Possible Network Sniffing - Linux (via auditd)

This rule detects network sniffing refers to using the network interface on a system to monitor or capture information sent over a wired or wireless connection. An adversary may place a network interface into promiscuous mode to passively access data in transit over the network, or use span ports to capture a larger amount of data.

SigmalowLinuxv1
sigma
title: Possible Network Sniffing - Linux (via auditd)
id: 4017deb5-0532-5d61-9969-3ffab9de1e80
status: stable
description: This rule detects network sniffing refers to using the network interface on a system to monitor or capture information sent over a wired or wireless connection. An adversary may place a network interface into promiscuous mode to passively access data in transit over the network, or use span ports to capture a larger amount of data.
references:
    - https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1040/
    - https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/f339e7da7d05f6057fdfcdd3742bfcf365fee2a9/atomics/T1040/T1040.md
author: Huntrule Team
date: 2026-04-02
tags:
    - attack.credential-access
    - attack.discovery
    - attack.t1040
logsource:
    product: linux
    service: auditd
detection:
    selection_1:
        type: 'execve'
        a0: 'tcpdump'
        a1: '-c'
        a3|contains: '-i'
    selection_2:
        type: 'execve'
        a0: 'tshark'
        a1: '-c'
        a3: '-i'
    condition: 1 of selection_*
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: low

Known false positives

  • Unknown

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.