Suspicious Shadow File Exfiltration Over Dev TCP on Linux via Process Creation (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Cred Access → C2

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
- T1552.004Private Keys
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
- T1071.001Web Protocols
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects the contents of /etc/shadow being read and piped to a bash /dev/tcp network socket, the password-hash exfiltration example from Red Canary's Linux detection guide. Combining access to the credential store with a raw network channel is an unambiguous attempt to steal hashes for offline cracking.

Reporting behind it

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Suspicious Shadow File Exfiltration Over Dev TCP on Linux via Process Creation (via process_creation)

Pivot detection · T1071.001 · 9 related

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

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