sigma-rules/rules/linux/persistence_linux_user_account_creation.toml

[metadata]
creation_date = "2023/02/13"
integration = ["system"]
maturity = "production"
min_stack_comments = "New fields added: required_fields, related_integrations, setup"
min_stack_version = "8.3.0"
updated_date = "2023/06/22"

[transform]
[[transform.osquery]]
label = "Osquery - Retrieve Information for a Specific User"
query = "SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = {{user.name}}"

[[transform.osquery]]
label = "Osquery - Investigate the Account Authentication Status"
query = "SELECT * FROM logged_in_users WHERE user = {{user.name}}"

[[transform.osquery]]
label = "Osquery - Retrieve Information for a Specific Group"
query = "SELECT * FROM groups WHERE groupname = {{group.name}}"

[[transform.osquery]]
label = "Osquery - Retrieve Running Processes by User"
query = "SELECT pid, username, name FROM processes p JOIN users u ON u.uid = p.uid ORDER BY username"

[rule]
author = ["Elastic"]
description = """
Identifies attempts to create new users. Attackers may add new users to establish persistence on a system.
"""
from = "now-9m"
index = ["logs-system.auth-*"]
language = "eql"
license = "Elastic License v2"
name = "Linux User Account Creation"
note = """## Triage and analysis

### Investigating Linux User Account Creation

The `useradd` and `adduser` commands are used to create new user accounts in Linux-based operating systems.

Attackers may create new accounts (both local and domain) to maintain access to victim systems.

This rule identifies the usage of `useradd` and `adduser` to create new accounts.

> **Note**:
> This investigation guide uses the [Osquery Markdown Plugin](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/security/master/invest-guide-run-osquery.html) introduced in Elastic Stack version 8.5.0. Older Elastic Stack versions will display unrendered Markdown in this guide.

#### Possible investigation steps

- Investigate whether the user was created succesfully.
  - $osquery_0
- Investigate whether the user is currently logged in and active.
  - $osquery_1
- Identify if the account was added to privileged groups or assigned special privileges after creation.
  - $osquery_2
- Identify the user account that performed the action and whether it should perform this kind of action.
- Investigate the process execution chain (parent process tree) for unknown processes. Examine their executable files for prevalence and whether they are located in expected locations.
  - $osquery_3
- Investigate other alerts associated with the user/host during the past 48 hours.

### False positive analysis

- Account creation is a common administrative task, so there is a high chance of the activity being legitimate. Before investigating further, verify that this activity is not benign.

### Response and remediation

- Initiate the incident response process based on the outcome of the triage.
- Isolate the involved host to prevent further post-compromise behavior.
- If the triage identified malware, search the environment for additional compromised hosts.
  - Implement temporary network rules, procedures, and segmentation to contain the malware.
  - Stop suspicious processes.
  - Immediately block the identified indicators of compromise (IoCs).
  - Inspect the affected systems for additional malware backdoors like reverse shells, reverse proxies, or droppers that attackers could use to reinfect the system.
- Review the privileges assigned to the involved users to ensure that the least privilege principle is being followed.
- Delete the created account.
- Investigate credential exposure on systems compromised or used by the attacker to ensure all compromised accounts are identified. Reset passwords for these accounts and other potentially compromised credentials, such as email, business systems, and web services.
- Determine the initial vector abused by the attacker and take action to prevent reinfection through the same vector.
- Using the incident response data, update logging and audit policies to improve the mean time to detect (MTTD) and the mean time to respond (MTTR).
"""
risk_score = 21
rule_id = "edfd5ca9-9d6c-44d9-b615-1e56b920219c"
severity = "low"
tags = ["Domain: Endpoint", "OS: Linux", "Use Case: Threat Detection", "Tactic: Persistence", "Resources: Investigation Guide"]
timestamp_override = "event.ingested"
type = "eql"
query = '''
iam where host.os.type == "linux" and (event.type == "user" and event.type == "creation") and
process.name in ("useradd", "adduser") and user.name != null
'''

[[rule.threat]]
framework = "MITRE ATT&CK"

[[rule.threat.technique]]
id = "T1136"
name = "Create Account"
reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1136/"

[[rule.threat.technique.subtechnique]]
id = "T1136.001"
name = "Local Account"
reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1136/001/"

[rule.threat.tactic]
id = "TA0003"
name = "Persistence"
reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0003/"