Suspicious Modifying Crontab (via cron)

title: Suspicious Modifying Crontab (via cron)
id: c7c8b651-e98a-5df9-b19d-5a0976c04fff
status: stable
description: This rule detects anomalous modification of crontab file.
references:
    - https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1053/003/
    - https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/f339e7da7d05f6057fdfcdd3742bfcf365fee2a9/atomics/T1053.003/T1053.003.md
author: Huntrule Team
date: 2026-04-22
tags:
    - attack.privilege-escalation
    - attack.execution
    - attack.persistence
    - attack.t1053.003
logsource:
    product: linux
    service: cron
detection:
    keywords:
        - 'REPLACE'
    condition: keywords
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: medium