Shadow File Read via Command Line Utilities

Identifies the manual reading of the /etc/shadow file via the commandline using standard system utilities. Threat actors will attempt to read this file, after elevating their privileges to root, in order to gain valid credentials they can utilize to move laterally undetected and access additional resources.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

auditbeat-*
logs-endpoint.events.*

Severity: medium

Risk score: 47

Runs every: 5m

Searches indices from: now-9m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References: None

Tags:

Elastic
Host
Linux
Threat Detection
Privilege Escalation

Version: 1

Rule authors:

Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Rule query

edit

process where event.type == "start" and event.action == "exec" and user.name == "root" and
process.args : "/etc/shadow" and
not process.executable: ("/usr/bin/find", "/usr/bin/cmp", "/bin/ls", "/usr/sbin/restorecon", "/usr/bin/uniq") and
not process.parent.executable: "/bin/dracut"

Framework: MITRE ATT&CK^TM

Tactic:
- Name: Privilege Escalation
- ID: TA0004
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0004/
Technique:
- Name: Exploitation for Privilege Escalation
- ID: T1068
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1068/

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