Cross-source coverage

T1546.005 / ATT&CK

Event Triggered Execution: Trap

4 rules across 2 sources.

From MITRE ATT&CK 19.2

Adversaries may establish persistence by executing malicious content triggered by an interrupt signal. The trap command allows programs and shells to specify commands that will be executed upon receiving interrupt signals. A common situation is a script allowing for graceful termination and handling of common keyboard interrupts like ctrl+c and ctrl+d.

Adversaries can use this to register code to be executed when the shell encounters specific interrupts as a persistence mechanism. Trap commands are of the following format trap 'command list' signals where "command list" will be executed when "signals" are received.

Platforms
macOS · Linux
Telemetry
auditd:SYSCALLmacos:unifiedlog

How MITRE says to detect it DET0369

Detection Strategy for Event Triggered Execution via Trap (T1546.005)

Linux Analytic 1038

Correlate file modifications in shell startup scripts (e.g.,.bashrc,.profile) with embedded `trap` commands and observe if those changes are followed by the unexpected execution of child processes when terminal signals (e.g., SIGINT) are triggered. Use contextual linking with user session activity to detect privilege misuse.

  • auditd:SYSCALL execve
  • auditd:SYSCALL Modification of user shell profile or trap registration via echo/redirection (e.g., echo "trap 'malicious_cmd' INT" >> ~/.bashrc)
  • auditd:SYSCALL open

macOS Analytic 1039

Detect unauthorized `trap` command registrations in shell startup files (e.g.,.zprofile,.bash_profile,.zshrc) followed by execution chains during user terminal interaction. Use Unified Logs and EDR telemetry to correlate shell command parsing and process tree anomalies.

  • macos:unifiedlog Command line containing `trap` or `echo 'trap` written to login shell files
  • macos:unifiedlog File write or append to .zshrc, .bash_profile, .zprofile, etc.

socfortress/Wazuh-Rules

3 rules
Detection Severity Format
Generic detection of bash trap command with signal and script (T1546.005) High Wazuh XML
Potential persistence via bash trap on SIGINT (CTRL+C) (T1546.005) High Wazuh XML
Potential persistence via bash trap on EXIT signal (T1546.005) Medium Wazuh XML

elastic/detection-rules

1 rule
Detection Severity Format
Trap Signals Execution Low Elastic TOML

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