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Modification of Standard Authentication Module or Configuration

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Modification of Standard Authentication Module or Configuration

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Adversaries may modify the standard authentication module for persistence via patching the normal authorization process or modifying the login configuration to allow unauthorized access or elevate privileges.

Rule type: query

Rule indices:

auditbeat-*
logs-endpoint.events.*

Severity: medium

Risk score: 47

Runs every: 5 minutes

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

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References:

Tags:

Elastic
Host
macOS
Linux
Threat Detection
Credential Access
Persistence

Version: 3 (version history)

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.12.0

Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 8.4.0

Rule authors: Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Potential false positives

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Trusted system module updates or allowed Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) daemon configuration changes.

Rule query

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event.category:file and event.type:change and (file.name:pam_*.so
or file.path:(/etc/pam.d/* or /private/etc/pam.d/*)) and
process.executable: (* and not ( /bin/yum or
"/usr/sbin/pam-auth-update" or /usr/libexec/packagekitd or
/usr/bin/dpkg or /usr/bin/vim or
/usr/libexec/xpcproxy or /usr/bin/bsdtar or
/usr/local/bin/brew or /usr/bin/rsync or /usr/bin/yum
or /var/lib/docker/*/bin/yum or
/var/lib/docker/*/bin/dpkg or
./merged/var/lib/docker/*/bin/dpkg or "/System/Library/Private
Frameworks/PackageKit.framework/Versions/A/XPCServices/package_script_
service.xpc/Contents/MacOS/package_script_service" ) ) and
not file.path: ( /tmp/snap.rootfs_*/pam_*.so or
/tmp/newroot/lib/*/pam_*.so or /private/var/folders/*/T/com
.apple.fileprovider.ArchiveService/TemporaryItems/*/lib/security/pam_*
.so or /tmp/newroot/usr/lib64/security/pam_*.so )

Threat mapping

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Framework: MITRE ATT&CK^TM

Tactic:
- Name: Persistence
- ID: TA0003
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0003/
Technique:
- Name: Create or Modify System Process
- ID: T1543
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1543/
Tactic:
- Name: Credential Access
- ID: TA0006
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0006/
Technique:
- Name: Modify Authentication Process
- ID: T1556
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1556/

Rule version history

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Version 3 (8.4.0 release)

Formatting only

Version 2 (7.13.0 release)

Updated query, changed from:

event.category:file and event.type:change and (file.name:pam_*.so or
file.path:(/etc/pam.d/* or /private/etc/pam.d/*)) and
process.executable: (* and not ( /bin/yum or "/usr/sbin/pam-auth-
update" or /usr/libexec/packagekitd or /usr/bin/dpkg or /usr/bin/vim
or /usr/libexec/xpcproxy or /usr/bin/bsdtar or /usr/local/bin/brew ) )

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