Malicious PAM Configuration Tampering for Passwordless su via pam_rootok (via process_creation)
- Product
- linux
- Category
- process_creation
- Author
- HuntRule
- Published
- 2026-05-18
- Updated
- 2026-08-28
ATT&CK techniques
Persistence → Cred AccessRecon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact
What it detects
This rule detects modification of a PAM configuration file to insert the pam_rootok module, granting passwordless su to root. This technique was reported in the Group-IB XMRig covert Linux PAM abuse campaign as a stealthy privilege and persistence mechanism. Abusing pam_rootok lets an attacker escalate to root without credentials while evading authentication logging, making it a high fidelity indicator of compromise.
Reporting behind it
Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.
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