Detection rules › Elastic

System Owner/User Discovery Linux

Status
production
Kind
building block (feeds higher-level correlation rules; not a standalone alert)
Severity
low
Time window
119m
Group by
host.id, process.command_line, process.parent.executable
Author
Elastic
Source
github.com/elastic/detection-rules

Identifies the use of built-in tools which adversaries may use to enumerate the system owner/user of a compromised system.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Rule body elastic

[metadata]
creation_date = "2023/07/10"
integration = ["endpoint", "sentinel_one_cloud_funnel"]
maturity = "production"
updated_date = "2026/03/02"

[rule]
author = ["Elastic"]
building_block_type = "default"
description = """
Identifies the use of built-in tools which adversaries may use to enumerate the system owner/user of a compromised
system.
"""
from = "now-119m"
index = ["logs-endpoint.events.*", "endgame-*", "logs-sentinel_one_cloud_funnel.*",]
interval = "60m"
language = "kuery"
license = "Elastic License v2"
name = "System Owner/User Discovery Linux"
risk_score = 21
rule_id = "bf8c007c-7dee-4842-8e9a-ee534c09d205"
severity = "low"
tags = [
  "Domain: Endpoint",
  "OS: Linux",
  "Use Case: Threat Detection",
  "Tactic: Discovery",
  "Rule Type: BBR",
  "Data Source: Elastic Defend",
  "Data Source: Elastic Endgame",
  "Data Source: SentinelOne",
]
timestamp_override = "event.ingested"
type = "new_terms"
query = '''
event.category:process and host.os.type:linux and event.type:start and event.action:(exec or exec_event or start) and
process.name:("whoami" or "w" or "who" or "users" or "id" or "groups")
'''

[[rule.threat]]
framework = "MITRE ATT&CK"

[[rule.threat.technique]]
id = "T1033"
name = "System Owner/User Discovery"
reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1033/"

[[rule.threat.technique]]
id = "T1069"
name = "Permission Groups Discovery"
reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1069/"

[rule.threat.tactic]
id = "TA0007"
name = "Discovery"
reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0007/"

[rule.new_terms]
field = "new_terms_fields"
value = ["process.parent.executable", "process.command_line", "host.id"]

[[rule.new_terms.history_window_start]]
field = "history_window_start"
value = "now-5d"

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: new_terms

event.category:process and host.os.type:linux and event.type:start and event.action:(exec or exec_event or start) and
process.name:("whoami" or "w" or "who" or "users" or "id" or "groups")
New terms
process.parent.executable, process.command_line, host.id
History since
now-5d

Indicators

Each row is a field, operator, and value that the rule matches. The corpus column counts how many other rules in the catalog look for the same combination: high numbers point to widely-used, community-vetted indicators. Blank or 1 shows that the indicator is specific to this rule.

FieldKindValues
event.actionin
  • exec
  • exec_event
  • start
event.categoryeq
  • process
event.typeeq
  • start
process.namein
  • groups
  • id
  • users
  • w
  • who
  • whoami