Suspicious TruffleHog Secret Scanner Spawned by Node Package Manager on Linux

ATT&CK techniques

Cred Access

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
- T1552.001Credentials In Files
- T1552.005Cloud Instance Metadata API
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects the TruffleHog secret scanning tool being launched as a child of a node or npm process which the Shai-Hulud npm worm abuses during package install to locate GitHub npm and cloud credentials on the victim host. Running a credential scanner from within a package install lifecycle is anomalous and indicates automated secret theft rather than a developer audit.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1552.005 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious Access to Cloud and Database Credential Files via Process

Suspicious prt-scan Campaign Credential Harvesting via proc environ Scan (via process_creation)

Suspicious Shai-Hulud 2.0 Harvested Secret Dump File Creation

Possible Jamf Pro SSRF Exploitation via eduFeatureSettingsTest imageUrl (via webserver)

Possible WebSphere Portal SSRF via Proxy Servlet targeting Cloud Metadata (CVE-2021-27748) (via webserver)

Possible SSRF to AWS Metadata via Workspace One UEM BlobHandler CVE-2021-22054

Possible SSRF via Gatsby _gatsby File Proxy Endpoint

Possible SSRF to Cloud Metadata via Nuxt _ipx Image Proxy

Suspicious Cloud Instance Metadata Access from Command Line (via process_creation)

Suspicious TruffleHog Secret Scanner Spawned by Node Package Manager on Linux

Pivot detection · T1552.005 · 9 related

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

Full detection rule

Unlock this rule to view and copy it

The detection logic is included with a plan. Everything else — context, mappings and implementation details — stays free on this page.

Sign in for 3 free unlocks

Signing in gives you 3 unlocks to spend on any rule in the library. No card, and they do not expire.

Also included

Unlocked rules convert on this page — to Splunk SPL or Splunk — Raw Index SPL or Microsoft Sentinel KQL or Microsoft Sentinel ASIM ASIM KQL or Microsoft Defender XDR KQL or Elastic Security KQL or Elastic Security Lucene or Elastic Security ES|QL or CrowdStrike Falcon CQL or SentinelOne PowerQuery or Palo Alto Cortex XDR XQL or Carbon Black Cloud Platform Search or Carbon Black EDR Process Search or Google Security Operations UDM Search or IBM QRadar AQL or Sumo Logic Cloud SIEM Rules expression or Rapid7 InsightIDR LEQL or Graylog Search or OpenSearch Lucene or OpenSearch PPL PPL or Grafana Loki LogQL or SQLite SQL or Zircolite SQLite — with the log-source profile the engine picked, the field map it used, and everything it could not express. Converting a rule you have unlocked costs no further credit.

See it run on a free rule →Convert your own rule →