Suspicious Masquerading systemd Unit display-managerd Creation via File System

ATT&CK techniques

Persistence → Priv Esc

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
- T1543.002Systemd Service
Priv Esc
- T1543.002Systemd Service
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects creation of a systemd unit file named display-managerd.service, a masquerading name WolfsBane uses to persist by imitating the legitimate display-manager service. The trailing d makes it resemble a normal daemon unit while providing boot persistence for the backdoor. This indicates systemd service persistence by the Gelsemium Linux implant.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1543.002 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious Systemd Service Unit Written to System Directory (via process_creation)

Suspicious Systemd Service Unit Creation In System Directory

Malicious Systemd Service Persistence via ExecStartPost Hidden Path on Linux

Malicious Koske Persistence via Systemd Service and Shell Profile Hijack (via process_creation)

Suspicious Linux CoinMiner Watchdog Staging in Shared Memory (via process_creation)

Suspicious systemd Service Persistence Creation (via process_creation)

Masquerading Systemd Service Masquerade via Systemctl Reenable of rsyslogd (via process_creation)

Suspicious Systemd Service Masquerading as Sysmon (via file_event)

APT28 httd Implant Persistence via systemd linux.service from Boot Directory (via process_creation)

Suspicious Masquerading systemd Unit display-managerd Creation via File System

Pivot detection · T1543.002 · 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 →