Suspicious Modification of SSH Authorized Keys on SD-WAN Appliance by UAT-8616
- Category
- file_event
- Author
- HuntRule
- Published
- 2026-07-08
- Updated
- 2026-08-28
ATT&CK techniques
Persistence → Priv EscRecon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact
What it detects
This rule detects changes to the root SSH authorized_keys file on Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN appliances. UAT-8616 adds attacker-controlled SSH keys and enables root login to persist after exploiting vManage. Injecting authorized keys grants durable passwordless root access to the compromised device.
Reporting behind it
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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