Linux Restricted Shell Breakout via awk Commands
Identifies Linux binary awk abuse to breakout out of restricted shells or environments by spawning an interactive system shell. The awk utility is a text processing language used for data extraction and reporting…
Description
Identifies Linux binary awk abuse to breakout out of restricted shells or environments by spawning an interactive system shell. The awk utility is a text processing language used for data extraction and reporting tools and the activity of spawning shell is not a standard use of this binary for a user or system administrator. It indicates a potentially malicious actor attempting to improve the capabilities or stability of their access.
Detection logic
Its licence does not clear it for publishing here
Sunturai publishes a detection's own text where the licence it arrived under has been reviewed and permits it, and Elastic License 2.0 has not. The query as its source wrote it, its canonical form and the hash that pins this revision are in the workspace record.
Detection requirements
- Platform
- ContainersESXiIaaSIdentity ProviderLinuxmacOSNetwork DevicesOffice SuiteSaaSWindows
The rule states no platform. This is derived from the ATT&CK technique it maps to.
- Log source category
- event_index
MITRE ATT&CK mappings
0 exclusive techniques.This is coverage no other published rule has; it is not this rule's total technique count.
References
| Reference | Cited by |
|---|---|
| gtfobins.github.io/gtfobins/mawk/ | 3from 2 sources |
| gtfobins.github.io/gtfobins/nawk/ | 3from 2 sources |
From the source
- At source
- Open at source
- Upstream identifier
- 10754992-28c7-4472-be5b-f3770fd04f2d
- Tagged by the source as
- ElasticExecutionGTFOBinsHostLinuxThreat Detection
Licence
- Published under
- Elastic License 2.0Read the licence
- Attribution
- Required
Authorship
- Written by
- Published
- Aug 27, 2026
- Version
- 1