> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://cortex-docs.paloaltonetworks.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://cortex-docs.paloaltonetworks.com/analytics-alerts/alerts-by-name/uncommon-linux-remote-shell-command-execution.md).

# Uncommon Linux remote shell command execution

### Synopsis

| Field                | Value                                                                                                                         |
| -------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Activation Period    | 14 Days                                                                                                                       |
| Training Period      | 30 Days                                                                                                                       |
| Test Period          | N/A (single event)                                                                                                            |
| Deduplication Period | 1 Day                                                                                                                         |
| Required Data        | XDR Agent                                                                                                                     |
| Detector Tags        | Shell Analytics                                                                                                               |
| ATT\&CK Tactic       | Execution (TA0002), Lateral Movement (TA0008)                                                                                 |
| ATT\&CK Technique    | Command and Scripting Interpreter: Unix Shell (T1059.004), Command and Scripting Interpreter (T1059), Remote Services (T1021) |
| Severity             | Informational                                                                                                                 |

### Description

An unusual process execution of a shell command on Linux from a remote source. This action may indicate possible exploitation or shell command execution via a backdoor.

### Attacker's Goals

An attacker may attempt to execute a malicious shell command on the system.

### Investigative actions

* Check whether the executing process is benign and if this was a desired behavior as part of its normal execution flow.
* Check the executed shell command (and possible child processes) for malicious actions.

### Variations

<details>

<summary>Uncommon Linux remote shell command execution, possibly running LinPEAS</summary>

**Synopsis**

| Field             | Value                                                                                                                                                                        |
| ----------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| ATT\&CK Tactic    | Execution (TA0002), Lateral Movement (TA0008), Privilege Escalation (TA0004)                                                                                                 |
| ATT\&CK Technique | Command and Scripting Interpreter: Unix Shell (T1059.004), Command and Scripting Interpreter (T1059), Remote Services (T1021), Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068) |
| Severity          | High                                                                                                                                                                         |

**Description**

An unusual process execution of a shell command on Linux from a remote source. This action may indicate possible exploitation or shell command execution via a backdoor.

**Attacker's Goals**

An attacker may attempt to execute a malicious shell command on the system.

**Investigative actions**

* Check whether the executing process is benign and if this was a desired behavior as part of its normal execution flow.
* Check the executed shell command (and possible child processes) for malicious actions.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Uncommon Linux remote shell command execution using an exploitation tool</summary>

**Synopsis**

| Field             | Value                                                                                                                                                                  |
| ----------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| ATT\&CK Tactic    | Execution (TA0002), Lateral Movement (TA0008)                                                                                                                          |
| ATT\&CK Technique | Command and Scripting Interpreter: Unix Shell (T1059.004), Command and Scripting Interpreter (T1059), Remote Services (T1021), Exploitation of Remote Services (T1210) |
| Severity          | High                                                                                                                                                                   |

**Description**

An unusual process execution of a shell command on Linux from a remote source. This action may indicate possible exploitation or shell command execution via a backdoor.

**Attacker's Goals**

An attacker may attempt to execute a malicious shell command on the system.

**Investigative actions**

* Check whether the executing process is benign and if this was a desired behavior as part of its normal execution flow.
* Check the executed shell command (and possible child processes) for malicious actions.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Uncommon Linux remote shell command execution executing a reverse interactive shell</summary>

**Synopsis**

| Field             | Value                                                                                                                         |
| ----------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| ATT\&CK Tactic    | Execution (TA0002), Lateral Movement (TA0008)                                                                                 |
| ATT\&CK Technique | Command and Scripting Interpreter: Unix Shell (T1059.004), Command and Scripting Interpreter (T1059), Remote Services (T1021) |
| Severity          | Medium                                                                                                                        |

**Description**

An unusual process execution of a shell command on Linux from a remote source. This action may indicate possible exploitation or shell command execution via a backdoor.

**Attacker's Goals**

An attacker may attempt to execute a malicious shell command on the system.

**Investigative actions**

* Check whether the executing process is benign and if this was a desired behavior as part of its normal execution flow.
* Check the executed shell command (and possible child processes) for malicious actions.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Uncommon Linux remote shell command execution downloading a shell script</summary>

**Synopsis**

| Field             | Value                                                                                                                         |
| ----------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| ATT\&CK Tactic    | Execution (TA0002), Lateral Movement (TA0008)                                                                                 |
| ATT\&CK Technique | Command and Scripting Interpreter: Unix Shell (T1059.004), Command and Scripting Interpreter (T1059), Remote Services (T1021) |
| Severity          | Medium                                                                                                                        |

**Description**

An unusual process execution of a shell command on Linux from a remote source. This action may indicate possible exploitation or shell command execution via a backdoor.

**Attacker's Goals**

An attacker may attempt to execute a malicious shell command on the system.

**Investigative actions**

* Check whether the executing process is benign and if this was a desired behavior as part of its normal execution flow.
* Check the executed shell command (and possible child processes) for malicious actions.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Uncommon Linux remote shell command execution disabling firewall</summary>

**Synopsis**

| Field             | Value                                                                                                                                                  |
| ----------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| ATT\&CK Tactic    | Execution (TA0002), Lateral Movement (TA0008), Defense Evasion (TA0005)                                                                                |
| ATT\&CK Technique | Command and Scripting Interpreter: Unix Shell (T1059.004), Command and Scripting Interpreter (T1059), Remote Services (T1021), Impair Defenses (T1562) |
| Severity          | Low                                                                                                                                                    |

**Description**

An unusual process execution of a shell command on Linux from a remote source. This action may indicate possible exploitation or shell command execution via a backdoor.

**Attacker's Goals**

An attacker may attempt to execute a malicious shell command on the system.

**Investigative actions**

* Check whether the executing process is benign and if this was a desired behavior as part of its normal execution flow.
* Check the executed shell command (and possible child processes) for malicious actions.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Uncommon Linux remote shell command execution taking a screenshot</summary>

**Synopsis**

| Field             | Value                                                                                                                                                 |
| ----------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| ATT\&CK Tactic    | Execution (TA0002), Lateral Movement (TA0008), Collection (TA0009)                                                                                    |
| ATT\&CK Technique | Command and Scripting Interpreter: Unix Shell (T1059.004), Command and Scripting Interpreter (T1059), Remote Services (T1021), Screen Capture (T1113) |
| Severity          | Low                                                                                                                                                   |

**Description**

An unusual process execution of a shell command on Linux from a remote source. This action may indicate possible exploitation or shell command execution via a backdoor.

**Attacker's Goals**

An attacker may attempt to execute a malicious shell command on the system.

**Investigative actions**

* Check whether the executing process is benign and if this was a desired behavior as part of its normal execution flow.
* Check the executed shell command (and possible child processes) for malicious actions.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Uncommon Linux remote shell command execution possibly running from an XZ backdoor</summary>

**Synopsis**

| Field             | Value                                                                                                                         |
| ----------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| ATT\&CK Tactic    | Execution (TA0002), Lateral Movement (TA0008)                                                                                 |
| ATT\&CK Technique | Command and Scripting Interpreter: Unix Shell (T1059.004), Command and Scripting Interpreter (T1059), Remote Services (T1021) |
| Severity          | Low                                                                                                                           |

**Description**

An unusual process execution of a shell command on Linux from a remote source. This action may indicate possible exploitation or shell command execution via a backdoor.

**Attacker's Goals**

An attacker may attempt to execute a malicious shell command on the system.

**Investigative actions**

* Check whether the executing process is benign and if this was a desired behavior as part of its normal execution flow.
* Check the executed shell command (and possible child processes) for malicious actions.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Uncommon Linux remote shell command execution running as root</summary>

**Synopsis**

| Field             | Value                                                                                                                         |
| ----------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| ATT\&CK Tactic    | Execution (TA0002), Lateral Movement (TA0008)                                                                                 |
| ATT\&CK Technique | Command and Scripting Interpreter: Unix Shell (T1059.004), Command and Scripting Interpreter (T1059), Remote Services (T1021) |
| Severity          | Low                                                                                                                           |

**Description**

An unusual process execution of a shell command on Linux from a remote source. This action may indicate possible exploitation or shell command execution via a backdoor.

**Attacker's Goals**

An attacker may attempt to execute a malicious shell command on the system.

**Investigative actions**

* Check whether the executing process is benign and if this was a desired behavior as part of its normal execution flow.
* Check the executed shell command (and possible child processes) for malicious actions.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Uncommon Linux remote shell command execution setting a scheduled task</summary>

**Synopsis**

| Field             | Value                                                                                                                                                     |
| ----------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| ATT\&CK Tactic    | Execution (TA0002), Lateral Movement (TA0008)                                                                                                             |
| ATT\&CK Technique | Command and Scripting Interpreter: Unix Shell (T1059.004), Command and Scripting Interpreter (T1059), Remote Services (T1021), Scheduled Task/Job (T1053) |
| Severity          | Low                                                                                                                                                       |

**Description**

An unusual process execution of a shell command on Linux from a remote source. This action may indicate possible exploitation or shell command execution via a backdoor.

**Attacker's Goals**

An attacker may attempt to execute a malicious shell command on the system.

**Investigative actions**

* Check whether the executing process is benign and if this was a desired behavior as part of its normal execution flow.
* Check the executed shell command (and possible child processes) for malicious actions.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Uncommon Linux remote shell command execution running a process kill command</summary>

**Synopsis**

| Field             | Value                                                                                                                         |
| ----------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| ATT\&CK Tactic    | Execution (TA0002), Lateral Movement (TA0008)                                                                                 |
| ATT\&CK Technique | Command and Scripting Interpreter: Unix Shell (T1059.004), Command and Scripting Interpreter (T1059), Remote Services (T1021) |
| Severity          | Low                                                                                                                           |

**Description**

An unusual process execution of a shell command on Linux from a remote source. This action may indicate possible exploitation or shell command execution via a backdoor.

**Attacker's Goals**

An attacker may attempt to execute a malicious shell command on the system.

**Investigative actions**

* Check whether the executing process is benign and if this was a desired behavior as part of its normal execution flow.
* Check the executed shell command (and possible child processes) for malicious actions.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Uncommon Linux remote shell command execution loading a kernel module</summary>

**Synopsis**

| Field             | Value                                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| ----------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| ATT\&CK Tactic    | Execution (TA0002), Lateral Movement (TA0008), Persistence (TA0003), Privilege Escalation (TA0004)                                                                                                          |
| ATT\&CK Technique | Command and Scripting Interpreter: Unix Shell (T1059.004), Command and Scripting Interpreter (T1059), Remote Services (T1021), Boot or Logon Autostart Execution: Kernel Modules and Extensions (T1547.006) |
| Severity          | Informational                                                                                                                                                                                               |

**Description**

An unusual process execution of a shell command on Linux from a remote source. This action may indicate possible exploitation or shell command execution via a backdoor.

**Attacker's Goals**

An attacker may attempt to execute a malicious shell command on the system.

**Investigative actions**

* Check whether the executing process is benign and if this was a desired behavior as part of its normal execution flow.
* Check the executed shell command (and possible child processes) for malicious actions.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Uncommon Linux remote shell command execution via non-SSH or SSH on a non-standard port</summary>

**Synopsis**

| Field             | Value                                                                                                                                                    |
| ----------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| ATT\&CK Tactic    | Execution (TA0002), Lateral Movement (TA0008), Command and Control (TA0011)                                                                              |
| ATT\&CK Technique | Command and Scripting Interpreter: Unix Shell (T1059.004), Command and Scripting Interpreter (T1059), Remote Services (T1021), Non-Standard Port (T1571) |
| Severity          | Informational                                                                                                                                            |

**Description**

An unusual process execution of a shell command on Linux from a remote source. This action may indicate possible exploitation or shell command execution via a backdoor.

**Attacker's Goals**

An attacker may attempt to execute a malicious shell command on the system.

**Investigative actions**

* Check whether the executing process is benign and if this was a desired behavior as part of its normal execution flow.
* Check the executed shell command (and possible child processes) for malicious actions.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Uncommon Linux remote shell command execution running a network tool</summary>

**Synopsis**

| Field             | Value                                                                                                                                                            |
| ----------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| ATT\&CK Tactic    | Execution (TA0002), Lateral Movement (TA0008), Discovery (TA0007)                                                                                                |
| ATT\&CK Technique | Command and Scripting Interpreter: Unix Shell (T1059.004), Command and Scripting Interpreter (T1059), Remote Services (T1021), Network Service Discovery (T1046) |
| Severity          | Informational                                                                                                                                                    |

**Description**

An unusual process execution of a shell command on Linux from a remote source. This action may indicate possible exploitation or shell command execution via a backdoor.

**Attacker's Goals**

An attacker may attempt to execute a malicious shell command on the system.

**Investigative actions**

* Check whether the executing process is benign and if this was a desired behavior as part of its normal execution flow.
* Check the executed shell command (and possible child processes) for malicious actions.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Uncommon Linux remote shell command execution trying to gather information about the system</summary>

**Synopsis**

| Field             | Value                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  |
| ----------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| ATT\&CK Tactic    | Execution (TA0002), Lateral Movement (TA0008), Discovery (TA0007)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      |
| ATT\&CK Technique | Command and Scripting Interpreter: Unix Shell (T1059.004), Command and Scripting Interpreter (T1059), Remote Services (T1021), System Information Discovery (T1082), Software Discovery (T1518), Account Discovery (T1087), Account Discovery: Local Account (T1087.001), System Owner/User Discovery (T1033), Network Service Discovery (T1046), System Network Configuration Discovery (T1016), System Network Connections Discovery (T1049), File and Directory Discovery (T1083), Peripheral Device Discovery (T1120), Software Discovery: Security Software Discovery (T1518.001) |
| Severity          | Informational                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |

**Description**

An unusual process execution of a shell command on Linux from a remote source. This action may indicate possible exploitation or shell command execution via a backdoor.

**Attacker's Goals**

An attacker may attempt to execute a malicious shell command on the system.

**Investigative actions**

* Check whether the executing process is benign and if this was a desired behavior as part of its normal execution flow.
* Check the executed shell command (and possible child processes) for malicious actions.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Uncommon Linux remote shell command execution, possibly granting file execution permissions</summary>

**Synopsis**

| Field             | Value                                                                                                                                                                              |
| ----------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| ATT\&CK Tactic    | Execution (TA0002), Lateral Movement (TA0008), Defense Evasion (TA0005)                                                                                                            |
| ATT\&CK Technique | Command and Scripting Interpreter: Unix Shell (T1059.004), Command and Scripting Interpreter (T1059), Remote Services (T1021), File and Directory Permissions Modification (T1222) |
| Severity          | Informational                                                                                                                                                                      |

**Description**

An unusual process execution of a shell command on Linux from a remote source. This action may indicate possible exploitation or shell command execution via a backdoor.

**Attacker's Goals**

An attacker may attempt to execute a malicious shell command on the system.

**Investigative actions**

* Check whether the executing process is benign and if this was a desired behavior as part of its normal execution flow.
* Check the executed shell command (and possible child processes) for malicious actions.

</details>


---

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