Cisco Isovalent - Kprobe Spike
This analytic detects excessive kernel probe (kprobe) events in a Kubernetes cluster over a short period of time. Kprobes are a Linux kernel debugging and instrumentation mechanism that allows dynamic monitoring and…
Description
This analytic detects excessive kernel probe (kprobe) events in a Kubernetes cluster over a short period of time. Kprobes are a Linux kernel debugging and instrumentation mechanism that allows dynamic monitoring and tracing of kernel functions and system calls. In containerized or cloud-native environments, kprobes are occasionally used for legitimate low-level diagnostics; however, monitoring a spike in kprobe activity is important because malware or attackers may abuse this mechanism to gain insights into the kernel, attempt privilege escalation, or tamper with host processes. More than 10 kprobe events within 5 minutes may indicate suspicious activity, such as an attacker probing the kernel through repeated system calls (e.g., nsenter, mount, sethostname). Such abnormal volume and frequency of kprobe usage within application pods or on nodes can signal container escape attempts or low-level tampering with the host, thereby representing a potential security threat.
Detection logic
Detection requirements
- Platform
- ContainersLinuxmacOSWindows
The rule states no platform. This is derived from the ATT&CK technique it maps to.
- Log source category
- cisco_isovalent_process_kprobe
Known benign triggers
- Busy or noisy pods may legitimately produce bursts of kprobe events during normal operation. Tune thresholds and filter by function_name to reduce false positives.
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 |
|---|---|
| docs.isovalent.com/user-guide/sec-ops-visibility/process-execution/index.html | 2 |
From the source
- At source
- Open at source
- Upstream identifier
- 3df0e9a8-7d5e-4b2f-bcd7-bf93e671d1f2
- Tagged by the source as
- Cisco Isovalent Suspicious ActivityVoidLink Cloud-Native Linux MalwareEndpointendpointSplunk CloudSplunk EnterpriseSplunk Enterprise Securityendpoint
Licence
- Published under
- Apache License 2.0Read the licence
- Attribution
- Required
- Obtained under
- Apache-2.0Read the origin licence
Authorship
- Written by
- Published
- Aug 26, 2026
- Version
- 1