Detection: Linux Suspicious Privileged Container Execution

Description

The following analytic detects the execution of a Docker container with the privileged flag set, or with the pid namespace set to the host. This can indicate a container running with elevated permissions and access to the underlying system. Actors can hide containers such as this to enable persistent access.

Search

 1
 2| tstats `security_content_summariesonly`
 3  count min(_time) as firstTime
 4        max(_time) as lastTime
 5
 6from datamodel=Endpoint.Processes where
 7
 8Processes.process="*docker *"
 9Processes.process="* run*"
10Processes.process IN ("*--privileged*", "*--pid=host*")
11
12by Processes.process Processes.vendor_product Processes.user_id
13   Processes.process_hash Processes.parent_process_name
14   Processes.parent_process_exec Processes.action Processes.dest Processes.process_current_directory
15   Processes.process_path Processes.process_integrity_level Processes.original_file_name
16   Processes.parent_process Processes.parent_process_path Processes.parent_process_guid
17   Processes.parent_process_id Processes.process_guid Processes.process_id Processes.user
18   Processes.process_name
19
20| `drop_dm_object_name(Processes)`
21
22| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
23
24| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
25
26| `linux_suspicious_privileged_container_execution_filter`

Data Source

Name	Platform	Sourcetype	Source
Sysmon for Linux EventID 1	Linux	'sysmon:linux'	'Syslog:Linux-Sysmon/Operational'

Macros Used

Annotations

Default Configuration

This detection is configured by default in Splunk Enterprise Security to run with the following settings:

Implementation

The detection is based on data that originates from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents. These agents are designed to provide security-related telemetry from the endpoints where the agent is installed. To implement this search, you must ingest logs that contain the process GUID, process name, and parent process. Additionally, you must ingest complete command-line executions. These logs must be processed using the appropriate Splunk Technology Add-ons that are specific to the EDR product. The logs must also be mapped to the Processes node of the Endpoint data model. Use the Splunk Common Information Model (CIM) to normalize the field names and speed up the data modeling process.

Known False Positives

Legitimate system administrators may intentionally run privileged containers for maintenance, debugging, or specific infrastructure tasks. Filter based on known approved workflows and trusted administrative users.

Associated Analytic Story

• Linux Post-Exploitation

• Linux Privilege Escalation

• Linux Persistence Techniques

• Compromised Linux Host

Intermediate Findings

Threat Objects

References

• https://github.com/Aegrah/PANIX

Detection Testing

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: 1