Suspicious Making a File Executable in a Temp Directory (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
- T1222.002Linux and Mac Permissions
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects chmod granting execute permission to a file staged in /tmp, /dev/shm or /var/tmp, a common step between dropping a payload and running it on Linux. Setting execute bits on temp-directory files is a defense-evasion and execution-preparation technique tracked in the Red Canary Threat Detection Report. Detecting it surfaces a payload being armed for execution.

Reporting behind it

Related detections7 linkedT1222.002 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious File Immutability Manipulation via chattr

Suspicious Download to tmp Followed by chmod Execution on Linux

Malicious Immutable Flag on SSH authorized_keys via chattr

Linux: chattr Used to Remove Immutable File Attribute

Linux chmod Process Commandlines Targeting Sensitive Directory Paths

Linux auditd: chmod/chown process execution indicating file or folder permission changes

Linux auditd: Detect chattr -i removing immutable file attribute

Suspicious Making a File Executable in a Temp Directory (via process_creation)

Pivot detection · T1222.002 · 7 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 →