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First Occurrence of a PHP Fatal Error on a Web Server

This rule identifies the first PHP fatal error observed on a web server during the configured history window. PHP fatal errors are not inherently malicious, but a newly observed fatal condition can indicate…

Description

This rule identifies the first PHP fatal error observed on a web server during the configured history window. PHP fatal errors are not inherently malicious, but a newly observed fatal condition can indicate exploitation of a previously unseen application or PHP engine failure. The rule is intentionally generic so it can identify both known and novel exploit attempts that terminate PHP request processing.

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.

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Detection requirements

Platform
ContainersESXiIaaSLinuxmacOSNetwork DevicesWindows

The rule states no platform. This is derived from the ATT&CK technique it maps to.

Log source category
event_index

Known benign triggers

  • Development, staging, and quality-assurance systems may generate frequent novel fatal errors during testing.
  • New deployments, application defects, dependency changes, resource exhaustion, and configuration errors can legitimately produce a first-seen PHP fatal error.

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