Azure AKS Pod Exec Potential Reverse Shell
Detects successful AKS pod exec sessions whose command resembles reverse-shell or bind-shell one-liner patterns, including /dev/tcp, /dev/udp and gawk /inet redirection, interactive invocation of any common shell,…
Description
Detects successful AKS pod exec sessions whose command resembles reverse-shell or bind-shell one-liner patterns, including /dev/tcp, /dev/udp and gawk /inet redirection, interactive invocation of any common shell, the netcat and ncat exec/listener forms, socat command-execution and listener addresses, mkfifo and mknod pipelines, socket idioms across Python, Perl, PHP, Ruby, Lua and Node, and tooling such as gsocket, openssl s_server and xterm. Legitimate debug sessions sometimes use similar building blocks, but together these patterns align with post-exploitation interactive access and command-and-control.
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 3 ATT&CK techniques it maps to.
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 |
|---|---|
| cloudsecdocs.com/containers/offensive/attacks/techniques/reverse_shell/ | Only this detection cites it |
| kubernetes.io/docs/reference/access-authn-authz/authorization/ | 6 |
| microsoft.github.io/Threat-Matrix-for-Kubernetes/ | 17 |
From the source
- At source
- Open at source
- Upstream identifier
- eb56a087-c726-4683-8d49-8c0253ea63cf
- Tagged by the source as
- Data Source: AzureData Source: Azure Platform LogsData Source: KubernetesDomain: CloudDomain: ContainersDomain: KubernetesPlatform: AzurePlatform: KubernetesResources: Investigation GuideRule Type: ES|QLTactic: Command and ControlTactic: ExecutionUse Case: Threat Detection
Licence
- Published under
- Elastic License 2.0Read the licence
- Attribution
- Required
Authorship
- Written by
- Published
- Sep 20, 2026
- Version
- 2