Suspicious File Immutable Attribute Removal via chattr on Linux (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
- T1222.001Windows Permissions
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects use of chattr with the -i flag to strip the immutable attribute from a file on Linux. Attackers clear immutability to overwrite protected files such as /etc/ld.so.preload before tampering with them. This precedes file modification for persistence or defense evasion and warrants review.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1222.001 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious File Permission Grant to Everyone via Icacls (via process_creation)

Suspicious Permissions Modification on a Network Share (via security)

Malicious Computer Account Modifying Active Directory Permissions - PrivExchange (via security)

Suspicious Recursive icacls Grant of Full Access to Everyone via process_creation

Malicious Replication Privileges Granted to Perform DCSync Attack (via security)

Windows: fsutil SymlinkEvaluation behavior modification via command line

Windows Suspicious takeown.exe Recursive Ownership Change

Windows Process Creation: File/Folder Permission Changes via cacls/icacls/net attrib/takeown

Windows Security: Detect WRITE_DAC on AD DS objects (Event ID 4662)

Suspicious File Immutable Attribute Removal via chattr on Linux (via process_creation)

Pivot detection · T1222.001 · 9 related

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

Full detection rule

Unlock this rule to view and copy it

The detection logic is included with a plan. Everything else — context, mappings and implementation details — stays free on this page.

Sign in for 3 free unlocks

Signing in gives you 3 unlocks to spend on any rule in the library. No card, and they do not expire.

Also included

Unlocked rules convert on this page — to Splunk SPL or Splunk — Raw Index SPL or Microsoft Sentinel KQL or Microsoft Sentinel ASIM ASIM KQL or Microsoft Defender XDR KQL or Elastic Security KQL or Elastic Security Lucene or Elastic Security ES|QL or CrowdStrike Falcon CQL or SentinelOne PowerQuery or Palo Alto Cortex XDR XQL or Carbon Black Cloud Platform Search or Carbon Black EDR Process Search or Google Security Operations UDM Search or IBM QRadar AQL or Sumo Logic Cloud SIEM Rules expression or Rapid7 InsightIDR LEQL or Graylog Search or OpenSearch Lucene or OpenSearch PPL PPL or Grafana Loki LogQL or SQLite SQL or Zircolite SQLite — with the log-source profile the engine picked, the field map it used, and everything it could not express. Converting a rule you have unlocked costs no further credit.

See it run on a free rule →Convert your own rule →