Sigma rule: Potential RCE Exploitation Attempt In NodeJS

A detection rule from the SigmaHQ repository, shown as its author published it. Dataset version ref-bb075faadfbe, updated 2023-02-11T00:00:00.000Z.

Rule

Title: Potential RCE Exploitation Attempt In NodeJS
Status: test
Level: high
Author: Moti Harmats
Date: 2023-02-11
File: rules/application/nodejs/nodejs_rce_exploitation_attempt.yml
Commit: ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects process execution related errors in NodeJS. If the exceptions are caused due to user input then they may suggest an RCE vulnerability.

Log source

product: nodejs
category: application
definition: Requirements: application error logs must be collected (with LOG_LEVEL=ERROR and above)

Detection

keywords:
    - 'node:child_process'
condition: keywords

False positives (as the rule lists them)

Puppeteer invocation exceptions often contain child_process related errors, that doesn't necessarily mean that the app is vulnerable.

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

T1190

References

https://www.wix.engineering/post/threat-and-vulnerability-hunting-with-application-server-error-logs

Read on 2026-11-03T00:58:21.399Z under licence sigma-drl-1.1@d5f4c36a from https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/application/nodejs/nodejs_rce_exploitation_attempt.yml

Sources and licences

SigmaHQ
"Potential RCE Exploitation Attempt In NodeJS" by Moti Harmats (SigmaHQ). Rule: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/application/nodejs/nodejs_rce_exploitation_attempt.yml.
Licensed under the Detection Rule License (DRL) 1.1: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/Detection-Rule-License
Detection Rule License (DRL) 1.1

Cite this page

Dragons Eye Ransomware Tracker, "Sigma rule: Potential RCE Exploitation Attempt In NodeJS",
entity page, dataset version ref-bb075faadfbe, updated 2023-02-11T00:00:00.000Z,
https://ransomware-tracker.com/detections/sigma/97661d9d-2beb-4630-b423-68985291a8af (accessed 2026-11-03).
Underlying source: SigmaHQ rule 97661d9d-2beb-4630-b423-68985291a8af, commit ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84.

Pages change. The dataset version identifies the data, but no archive of old versions is kept, so this citation cannot be replayed later.