Name:Linux Suspicious Child Process of PostgreSQL id:6488b83f-8e76-43c3-91ee-c90a6d9e8d62 version:1 date:None author:Raven Tait, Splunk status:production type:TTP Description:The following analytic detects PostgreSQL spawning a shell, interpreter, or network utility as a child process.
When an attacker exploits a remote code execution vulnerability in PostgreSQL (such as via malicious COPY TO/FROM PROGRAM, CVE-2019-9193, or an insecurely configured extension), the database process itself becomes the parent of attacker-controlled commands.
Legitimate PostgreSQL processes do not normally fork shells or download tools, making this a high-fidelity signal for post-exploitation activity. Data_source:
-Sysmon for Linux EventID 1
search:| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime
how_to_implement: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:Custom PostgreSQL extensions or wrapper scripts that legitimately invoke shell utilities may trigger this detection. Baseline the environment and use the filter macro to suppress known-good parent/child combinations. Recommend throttling by dest and process_name before enabling broadly. References: -https://www.horizon3.ai/cve-2023-27524-insecure-default-configuration-in-apache-superset-leads-to-remote-code-execution/ -https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/sql-copy.html -https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-9193 drilldown_searches: earliest_offset:'$info_min_time$' latest_offset:'$info_max_time$' name:'View the detection results for - "$user$" and "$dest$"' search:'%original_detection_search% | search user = "$user$" dest = "$dest$"' name:'View risk events for the last 7 days for - "$user$" and "$dest$"' search:'| from datamodel Risk.All_Risk | search normalized_risk_object IN ("$user$", "$dest$") | 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:'7d' latest_offset:'0' analytic_story:['Linux Post-Exploitation', 'Linux Privilege Escalation', 'Linux Persistence Techniques', 'Compromised Linux Host', 'SQL Injection']
