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Description

The following analytic detects the creation of the "sudoers.tmp" file, which occurs when editing the /etc/sudoers file using visudo or another editor on a Linux platform. This detection leverages filesystem data to identify the presence of "sudoers.tmp" files. Monitoring this activity is crucial as adversaries may exploit it to gain elevated privileges on a compromised host. If confirmed malicious, this activity could allow attackers to modify sudoers configurations, potentially granting them unauthorized access to execute commands as other users, including root, thereby compromising the system's security.

  • Type: Anomaly
  • Product: Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Enterprise Security, Splunk Cloud
  • Datamodel: Endpoint
  • Last Updated: 2024-05-19
  • Author: Teoderick Contreras, Splunk
  • ID: be254a5c-63e7-11ec-89da-acde48001122

Annotations

ATT&CK

ATT&CK

ID Technique Tactic
T1548.003 Sudo and Sudo Caching Privilege Escalation, Defense Evasion
T1548 Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism Privilege Escalation, Defense Evasion
Kill Chain Phase
  • Exploitation
NIST
  • DE.AE
CIS20
  • CIS 10
CVE 


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| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime FROM datamodel=Endpoint.Filesystem where Filesystem.file_path IN ("*sudoers.tmp*") by Filesystem.dest Filesystem.file_name Filesystem.process_guid Filesystem.file_path 
| `drop_dm_object_name(Filesystem)` 
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
| `linux_sudoers_tmp_file_creation_filter`

Macros

The SPL above uses the following Macros:

:information_source: linux_sudoers_tmp_file_creation_filter is a empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.

Required fields

List of fields required to use this analytic.

  • _time
  • Filesystem.dest
  • Filesystem.file_create_time
  • Filesystem.file_name
  • Filesystem.process_guid
  • Filesystem.file_path

How To Implement

To successfully implement this search, you need to be ingesting logs with the process name, parent process, and command-line executions from your endpoints. If you are using Sysmon, you can use the Add-on for Linux Sysmon from Splunkbase.

Known False Positives

administrator or network operator can execute this command. Please update the filter macros to remove false positives.

Associated Analytic Story

RBA

Risk Score Impact Confidence Message
72.0 80 90 A file $file_name$ is created in $file_path$ on $dest$

:information_source: The Risk Score is calculated by the following formula: Risk Score = (Impact * Confidence/100). Initial Confidence and Impact is set by the analytic author.

Reference

Test Dataset

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 | version: 2