Name:Linux Auditd File Permission Modification Via Chmod id:5f1d2ea7-eec0-4790-8b24-6875312ad492 version:10 date:2025-03-19 author:Teoderick Contreras, Splunk, Ivar Nygård status:production type:Anomaly Description:The following analytic detects suspicious file permission modifications using the `chmod` command, which may indicate an attacker attempting to alter access controls on critical files or directories. Such modifications can be used to grant unauthorized users elevated privileges or to conceal malicious activities by restricting legitimate access. By monitoring for unusual or unauthorized `chmod` usage, this analytic helps identify potential security breaches, allowing security teams to respond promptly to prevent privilege escalation, data tampering, or other unauthorized actions on the system. Data_source:
-Linux Auditd Proctitle
search:`linux_auditd` proctitle="*chmod*" AND proctitle IN ("* 777 *", "* 755 *", "*+*x*", "* 754 *") | rename host as dest | stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime by proctitle dest | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` | `linux_auditd_file_permission_modification_via_chmod_filter`
how_to_implement:To implement this detection, the process begins by ingesting auditd data, that consists of SYSCALL, TYPE, EXECVE and PROCTITLE events, which captures command-line executions and process details on Unix/Linux systems. These logs should be ingested and processed using Splunk Add-on for Unix and Linux (https://splunkbase.splunk.com/app/833), which is essential for correctly parsing and categorizing the data. The next step involves normalizing the field names to match the field names set by the Splunk Common Information Model (CIM) to ensure consistency across different data sources and enhance the efficiency of data modeling. This approach enables effective monitoring and detection of linux endpoints where auditd is deployed known_false_positives:Administrator or network operator can use this application for automation purposes. Please update the filter macros to remove false positives. References: -https://www.splunk.com/en_us/blog/security/deep-dive-on-persistence-privilege-escalation-technique-and-detection-in-linux-platform.html drilldown_searches: name:'View the detection results for - "$dest$"' search:'%original_detection_search% | search dest = "$dest$"' earliest_offset:'$info_min_time$' latest_offset:'$info_max_time$' name:'View risk events for the last 7 days for - "$dest$"' search:'| from datamodel Risk.All_Risk | search normalized_risk_object IN ("$dest$") starthoursago=168 | stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime values(search_name) as "Search Name" values(risk_message) as "Risk Message" values(analyticstories) as "Analytic Stories" values(annotations._all) as "Annotations" values(annotations.mitre_attack.mitre_tactic) as "ATT&CK Tactics" by normalized_risk_object | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`' earliest_offset:'$info_min_time$' latest_offset:'$info_max_time$' tags: analytic_story: - 'Linux Persistence Techniques' - 'Compromised Linux Host' - 'China-Nexus Threat Activity' - 'Linux Living Off The Land' - 'XorDDos' - 'Salt Typhoon' - 'Linux Privilege Escalation' asset_type:Endpoint mitre_attack_id: - 'T1222.002' product: - 'Splunk Enterprise' - 'Splunk Enterprise Security' - 'Splunk Cloud' security_domain:endpoint
