Suspicious Shell History and Log Clearing on Linux

ATT&CK techniques

Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
- T1070.003Clear Command History
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects commands that clear shell history or truncate and shred system logs as used by Linux rootkit operators to remove traces of activity in Elastic detection research. Clearing history and wiping auth or utmp logs after intrusion is a common anti forensic action indicating hands on keyboard cleanup.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1070.003 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious Clearing of Linux Authentication and History Logs

Suspicious Bash History Clearing for Anti-Forensics on Linux (via process_creation)

Suspicious Shell History Anti-Forensics via HISTFILE Manipulation

Malicious Sed Tampering of Ivanti Debug and Audit Logs (via process_creation)

Suspicious File Immutability Set via chattr to Resist Removal

Malicious Tampering of Linux Authentication Log var log secure (via process_creation)

Suspicious Shell History Disabling via HISTFILE Redirection on Linux

Suspicious Shell History Clearing or Disabling (via process_creation)

Suspicious Deletion of System Logs Under var log on Linux Appliance

Suspicious Shell History and Log Clearing on Linux

Pivot detection · T1070.003 · 9 related

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