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Suspicious SUID Binary Execution (Auditd Sequence)

Elastic Detection Rules

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Summary
Detects suspicious sequences on Linux hosts where a non-root user starts a high-risk parent process (an interpreter, a shell one-liner, or a binary launched from a user-writable path) and then immediately invokes a privilege-escalation helper (su, sudo, pkexec, passwd, chsh, newgrp) to gain effective UID 0 while the real UID remains non-root. This behavior can indicate misuse of SUID/SGID mechanisms, polkit/sudo abuse, or interactive privilege escalation captured via Auditd telemetry. The rule is evaluated against Auditd Manager data and is tuned for short-lived parent-child process chains within a brief time window.
Categories
  • Endpoint
  • Linux
Data Sources
  • Process
ATT&CK Techniques
  • T1548
  • T1548.001
  • T1548.003
Created: 2026-05-08