Sigma rule: Network Sniffing - Linux

Rule

Title

Network Sniffing - Linux

Status

test

Level

low

Author

Timur Zinniatullin, oscd.community

Date

2019-10-21

Modified

2022-12-18

File

rules/linux/auditd/execve/lnx_auditd_network_sniffing.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Network sniffing refers to using the network interface on a system to monitor or capture information sent over a wired or wireless connection.
An adversary may place a network interface into promiscuous mode to passively access data in transit over the network, or use span ports to capture a larger amount of data.

Log source

product

linux

service

auditd

Detection

selection_1:
    type: 'execve'
    a0: 'tcpdump'
    a1: '-c'
    a3|contains: '-i'
selection_2:
    type: 'execve'
    a0: 'tshark'
    a1: '-c'
    a3: '-i'
condition: 1 of selection_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Legitimate administrator or user uses network sniffing tool for legitimate reasons.

Tags

• attack.credential-access
• attack.discovery
• attack.t1040

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1040

References

• https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/f339e7da7d05f6057fdfcdd3742bfcf365fee2a9/atomics/T1040/T1040.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_network_sniffing.yml