Sigma rule: Suspicious History File Operations - Linux

A detection rule from the SigmaHQ repository, shown as its author published it. Dataset version ref-ddec99403c41, updated 2022-11-28T00:00:00.000Z.

Rule

Title: Suspicious History File Operations - Linux
Status: test
Level: medium
Author: Mikhail Larin, oscd.community
Date: 2020-10-17
Modified: 2022-11-28
File: rules/linux/auditd/execve/lnx_auditd_susp_histfile_operations.yml
Commit: ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects commandline operations on shell history files

Log source

product: linux
service: auditd

Detection

execve:
    type: EXECVE
history:
    - '.bash_history'
    - '.zsh_history'
    - '.zhistory'
    - '.history'
    - '.sh_history'
    - 'fish_history'
condition: execve and history

False positives (as the rule lists them)

Legitimate administrative activity
Legitimate software, cleaning hist file

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

T1552.003

References

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/auditd/execve/lnx_auditd_susp_histfile_operations.yml

Sources and licences

SigmaHQ
"Suspicious History File Operations - Linux" by Mikhail Larin, oscd.community (SigmaHQ). Rule: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/linux/auditd/execve/lnx_auditd_susp_histfile_operations.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: Suspicious History File Operations - Linux",
entity page, dataset version ref-ddec99403c41, updated 2022-11-28T00:00:00.000Z,
https://ransomware-tracker.com/detections/sigma/eae8ce9f-bde9-47a6-8e79-f20d18419910 (accessed 2026-11-03).
Underlying source: SigmaHQ rule eae8ce9f-bde9-47a6-8e79-f20d18419910, 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.