Linux PF_ALG Registration Outside of Boot Window
The following analytic detects when the AF_ALG kernel crypto socket interface being loaded more than 300 seconds after system boot, which is a primary kernel-level indicator of Copy Fail (CVE-2026-31431) exploitation…
Description
The following analytic detects when the AF_ALG kernel crypto socket interface being loaded more than 300 seconds after system boot, which is a primary kernel-level indicator of Copy Fail (CVE-2026-31431) exploitation activity on Debian and Ubuntu family systems. The AF_ALG interface is required by the exploit to access the vulnerable authencesn crypto code path, and on systems where it is not auto-loaded at boot, its on-demand registration by an unprivileged process is a strong indicator of exploitation in progress.
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
- linux_messages_syslog
Known benign triggers
- AF_ALG can be legitimately loaded after boot by on-demand LUKS volume mounts, IPsec VPN clients establishing tunnels, or OpenSSL deployments with the afalg engine enabled, making this signal most reliable on dedicated server infrastructure where these operations are handled at boot time.
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 |
|---|---|
| github.com/Neo23x0/auditd/blob/master/audit.rules | 5from 2 sources |
| github.com/theori-io/copy-fail-CVE-2026-31431 | 3 |
| xint.io/blog/copy-fail-linux-distributions | 4from 2 sources |
From the source
- At source
- Open at source
- Upstream identifier
- 8a9684ae-52e6-4a57-aea4-8a9f72942564
- Tagged by the source as
- Linux Privilege EscalationEndpointendpointSplunk 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