Modification of Standard Authentication Module or Configurationedit

Adversaries may modify the standard authentication module for persistence via patching the normal authorization process or modifying the login configuration to allow unauthorized access or elevate privileges.

Rule type: new_terms

Rule indices:

  • auditbeat-*
  • logs-endpoint.events.*

Severity: medium

Risk score: 47

Runs every: 5m

Searches indices from: now-9m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References:

Tags:

  • Domain: Endpoint
  • OS: macOS
  • OS: Linux
  • Use Case: Threat Detection
  • Tactic: Credential Access
  • Tactic: Persistence
  • Data Source: Elastic Defend

Version: 204

Rule authors:

  • Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Rule queryedit

event.category:file and event.type:change and
  (file.name:pam_*.so or file.path:(/etc/pam.d/* or /private/etc/pam.d/* or /usr/lib64/security/*)) and
  process.executable:
    (* and
      not
      (
        /usr/libexec/packagekitd or
        /usr/bin/vim or
        /usr/libexec/xpcproxy or
        /usr/bin/bsdtar or
        /usr/local/bin/brew or
        "/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/PackageKit.framework/Versions/A/XPCServices/package_script_service.xpc/Contents/MacOS/package_script_service"
      )
    ) and
  not file.path:
         (
           /tmp/snap.rootfs_*/pam_*.so or
           /tmp/newroot/lib/*/pam_*.so or
           /private/var/folders/*/T/com.apple.fileprovider.ArchiveService/TemporaryItems/*/lib/security/pam_*.so or
           /tmp/newroot/usr/lib64/security/pam_*.so
         ) and
  not process.name:
         (
           yum or dnf or rsync or platform-python or authconfig or rpm or pdkg or apk or dnf-automatic or btrfs or
           dpkg or pam-auth-update or steam or platform-python3.6 or pam-config or microdnf or yum_install or yum-cron or
           systemd or containerd or pacman
         )

Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM