sigmamediumHunting

Access of Sudoers File Content

Detects the execution of a text-based file access or inspection utilities to read the content of /etc/sudoers in order to potentially list all users that have sudo rights.

MITRE ATT&CK

T1592.004

reconnaissance

Detection Query

selection:
  Image|endswith:
    - /cat
    - /ed
    - /egrep
    - /emacs
    - /fgrep
    - /grep
    - /head
    - /less
    - /more
    - /nano
    - /tail
  CommandLine|contains: " /etc/sudoers"
condition: selection

Author

Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)

Created

2022-06-20

Data Sources

linuxProcess Creation Events

Platforms

linux

References

https://github.com/sleventyeleven/linuxprivchecker/

Tags

attack.reconnaissanceattack.t1592.004

Raw Content

title: Access of Sudoers File Content
id: 0f79c4d2-4e1f-4683-9c36-b5469a665e06
status: test
description: Detects the execution of a text-based file access or inspection utilities to read the content of /etc/sudoers in order to potentially list all users that have sudo rights.
references:
    - https://github.com/sleventyeleven/linuxprivchecker/
author: Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)
date: 2022-06-20
modified: 2025-06-04
tags:
    - attack.reconnaissance
    - attack.t1592.004
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: linux
detection:
    selection:
        Image|endswith:
            - '/cat'
            - '/ed'
            - '/egrep'
            - '/emacs'
            - '/fgrep'
            - '/grep'
            - '/head'
            - '/less'
            - '/more'
            - '/nano'
            - '/tail'
        CommandLine|contains: ' /etc/sudoers'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate administration activities
level: medium