Suspicious Docker Socket Access via curl Unix Socket for Container Escape

ATT&CK techniques

Execution → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
- T1610Deploy Container
Persistence
Priv Esc
- T1611Escape to Host
Defense Evasion
- T1610Deploy Container
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects curl talking to the Docker daemon over its Unix socket to create or start containers, a technique used to escape a container by spawning a privileged sibling with the host filesystem mounted. Direct access to docker.sock grants effective root on the node. Detecting this exposes an attempted breakout through the exposed Docker API.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1611 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious Kubernetes Pod Deployment with Privileged or Host Namespace Flags

Malicious Kubernetes Node Escape via chroot to Node kubectl Path

Suspicious Privileged or Host Namespace Kubernetes Pod Creation

Malicious Container Escape via Privileged Docker Host PID Namespace

Malicious Privileged Container Creation in Kubernetes (via audit)

Malicious Docker Socket Access via Curl Unix Socket

Suspicious Cgroup release_agent Abuse for Container Escape

Suspicious Privileged Docker Container Launch With Host chroot

Malicious Direct etcd Write to Kubernetes Registry via ETCDCTL_API (via process_creation)

Suspicious Docker Socket Access via curl Unix Socket for Container Escape

Pivot detection · T1611 · 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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