References
Detection Testing
Test Type | Status | Dataset | Source | Sourcetype |
---|---|---|---|---|
Validation | ✅ Passing | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Unit | ✅ Passing | Dataset | /var/log/audit/audit.log |
linux:audit |
Integration | ✅ Passing | Dataset | /var/log/audit/audit.log |
linux:audit |
Replay any dataset to Splunk Enterprise by using our replay.py
tool or the UI.
Alternatively you can replay a dataset into a Splunk Attack Range
Source: GitHub | Version: 2