Cisco Isovalent - Shell Execution: endpointEndpointNoneversion:4
The following analytic detects the execution of a shell inside a container namespace within the Cisco Isovalent environment. It identifies this activity by monitoring process execution logs for the execution of a shell (sh or bash) inside a container namespace. This behavior is significant for a SOC as it could allow an attacker to gain shell access to the container, potentially leading to further compromise of the Kubernetes cluster. If confirmed malicious, this activity could lead to data theft, service disruption, privilege escalation, lateral movement, and further attacks, severely compromising the cluster's security and integrity.
Cisco Isovalent - Potential Escape to Host: endpointEndpointNoneversion:6
This analytic detects potential container escape or reconnaissance attempts by monitoring for the rapid execution of multiple suspicious Linux commands (nsenter, mount, ps aux, and ls) within a short time window. The search aggregates process execution logs into 5-minute buckets and identifies when two or more distinct commands occur in quick succession. This behavior is noteworthy because attackers often chain these commands together to pivot from a container into the host, enumerate processes, or browse filesystems. For a SOC, catching these clustered command executions is important because it highlights possible adversary activity attempting to break isolation and escalate privileges inside a Kubernetes environment.
Cisco Isovalent - Kprobe Spike: endpointEndpointNoneversion:4
This analytic detects excessive kernel probe (kprobe) events in a Kubernetes cluster over a short period of time.
Kprobes are a Linux kernel debugging and instrumentation mechanism that allows dynamic monitoring and tracing of kernel functions and system calls.
In containerized or cloud-native environments, kprobes are occasionally used for legitimate low-level diagnostics; however, monitoring a spike in kprobe activity is important because malware or attackers may abuse this mechanism to gain insights into the kernel, attempt privilege escalation, or tamper with host processes.
More than 10 kprobe events within 5 minutes may indicate suspicious activity, such as an attacker probing the kernel through repeated system calls (e.g., nsenter, mount, sethostname).
Such abnormal volume and frequency of kprobe usage within application pods or on nodes can signal container escape attempts or low-level tampering with the host, thereby representing a potential security threat.
Linux Add User Account: endpointEndpointNoneversion:10
The following analytic detects the creation of new user accounts on Linux systems using commands like "useradd" or "adduser." It leverages data from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents, focusing on process names and command-line executions. This activity is significant as adversaries often create new user accounts to establish persistence on compromised hosts. If confirmed malicious, this could allow attackers to maintain access, escalate privileges, and further compromise the system, posing a severe security risk.
Linux Adding Crontab Using List Parameter: endpointEndpoint2026-02-25version:10
The following analytic detects suspicious modifications to cron jobs on Linux systems using the crontab command with list parameters. It leverages data from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents, focusing on process names and command-line executions. This activity is significant as it may indicate an attempt to establish persistence or execute malicious code on a schedule. If confirmed malicious, the impact could include unauthorized code execution, data destruction, or other damaging outcomes. Further investigation should analyze the added cron job, its associated command, and any related processes.
Linux Decode Base64 to Shell: endpointEndpointNoneversion:14
The following analytic detects the behavior of decoding base64-encoded data and passing it to a Linux shell. Additionally, it mitigates the potential damage and protects the organization's systems and data.The detection is made by searching for specific commands in the Splunk query, namely "base64 -d" and "base64 --decode", within the Endpoint.Processes data model. The analytic also includes a filter for Linux shells. The detection is important because it indicates the presence of malicious activity since Base64 encoding is commonly used to obfuscate malicious commands or payloads, and decoding it can be a step in running those commands. It suggests that an attacker is attempting to run malicious commands on a Linux system to gain unauthorized access, for data exfiltration, or perform other malicious actions.
Cisco Isovalent - Access To Cloud Metadata Service: networkKubernetesNoneversion:6
The following analytic detects workloads accessing the cloud instance metadata service at 169.254.169.254. This IP is used by AWS, GCP and Azure metadata endpoints and is frequently abused in SSRF or lateral movement scenarios to obtain credentials and sensitive environment details. Monitor unexpected access to this service from application pods or namespaces where such behavior is atypical.
Cisco Isovalent - Late Process Execution: endpointEndpointNoneversion:5
Detects process executions that occur well after a container has initialized, which can indicate
suspicious activity (e.g., interactive shells, injected binaries, or post-compromise tooling).
The analytic compares the process start time to the container start time and flags processes
launched more than 5 minutes (300 seconds) after initialization.
Linux Crontab Enumeration: endpointEndpointNoneversion:1
The following analytic detects the use of the crontab command with the list parameter (-l) to enumerate scheduled tasks configured in the invoking user's crontab on Linux systems.
Adversaries may use this information to identify persistence mechanisms, scheduled execution, or potential privilege escalation opportunities.
The use of crontab -l is also common administrative activity and may require tuning based on the executing user, parent process, and environment.
Cisco Isovalent - Cron Job Creation: networkKubernetesNoneversion:5
The following analytic detects the creation of a cron job within the Cisco Isovalent environment. It identifies this activity by monitoring process execution logs for cron job creation events. This behavior is significant for a SOC as it could allow an attacker to execute malicious tasks repeatedly and automatically, posing a threat to the Kubernetes infrastructure. If confirmed malicious, this activity could lead to persistent attacks, service disruptions, or unauthorized access to sensitive information.
Cisco Isovalent - Non Allowlisted Image Use: networkKubernetesNoneversion:5
The following analytic detects use of container images that fall outside an approved
allowlist, leveraging Cisco Isovalent/Tetragon runtime telemetry (image name and
workload identity). Adversaries commonly introduce untrusted or newly published
images to deploy tooling, establish persistence, or abuse supply‑chain trust. This
behavior may indicate image pulls from unauthorized registries, execution of
unvetted software, or a drift from established deployment baselines. Extra scrutiny
is warranted for namespaces and workloads that normally source images from restricted
registries, and for pods that suddenly begin running images outside expected
prefixes.
Maintain an environment‑specific allowlist via the macro `cisco_isovalent_allowed_images`
(for example, allow trusted registries/prefixes such as ImageName="gcr.io/org/*",
"registry.local/*", or "myco/*") and keep it updated as new baseline images are
introduced. This analytic alerts on images NOT matching the allowlist.
Linux At Application Execution: endpointEndpointNoneversion:13
The following analytic detects the execution of the "At" application in Linux, which can be used by attackers to create persistence entries on a compromised host. This detection leverages data from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents, focusing on process names and parent process names associated with "at" or "atd". This activity is significant because the "At" application can be exploited to maintain unauthorized access or deliver additional malicious payloads. If confirmed malicious, this behavior could lead to data theft, ransomware attacks, or other severe consequences. Immediate investigation is required to determine the legitimacy of the execution and mitigate potential risks.
Cisco Isovalent - Curl Execution With Insecure Flags: endpointEndpointNoneversion:5
The following analytic detects the execution of curl commands with insecure flags within the Cisco Isovalent environment. It identifies this activity by monitoring process execution logs for curl commands that use the -k or --insecure flags. This behavior is significant for a SOC as it could allow an attacker to bypass SSL/TLS verification, potentially exposing the Kubernetes infrastructure to man-in-the-middle attacks. If confirmed malicious, this activity could lead to data interception, service disruptions, or unauthorized access to sensitive information.
Cisco Isovalent - Nsenter Usage in Kubernetes Pod: endpointEndpointNoneversion:5
This analytic detects the execution of the nsenter utility from within a container, a technique often used for exploitation and container escape. Nsenter allows an attacker to enter the namespaces of another process—such as the host's init process (PID 1)—and execute a shell or other binaries with elevated privileges. For example, an attacker may use docker exec to gain a shell in a container, enumerate the PID of a target container or the host, and then use nsenter to access all namespaces (mount, UTS, IPC, net, pid) of the host or another container. Example to escape to the host: `nsenter --target 1 --mount --uts --ipc --net --pid -- bash`. The WorkloadAncestorsBinary field is used to track the ancestry of the process, this is useful to understand the context of the nsenter usage.
The options -m -u -n -i -p correspond to the various Linux namespaces. Adversaries exploit nsenter when pods are misconfigured with excessive privileges (e.g., privileged, hostPID, or broad hostPath mounts), enabling them to interact with the underlying node filesystem and processes. This can be an indicator of a container escape attempt or privilege escalation. Security teams should pay close attention to any nsenter invocation from within containers, especially outside of normal maintenance activity or in workloads with elevated privileges.
Linux apt-get Privilege Escalation: endpointEndpoint2026-02-10version:11
The following analytic detects the execution of the 'apt-get' command with elevated privileges using 'sudo' on a Linux system. It leverages data from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents, focusing on process execution logs that include command-line details. This activity is significant because it indicates a user may be attempting to escalate privileges to root, which could lead to unauthorized system control. If confirmed malicious, an attacker could gain root access, allowing them to execute arbitrary commands, install or remove software, and potentially compromise the entire system.
Cisco Isovalent - Pods Running Offensive Tools: endpointEndpointNoneversion:5
The following analytic detects execution of known offensive tooling from within Kubernetes pods, including network scanners and post-exploitation frameworks (e.g., nmap, masscan, zmap, impacket-*, hashcat, john, SharpHound, kube-hunter, peirates). We have created a macro named `linux_offsec_tool_processes` that contains the list of known offensive tooling found on linux systems. Adversaries commonly introduce these tools into compromised workloads to conduct discovery, lateral movement, credential access, or cluster reconnaissance. This behavior may indicate a compromised container or supply-chain abuse. Extra scrutiny is warranted for namespaces that do not typically run diagnostic scanners and for pods that suddenly begin invoking these binaries outside of normal maintenance activity.
