Possible Sudo Heap Overflow Exploitation via sudoedit (CVE-2021-3156)

PremiumReviewedSigma · High · v1
Product
linux
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-11-02
Updated
2026-11-02

ATT&CK techniques

Priv Esc
  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Execution

  5. Persistence

  6. Defense Evasion

  7. Cred Access

  8. Discovery

  9. Lateral Movement

  10. Collection

  11. C2

  12. Exfiltration

  13. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects sudoedit invoked in shell or edit mode together with a trailing backslash argument characteristic of the Baron Samedit heap overflow. CVE-2021-3156 is triggered by running sudoedit with the -s or -i flag and an argument ending in an unescaped backslash to overflow the heap and gain root. This command shape is a reliable signature of local privilege escalation attempts against vulnerable sudo.

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Possible Sudo Heap Overflow Exploitation via sudoedit (CVE-2021-3156)
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Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.