// question

A Linux system shows a 'find' command used to search within .aws directories. Which specific AWS credential filename was the attacker attempting to locate?

Reference KQL answer and model-by-model comparison.

37807632-d3da-442e-8c2e-00f44928ff8f
question id
9/23
models correct
1
valid answer
39%
success rate
// reference answer

Human-validated correct answer for this question.

credentials
// model comparison
ModelAnswerKQL queryStatusTriesTimeCost
gemini-2.5-flash-preview-04-17
credentials
DeviceProcessEvents
| where ActionType == "ProcessCreated"
| where FileName =~ "find"
| where ProcessCommandLine contains ".aws"
| where ProcessCommandLine contains "-name" or ProcessCommandLine contains "-iname"
| extend searchedFilename = extract(@'-i?name\s+(".*?"|\S+)', 1, ProcessCommandLine)
| project Timestamp, DeviceName, InitiatingProcessAccountName, ProcessCommandLine, searchedFilename
pass111.46s0.0048
gpt-35-turbo
no answer
no query generatedfail50.00s0.0109
gpt-4-turbo-2024-04-09
no answer
no query generatedfail50.00s0.2321
gpt-4.1
no answer
no query generatedfail50.00s0.0467
gpt-4.1-finetuned
no answer
no query generatedfail50.00s0.0685
gpt-4.1-mini
no answer
no query generatedfail50.00s0.0080
gpt-4.1-nano
credentials
DeviceProcessEvents
| where ProcessCommandLine contains "find" and ProcessCommandLine contains ".aws"
| where ProcessCommandLine contains "credentials" or ProcessCommandLine contains "credential"
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, ProcessId, InitiatingProcessFileName, ProcessCommandLine, InitiatingProcessParentFileName, InitiatingProcessParentId
pass12.04s0.0005
gpt-4o
credentials
DeviceProcessEvents
| where InitiatingProcessCommandLine contains 'find' and InitiatingProcessCommandLine has '.aws'
| where InitiatingProcessCommandLine matches regex @'(?i)(credentials|config|keys)'
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, InitiatingProcessCommandLine, FolderPath
pass323.69s0.0344
gpt-5-high
credentials
let linux_devices = DeviceInfo
| where OSPlatform == "Linux"
| project DeviceId;
DeviceProcessEvents
| where ActionType == "ProcessCreated"
| join kind=inner (linux_devices) on DeviceId
| where tolower(FileName) == "find" or ProcessCommandLine has " find "
| where ProcessCommandLine has ".aws" and ProcessCommandLine has_any ("-name", "-iname")
// Extract the searched pattern after -name / -iname (handles "...", '...', or unquoted)
| extend SearchedName_dq = extract(@'-i?name\s+"([^"]+)"', 1, ProcessCommandLine),
         SearchedName_sq = extract(@'-i?name\s+''([^'']+)''', 1, ProcessCommandLine),
         SearchedName_nq = extract(@'-i?name\s+([^\s]+)', 1, ProcessCommandLine)
| extend SearchedName = coalesce(SearchedName_dq, SearchedName_sq, SearchedName_nq)
| where isnotempty(SearchedName)
// Normalize: lowercase, trim quotes/spaces, remove wildcard characters
| extend CredentialFilename = replace_string(tolower(trim(" *'\"", SearchedName)), "*", "")
| summarize Count = count(), FirstSeen = min(TimeGenerated), LastSeen = max(TimeGenerated), SampleCommand = any(ProcessCommandLine) by CredentialFilename
| order by Count desc
pass2146.50s0.0836
gpt-5-mini-high
credentials
DeviceProcessEvents
| where ProcessCommandLine has "find" and ProcessCommandLine has ".aws"
// try to capture the argument after -name or -iname
| extend name_arg = extract("(?i)(?:-name|-iname)\\s+([^ ]+)", 1, ProcessCommandLine)
// try to capture .aws/<file> with forward or back slashes
| extend dotaws_path = extract("(?i)\\.aws/([^ ]+)", 1, ProcessCommandLine)
| extend dotaws_path_bs = extract("(?i)\\.aws\\\\([^ ]+)", 1, ProcessCommandLine)
// capture common credential/config filenames mentioned directly
| extend direct_common = extract("(?i)\\b(credentials(?:\\.json)?|config|access_key|secret_access_key|id_rsa|credentials\\.yml|credentials\\.yaml)\\b", 1, ProcessCommandLine)
// pick the first non-empty candidate and lowercase it
| extend candidate = tolower(coalesce(name_arg, dotaws_path, dotaws_path_bs, direct_common, ""))
| where candidate != ""
| summarize Count = count(), Examples = make_set(ProcessCommandLine, 5) by Candidate = candidate
| sort by Count desc
pass347.84s0.0128
gpt-5-mini-low
no answer
no query generatedfail50.00s0.0230
gpt-5-mini-medium
credentials
union DeviceProcessEvents, DeviceEvents, DeviceFileEvents
| extend CommandLine = tolower(coalesce(ProcessCommandLine, InitiatingProcessCommandLine, ""))
| where CommandLine contains "find" and CommandLine contains ".aws"
| extend cmd = replace_string(CommandLine, "\\", "/")
// take a reasonable window starting at the .aws occurrence
| extend after = substring(cmd, indexof(cmd, ".aws"), 300)
// get the path segment immediately after .aws/ if present
| extend aws_next = tostring(split(after, "/")[1])
// try to parse explicit find arguments (-name, -iname, -path, -wholename)
| extend nameToken1 = iff(indexof(cmd, "-name ") >= 0, tostring(split(substring(cmd, indexof(cmd, "-name ") + 6, 200), " ")[0]), "")
| extend nameToken2 = iff(indexof(cmd, "-iname ") >= 0, tostring(split(substring(cmd, indexof(cmd, "-iname ") + 7, 200), " ")[0]), "")
| extend nameToken3 = iff(indexof(cmd, "-path ") >= 0, tostring(split(substring(cmd, indexof(cmd, "-path ") + 6, 200), " ")[0]), "")
| extend nameToken4 = iff(indexof(cmd, "-wholename ") >= 0, tostring(split(substring(cmd, indexof(cmd, "-wholename ") + 11, 200), " ")[0]), "")
| extend nameRaw = case(nameToken1 != "", nameToken1, nameToken2 != "", nameToken2, nameToken3 != "", nameToken3, nameToken4 != "", nameToken4, "")
| extend RawTarget = iff(nameRaw != "", nameRaw, aws_next)
// strip surrounding quotes and wildcard characters
| extend TargetFilename = replace_regex(replace_regex(RawTarget, "^[\\\"'\\*]+", ""), "[\\\"'\\*]+$", "")
| where isnotempty(TargetFilename)
| summarize FirstSeen = min(TimeGenerated), LastSeen = max(TimeGenerated), Count = count(), ExampleCommand = any(CommandLine) by DeviceId, DeviceName, AccountName, TargetFilename
| project FirstSeen, LastSeen, Count, DeviceName, DeviceId, AccountName, TargetFilename, ExampleCommand
| order by LastSeen desc
pass4101.35s0.0246
gpt-5-nano-high
no answer
no query generatedfail50.00s0.0092
gpt-5-nano-medium
no answer
no query generatedfail50.00s0.0084
grok-3-beta
no answer
no query generatedfail50.00s0.0848
grok-3-mini-beta
credentials
DeviceInfo
| where OSPlatform == "Linux"
| join kind=inner (
    DeviceProcessEvents
    | where ProcessCommandLine contains "find" and ProcessCommandLine contains ".aws"
    | extend filename = extract(@"-name\s+([^\s]+)", 1, ProcessCommandLine)
    | project DeviceId, ProcessCommandLine, filename
  ) on DeviceId
| project DeviceName, ProcessCommandLine, filename
| summarize UniqueFilenames = make_set(filename) by DeviceName
| project DeviceName, UniqueFilenames
pass113.97s0.0016
o1-high
no answer
no query generatedfail50.00s0.9261
o1-low
credentials
let LinuxDevices = DeviceInfo
| where OSPlatform startswith "Linux"
| distinct DeviceId;
DeviceProcessEvents
| where DeviceId in (LinuxDevices)
| where ActionType == "ProcessCreated"
| where ProcessCommandLine has "find" and ProcessCommandLine has ".aws"
| project TimeGenerated,
          DeviceName,
          InitiatingProcessAccountName,
          ProcessCommandLine,
          AWSFilename = extract("-name\\s+['\"]([^'\"]+)", 1, ProcessCommandLine)
| where isnotempty(AWSFilename)
pass377.32s0.4870
o3-high
no answer
no query generatedfail50.00s0.0934
o3-mini-high
no answer
no query generatedfail50.00s0.0453
o3-mini-low
credentials
DeviceProcessEvents
| where InitiatingProcessCommandLine has "find" and InitiatingProcessCommandLine has ".aws"
| extend credential_filename = extract("-name\\s+['\\\"]?([^'\\\"\\s]+)", 1, InitiatingProcessCommandLine)
| where isnotempty(credential_filename)
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, InitiatingProcessCommandLine, credential_filename
| sort by TimeGenerated desc
pass328.92s0.0221
o4-mini-high
no answer
no query generatedfail50.00s0.0342
o4-mini-low
no answer
no query generatedfail50.00s0.0297