Sigma rule: Print History File Contents

Rule

Title

Print History File Contents

Status

test

Level

medium

Author

Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)

Date

2022-06-20

Modified

2022-09-15

File

rules/linux/process_creation/proc_creation_lnx_susp_history_recon.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects events in which someone prints the contents of history files to the commandline or redirects it to a file for reconnaissance

Log source

product

linux

category

process_creation

Detection

selection:
    Image|endswith:
        - '/cat'
        - '/head'
        - '/tail'
        - '/more'
selection_history:
    - CommandLine|contains:
          - '/.bash_history'
          - '/.zsh_history'
    - CommandLine|endswith:
          - '_history'
          - '.history'
          - 'zhistory'
condition: all of selection*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Legitimate administration activities

Tags

• attack.reconnaissance
• attack.t1592.004

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1592.004

References

• https://github.com/sleventyeleven/linuxprivchecker/
• https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/f339e7da7d05f6057fdfcdd3742bfcf365fee2a9/atomics/T1552.003/T1552.003.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/process_creation/proc_creation_lnx_susp_history_recon.yml