Suspicious Access to Kubernetes Service Account Token via Curl or Wget (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Cred Access

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
- T1528Steal Application Access Token
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects curl or wget accessing the mounted Kubernetes service account token path, a credential theft technique observed in current threats to Kubernetes environments. The service account token grants API access with the pod's privileges, so reading it with a download tool indicates an attacker harvesting cluster credentials from a compromised container.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1528 — drag to rearrange

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Possible VMware Workspace ONE SSRF via instanceHealth hostName At-Injection (via webserver)

Suspicious Entra Device Code Authentication with Office Client and Automated User Agent

Suspicious AWS SSO Token Creation and Role Credential Retrieval (via cloudtrail)

Suspicious Access to Kubernetes Service Account Token via Curl or Wget (via process_creation)

Pivot detection · T1528 · 9 related

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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