Security Software Discovery via Grep

edit

Identifies the use of the grep command to discover known third-party macOS and Linux security tools, such as Antivirus or Host Firewall details.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

  • logs-endpoint.events.*
  • auditbeat-*

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

Tags:

  • Elastic
  • Host
  • macOS
  • Linux
  • Threat Detection
  • Discovery

Version: 5 (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

edit

Endpoint Security installers, updaters and post installation verification scripts.

Investigation guide

edit

Rule query

edit
process where event.type == "start" and process.name : "grep" and
user.id != "0" and not process.parent.executable :
"/Library/Application Support/*" and process.args :
("Little Snitch*", "Avast*", "Avira*",
"ESET*", "BlockBlock*", "360Sec*",
"LuLu*", "KnockKnock*", "kav", "KIS",
"RTProtectionDaemon*", "Malware*",
"VShieldScanner*", "WebProtection*",
"webinspectord*", "McAfee*", "isecespd*",
"macmnsvc*", "masvc*", "kesl*",
"avscan*", "guard*", "rtvscand*",
"symcfgd*", "scmdaemon*", "symantec*",
"sophos*", "osquery*", "elastic-endpoint*"
) and not (process.args : "Avast" and process.args : "Passwords")

Threat mapping

edit

Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM

Rule version history

edit
Version 5 (8.4.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 3 (8.2.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 2 (7.13.0 release)
  • Updated query, changed from:

    event.category : process and event.type : (start or process_started)
    and process.name : grep and process.args : ("Little Snitch" or Avast*
    or Avira* or ESET* or esets_* or BlockBlock or 360* or LuLu or
    KnockKnock* or kav or KIS or RTProtectionDaemon or Malware* or
    VShieldScanner or WebProtection or webinspectord or McAfee* or
    isecespd* or macmnsvc* or masvc or kesl or avscan or guard or rtvscand
    or symcfgd or scmdaemon or symantec or elastic-endpoint )