Advanced Process execution

Advanced Process Execution monitoring using Tracing Policies

Monitor ELF or Flat binaries execution

Advanced process execution can be performed by using Tracing Policies to monitor the execve system call path.

If we want to monitor execution of Executable and Linkable Format (ELF) or flat binaries before they are actually executed. Then the process-exec-elf-begin tracing policy is a good first choice.

Note

The process-exec-elf-begin tracing policy, will not report the different binary format handlers or scripts being executed, but will report the final ELF or flat binary, like the shebang handler.

To report those another tracing policy can be used.

Before going forward, verify that all pods are up and running, ensure you deploy our Demo Application to explore the Security Observability Events:

kubectl create -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cilium/cilium/v1.15.3/examples/minikube/http-sw-app.yaml

It might take several seconds for some pods until they satisfy all the dependencies:

kubectl get pods -A

The output should be similar to:

NAMESPACE            NAME                                         READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
default              deathstar-54bb8475cc-6c6lc                   1/1     Running   0          2m54s
default              deathstar-54bb8475cc-zmfkr                   1/1     Running   0          2m54s
default              tiefighter                                   1/1     Running   0          2m54s
default              xwing                                        1/1     Running   0          2m54s
kube-system          tetragon-sdwv6                               2/2     Running   0          27m

Let’s apply the process-exec-elf-begin Tracing Policy.

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cilium/tetragon/main/examples/tracingpolicy/process-exec/process-exec-elf-begin.yaml

Then start monitoring events with the tetra CLI:

kubectl exec -it -n kube-system ds/tetragon -c tetragon -- tetra getevents

In another terminal, kubectl exec into the xwing Pod:

kubectl exec -it xwing -- /bin/bash

And execute some commands:

id

The tetra CLI will generate the following ProcessKprobe events:

{
  "process_kprobe": {
    "process": {
      "exec_id": "a2luZC1jb250cm9sLXBsYW5lOjE2NjY0MDI4MTA4MzcxOjM2NDk5",
      "pid": 36499,
      "uid": 0,
      "cwd": "/",
      "binary": "/bin/bash",
      "flags": "execve",
      "start_time": "2023-08-02T11:58:53.618461573Z",
      "auid": 4294967295,
      "pod": {
        "namespace": "default",
        "name": "xwing",
        "container": {
          "id": "containerd://775beeb1a25a95e10dc149d6eb166bf45dd5e6039e8af3b64e8fb4d29669f349",
          "name": "spaceship",
          "image": {
            "id": "docker.io/tgraf/netperf@sha256:8e86f744bfea165fd4ce68caa05abc96500f40130b857773186401926af7e9e6",
            "name": "docker.io/tgraf/netperf:latest"
          },
          "start_time": "2023-08-02T07:24:54Z",
          "pid": 13
        },
        "pod_labels": {
          "app.kubernetes.io/name": "xwing",
          "class": "xwing",
          "org": "alliance"
        }
      },
      "docker": "775beeb1a25a95e10dc149d6eb166bf",
      "parent_exec_id": "a2luZC1jb250cm9sLXBsYW5lOjE2NjYyNzg3ODI1MTQ4OjM2NDkz",
      "refcnt": 1,
      "tid": 36499
    },
      "parent": {
      "exec_id": "a2luZC1jb250cm9sLXBsYW5lOjE2NjYyNzg3ODI1MTQ4OjM2NDkz",
      "pid": 36493,
      "uid": 0,
      "cwd": "/",
      "binary": "/bin/bash",
      "flags": "execve rootcwd clone",
      "start_time": "2023-08-02T11:58:52.378178852Z",
      "auid": 4294967295,
      "pod": {
        "namespace": "default",
        "name": "xwing",
        "container": {
          "id": "containerd://775beeb1a25a95e10dc149d6eb166bf45dd5e6039e8af3b64e8fb4d29669f349",
          "name": "spaceship",
          "image": {
            "id": "docker.io/tgraf/netperf@sha256:8e86f744bfea165fd4ce68caa05abc96500f40130b857773186401926af7e9e6",
            "name": "docker.io/tgraf/netperf:latest"
          },
          "start_time": "2023-08-02T07:24:54Z",
          "pid": 13
        },
        "pod_labels": {
          "app.kubernetes.io/name": "xwing",
          "class": "xwing",
          "org": "alliance"
        }
      },
      "docker": "775beeb1a25a95e10dc149d6eb166bf",
      "parent_exec_id": "a2luZC1jb250cm9sLXBsYW5lOjE2NjYyNzE2OTU0MjgzOjM2NDg0",
      "tid": 36493
    },
    "function_name": "security_bprm_creds_from_file",
    "args": [
      {
        "file_arg": {
          "path": "/bin/busybox"
        }
      }
    ],
    "action": "KPROBE_ACTION_POST"
  },
  "node_name": "kind-control-plane",
  "time": "2023-08-02T11:58:53.624096751Z"
}

In addition to the Kubernetes Identity and process metadata, ProcessKprobe events contain the binary being executed. In the above case they are:

function_name: where we are hooking into the kernel to read the binary that is being executed.
file_arg: that includes the path being executed, and here it is /bin/busybox that is the real binary being executed, since on the xwing pod the container is running busybox. The binary /usr/bin/id -> /bin/busybox points to busybox.

To disable the process-exec-elf-being Tracing Policy run:

kubectl delete -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cilium/tetragon/main/examples/tracingpolicy/process-exec/process-exec-elf-begin.yaml

Last modified December 1, 2023: docs: fix main section frontmatter and weight (e680ad34b)