splunk_escuAnomaly

Cisco Isovalent - Shell Execution

The following analytic detects the execution of a shell inside a container namespace within the Cisco Isovalent environment. It identifies this activity by monitoring process execution logs for the execution of a shell (sh or bash) inside a container namespace. This behavior is significant for a SOC as it could allow an attacker to gain shell access to the container, potentially leading to further compromise of the Kubernetes cluster. If confirmed malicious, this activity could lead to data theft, service disruption, privilege escalation, lateral movement, and further attacks, severely compromising the cluster's security and integrity.

MITRE ATT&CK

T1543

Detection Query

`cisco_isovalent_process_exec` process_name IN ("sh", "ksh", "zsh", "bash", "dash", "rbash", "fish", "csh", "tcsh", "ion", "eshell")
| stats count by cluster_name parent_process_name process_name process_exec process_id node_name | `cisco_isovalent___shell_execution_filter`

Author

Bhavin Patel, Splunk

Created

2026-03-10

Data Sources

Cisco Isovalent Process Exec

References

https://www.sysdig.com/blog/mitre-attck-framework-for-container-runtime-security-with-sysdig-falco

Tags

Cisco Isovalent Suspicious Activity

Raw Content

name: Cisco Isovalent - Shell Execution
id: 12345678-abcd-1234-ef00-1234567890ab
version: 2
date: '2026-03-10'
author: Bhavin Patel, Splunk
type: Anomaly
data_source:
    - Cisco Isovalent Process Exec
status: production
description: The following analytic detects the execution of a shell inside a container namespace within the Cisco Isovalent environment. It identifies this activity by monitoring process execution logs for the execution of a shell (sh or bash) inside a container namespace. This behavior is significant for a SOC as it could allow an attacker to gain shell access to the container, potentially leading to further compromise of the Kubernetes cluster. If confirmed malicious, this activity could lead to data theft, service disruption, privilege escalation, lateral movement, and further attacks, severely compromising the cluster's security and integrity.
search: |
    `cisco_isovalent_process_exec` process_name IN ("sh", "ksh", "zsh", "bash", "dash", "rbash", "fish", "csh", "tcsh", "ion", "eshell")
    | stats count by cluster_name parent_process_name process_name process_exec process_id node_name | `cisco_isovalent___shell_execution_filter`
how_to_implement: The detection is based on process execution data generated by Cisco Isovalent Runtime Security. Ensure that Isovalent Runtime Security is deployed and configured in your Kubernetes environment to emit process_exec events. Configure the Cisco Security Cloud TA to collect these logs via HTTP Event Collector (HEC) and normalize them into the Splunk Common Information Model. This integration ensures that all relevant pod, container, and process activity is captured for monitoring and detection of suspicious behavior.
known_false_positives: This activity may be triggered by legitimate administrative scripts, container images, or third-party operators that use cron for scheduled tasks, so please investigate the alert in context to rule out benign operations.
references:
    - https://www.sysdig.com/blog/mitre-attck-framework-for-container-runtime-security-with-sysdig-falco
drilldown_searches:
    - name: View the detection results for - "$node_name$"
      search: '%original_detection_search% | search node_name = "$node_name$"'
      earliest_offset: $info_min_time$
      latest_offset: $info_max_time$
    - name: View risk events for the last 7 days for - "$node_name$"
      search: '| from datamodel Risk.All_Risk | search normalized_risk_object IN ("$node_name$") starthoursago=168  | stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime values(search_name) as "Search Name" values(risk_message) as "Risk Message" values(analyticstories) as "Analytic Stories" values(annotations._all) as "Annotations" values(annotations.mitre_attack.mitre_tactic) as "ATT&CK Tactics" by normalized_risk_object | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`'
      earliest_offset: $info_min_time$
      latest_offset: $info_max_time$
rba:
    message: The shell [$process_name$] was executed on container pod namespace [$node_name$]
    risk_objects:
        - field: node_name
          type: system
          score: 20
    threat_objects:
        - field: process_name
          type: process_name
tags:
    analytic_story:
        - Cisco Isovalent Suspicious Activity
    asset_type: Endpoint
    mitre_attack_id:
        - T1543
    product:
        - Splunk Enterprise
        - Splunk Enterprise Security
        - Splunk Cloud
    security_domain: endpoint
tests:
    - name: True Positive Test
      attack_data:
        - data: https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/splunk/attack_data/master/datasets/cisco_isovalent/cisco_isovalent.log
          source: not_applicable
          sourcetype: cisco:isovalent:processExec