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Suspicious UID Change to Root via Python

Detects a UID change event to 0 (root) where the responsible process is a Python interpreter running from a user- or world-writable working directory and the parent process is non-root. This may be indicative of a…

Description

Detects a UID change event to 0 (root) where the responsible process is a Python interpreter running from a user- or world-writable working directory and the parent process is non-root. This may be indicative of a local privilege escalation exploit executed via Python. Using the new terms feature, noise from automated tools or system processes is partially filtered out.

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 2 ATT&CK techniques it maps to.

Log source category
event_index

Known benign triggers

  • Some automation or break-glass tooling may invoke Python from scripts under /home or other temporary directories; validate parent identity and working directory before escalating.

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