Sigma rule: System Owner or User Discovery - Linux

Rule

Title

System Owner or User Discovery - Linux

Status

test

Level

low

Author

Timur Zinniatullin, oscd.community

Date

2019-10-21

Modified

2025-06-04

File

rules/linux/auditd/execve/lnx_auditd_user_discovery.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects the execution of host or user discovery utilities such as "whoami", "hostname", "id", etc.
Adversaries may use the information from System Owner/User Discovery during automated discovery to shape follow-on behaviors, including whether or not the adversary fully infects the target and/or attempts specific actions.

Log source

product

linux

service

auditd

Detection

selection:
    type: 'EXECVE'
    a0:
        - 'hostname'
        - 'id'
        - 'last'
        - 'uname'
        - 'users'
        - 'w'
        - 'who'
        - 'whoami'
condition: selection

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Admin activity

Tags

• attack.discovery
• attack.t1033

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1033

References

• https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/f339e7da7d05f6057fdfcdd3742bfcf365fee2a9/atomics/T1033/T1033.md

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