Suspicious systemd Service Persistence Creation (via process_creation)

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 or enabling of a systemd unit under the system service directories, a persistence technique that runs an attacker binary at boot with elevated privileges on Linux. Systemd service persistence is tracked in the Red Canary Threat Detection Report. Detecting the unit write and enable surfaces a boot-persistent foothold.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1543.002 — drag to rearrange

Malicious Systemd Service Masquerading as Sd-Pam Helper

Malicious Linux systemd Persistence nvmconf.service

Suspicious Linux Persistence via sed Edit of Boot and Init Files

Suspicious systemd Service Persistence via GRIDTIDE xapt

Suspicious Python Execution of Fake Sysmon Script From Config Directory

Suspicious Linux Boot Persistence via rc.local or init.d Modification (via file_event)

Malicious systemd-daemon Masquerading Binary Execution on Linux

Suspicious Masquerading systemd Unit display-managerd Creation via File System

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

Suspicious systemd Service Persistence Creation (via process_creation)

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.

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