Question Analysis
An attacker on a Linux host has attempted to turn off command history by modifying an environment variable. Using process execution logs, determine the exact shell command used to set HISTSIZE to zero.
386d3850-2ce7-4508-b56b-c0558922c814
Question ID
19/23
Models Correct
1
Valid Answer
83%
Success Rate
Reference Answer
Human-validated correct answer for this question
export HISTSIZE=0
Model Performance Comparison
See how different AI models performed on this question
Model | Answer | KQL Query | Status | Attempts | Time | Cost |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
gemini-2.5-flash-preview-04-17 | export HISTSIZE=0 | DeviceProcessEvents
| where ProcessCommandLine contains "HISTSIZE=0"
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, ProcessCommandLine, AccountName | Correct | 1 | 7.58s | 0.0031 |
gpt-35-turbo | No answer provided | No query generated | Incorrect | 5 | 0.00s | 0.0108 |
gpt-4-turbo-2024-04-09 | No answer provided | No query generated | Incorrect | 5 | 0.00s | 0.2212 |
gpt-4.1 | export HISTSIZE=0 | DeviceProcessEvents
| where ProcessCommandLine has "HISTSIZE=0"
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, AccountName, ProcessCommandLine | Correct | 1 | 5.59s | 0.0123 |
gpt-4.1-finetuned | export HISTSIZE=0 | DeviceProcessEvents
| where TimeGenerated >= ago(30d)
| where ProcessCommandLine contains "HISTSIZE=0"
| Correct | 2 | 10.82s | 0.0330 |
gpt-4.1-mini | export HISTSIZE=0 | DeviceProcessEvents
| where ProcessCommandLine has_cs "HISTSIZE=0"
| project Timestamp, DeviceName, AccountName, FileName, ProcessCommandLine
| order by Timestamp desc | Correct | 1 | 3.25s | 0.0024 |
gpt-4.1-nano | No answer provided | No query generated | Incorrect | 5 | 0.00s | 0.0015 |
gpt-4o | export HISTSIZE=0 | DeviceProcessEvents
| where ProcessCommandLine has "HISTSIZE=0"
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, AccountName, ProcessCommandLine | Correct | 1 | 2.99s | 0.0158 |
gpt-5-high | export HISTSIZE=0 | let histAssign = @"(?i)\b(?:export\s+|declare\s+-x\s+)?HISTSIZE\s*=\s*0\b";
let linuxDevices = DeviceInfo
| where OSPlatform =~ "Linux"
| distinct DeviceId;
DeviceProcessEvents
| where DeviceId in (linuxDevices)
| where ActionType == "ProcessCreated"
| where (isnotempty(ProcessCommandLine) and ProcessCommandLine matches regex histAssign)
or (isnotempty(InitiatingProcessCommandLine) and InitiatingProcessCommandLine matches regex histAssign)
| extend ShellCommand = case(ProcessCommandLine matches regex histAssign, ProcessCommandLine, InitiatingProcessCommandLine)
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, AccountName, InitiatingProcessAccountName, FileName, FolderPath, ShellCommand, ProcessCommandLine, InitiatingProcessFileName, InitiatingProcessCommandLine, ProcessId, InitiatingProcessId
| order by TimeGenerated desc | Correct | 1 | 123.34s | 0.0529 |
gpt-5-mini-high | export HISTSIZE=0 | let pattern = "(?i)\\b(?:export\\s+HISTSIZE\\s*=\\s*0|HISTSIZE\\s*=\\s*0)\\b";
let linuxDevices = DeviceInfo
| where isnotempty(OSPlatform) and tolower(OSPlatform) contains "linux"
| distinct DeviceId;
let p_proc = DeviceProcessEvents
| where DeviceId in (linuxDevices)
| where isnotempty(ProcessCommandLine) and ProcessCommandLine matches regex pattern
or isnotempty(InitiatingProcessCommandLine) and InitiatingProcessCommandLine matches regex pattern
| extend FoundIn = case(isnotempty(ProcessCommandLine) and ProcessCommandLine matches regex pattern, "ProcessCommandLine", "InitiatingProcessCommandLine")
| project TimeGenerated, SourceTable = "DeviceProcessEvents", DeviceName, DeviceId, AccountName, ProcessId, InitiatingProcessId, ProcessCommandLine, InitiatingProcessCommandLine, FoundIn, ReportId, SourceSystem;
let p_dev = DeviceEvents
| where DeviceId in (linuxDevices)
| where isnotempty(ProcessCommandLine) and ProcessCommandLine matches regex pattern
or isnotempty(InitiatingProcessCommandLine) and InitiatingProcessCommandLine matches regex pattern
| extend FoundIn = case(isnotempty(ProcessCommandLine) and ProcessCommandLine matches regex pattern, "ProcessCommandLine", "InitiatingProcessCommandLine")
| project TimeGenerated, SourceTable = "DeviceEvents", DeviceName, DeviceId, AccountName, ProcessId, InitiatingProcessId, ProcessCommandLine, InitiatingProcessCommandLine, FoundIn, ReportId, SourceSystem;
let p_file = DeviceFileEvents
| where DeviceId in (linuxDevices)
| where isnotempty(InitiatingProcessCommandLine) and InitiatingProcessCommandLine matches regex pattern
or isnotempty(InitiatingProcessCommandLine) and InitiatingProcessCommandLine matches regex pattern
| extend FoundIn = "InitiatingProcessCommandLine"
| project TimeGenerated, SourceTable = "DeviceFileEvents", DeviceName, DeviceId, AccountName = InitiatingProcessAccountName, ProcessId = InitiatingProcessId, InitiatingProcessId, ProcessCommandLine = InitiatingProcessCommandLine, InitiatingProcessCommandLine = InitiatingProcessCommandLine, FoundIn, ReportId, SourceSystem;
(p_proc
| union p_dev
| union p_file)
| sort by TimeGenerated desc
| distinct *
| take 200 | Correct | 1 | 28.21s | 0.0074 |
gpt-5-mini-low | export HISTSIZE=0 | // Look for commands that set HISTSIZE to 0 in Linux shell process logs
let pattern = @"(?i)(?:\bexport\s+)?HISTSIZE\s*=\s*0\b|\benv\s+HISTSIZE\s*=\s*0\b|\bHISTSIZE\s+0\b";
let proc = DeviceProcessEvents
| where isnotempty(ProcessCommandLine)
// Identify likely shell processes by FileName or by shell mention in the command line
| where FileName in~ ("bash","sh","zsh","dash","ksh","/bin/bash","/bin/sh","/usr/bin/bash","/usr/bin/zsh")
or ProcessCommandLine matches regex @"(?i)\b(bash|sh|zsh|dash|ksh)\b"
| where ProcessCommandLine matches regex pattern
| extend matched = extract(pattern, 0, ProcessCommandLine)
| extend lower_cmd = tolower(ProcessCommandLine)
| extend hpos = indexof(lower_cmd, "histsize")
| extend start_idx = iif(hpos > 100, hpos - 100, 0)
| extend match_context = substring(ProcessCommandLine, start_idx, 300)
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, DeviceId, AccountName, AccountDomain, FileName, ProcessId, ProcessCreationTime, ProcessCommandLine, InitiatingProcessCommandLine, matched, match_context;
let dev = DeviceEvents
| where isnotempty(ProcessCommandLine)
| where FileName in~ ("bash","sh","zsh","dash","ksh","/bin/bash","/bin/sh","/usr/bin/bash","/usr/bin/zsh")
or ProcessCommandLine matches regex @"(?i)\b(bash|sh|zsh|dash|ksh)\b"
| where ProcessCommandLine matches regex pattern
| extend matched = extract(pattern, 0, ProcessCommandLine)
| extend lower_cmd = tolower(ProcessCommandLine)
| extend hpos = indexof(lower_cmd, "histsize")
| extend start_idx = iif(hpos > 100, hpos - 100, 0)
| extend match_context = substring(ProcessCommandLine, start_idx, 300)
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, DeviceId, AccountName, AccountDomain, FileName, ProcessId, ProcessCreationTime, ProcessCommandLine, InitiatingProcessCommandLine, matched, match_context;
proc
| union dev
| where isnotempty(matched) or ProcessCommandLine contains "HISTSIZE"
| order by TimeGenerated desc
| take 200
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, DeviceId, AccountDomain=AccountDomain, AccountName, FileName, ProcessId, ProcessCreationTime, ProcessCommandLine, InitiatingProcessCommandLine, matched, match_context
| Correct | 3 | 44.10s | 0.0105 |
gpt-5-mini-medium | sh -c "export HISTSIZE=0; whoami" | let pattern = @"(?i)(HISTSIZE\s*=\s*0)";
let pe = DeviceProcessEvents
| where isnotempty(ProcessCommandLine) and ProcessCommandLine matches regex pattern
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, AccountName, ProcessId, ProcessCreationTime, ProcessCommandLine, InitiatingProcessFileName, InitiatingProcessCommandLine;
let de = DeviceEvents
| where (isnotempty(ProcessCommandLine) and ProcessCommandLine matches regex pattern) or (isnotempty(InitiatingProcessCommandLine) and InitiatingProcessCommandLine matches regex pattern)
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, AccountName, ProcessId=ProcessId, ProcessCreationTime, ProcessCommandLine, InitiatingProcessCommandLine, InitiatingProcessFileName;
union pe, de
| extend ExactCommand = coalesce(ProcessCommandLine, InitiatingProcessCommandLine)
| extend Matched = extract(pattern, 1, ExactCommand)
| where isnotempty(ExactCommand)
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, AccountName, ProcessId, InitiatingProcessFileName, ProcessCreationTime, ExactCommand, Matched
| sort by TimeGenerated desc
| take 100 | Correct | 1 | 44.22s | 0.0092 |
gpt-5-nano-high | No answer provided | No query generated | Incorrect | 5 | 0.00s | 0.0107 |
gpt-5-nano-medium | export HISTSIZE=0 | let histPattern = @"(?i)((?:\bHISTSIZE\s*=\s*0\b|export\s+HISTSIZE\s*=\s*0\b))";
DeviceProcessEvents
| where ProcessCommandLine matches regex histPattern or InitiatingProcessCommandLine matches regex histPattern
| extend HistFromProc = extract(histPattern, 1, ProcessCommandLine)
| extend HistFromInit = extract(histPattern, 1, InitiatingProcessCommandLine)
| extend MatchedLine = iif(isnotempty(HistFromInit), HistFromInit, HistFromProc)
| where isnotempty(MatchedLine)
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, InitiatingProcessAccountName, MatchedLine, ProcessCommandLine, InitiatingProcessCommandLine
| sort by TimeGenerated desc
| take 100 | Correct | 5 | 165.46s | 0.0080 |
grok-3-beta | export HISTSIZE=0 | DeviceProcessEvents
| where ProcessCommandLine contains 'HISTSIZE=0'
| project Timestamp, DeviceName, AccountName, ProcessCommandLine, FileName, FolderPath
| order by Timestamp desc | Correct | 1 | 7.36s | 0.0224 |
grok-3-mini-beta | export HISTSIZE=0; | DeviceProcessEvents
| where ProcessCommandLine contains 'HISTSIZE=0'
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, AccountName, ProcessCommandLine
| order by TimeGenerated desc | Correct | 1 | 12.65s | 0.0017 |
o1-high | export HISTSIZE=0 | DeviceProcessEvents
| where ProcessCommandLine has_any("export HISTSIZE=0", "HISTSIZE=0")
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, AccountName, ProcessCommandLine
| order by TimeGenerated desc | Correct | 1 | 40.12s | 0.3144 |
o1-low | export HISTSIZE=0 | DeviceProcessEvents
| join kind=inner (DeviceInfo | where OSPlatform == "Linux") on DeviceId
| where ProcessCommandLine has "HISTSIZE=0"
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, AccountName, ProcessCommandLine, InitiatingProcessAccountName, FolderPath
| order by TimeGenerated desc | Correct | 1 | 45.66s | 0.3424 |
o3-high | export HISTSIZE=0 | let timerange = 1d; // the portal will overwrite this
let StartTime = ago(timerange);
let EndTime = now();
// --- identify Linux devices ---
let LinuxDevices = DeviceInfo
| where TimeGenerated between (StartTime .. EndTime)
| where OSPlatform =~ "Linux"
| project DeviceId, DeviceName;
// --- find processes that disable history ---
DeviceProcessEvents
| where TimeGenerated between (StartTime .. EndTime)
| where ActionType =~ "ProcessCreated"
| join kind = inner (LinuxDevices) on DeviceId
// match HISTSIZE = 0 (case-insensitive, allow whitespace)
| where ProcessCommandLine matches regex @"(?i)\bHISTSIZE\s*=\s*0\b"
// keep the most useful context
| project TimeGenerated,
DeviceName,
AccountName,
FileName,
ProcessId,
ProcessCommandLine,
InitiatingProcessCommandLine,
InitiatingProcessAccountName
| order by TimeGenerated desc | Correct | 1 | 57.60s | 0.0344 |
o3-mini-high | export | DeviceProcessEvents
| where ProcessCommandLine contains "HISTSIZE=0"
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, AccountName, ProcessCommandLine, InitiatingProcessCommandLine
| order by TimeGenerated desc | Correct | 1 | 14.93s | 0.0118 |
o3-mini-low | export HISTSIZE=0 | DeviceProcessEvents
| where ProcessCommandLine contains "HISTSIZE=0"
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, ProcessCommandLine | Correct | 1 | 92.77s | 0.0131 |
o4-mini-high | export HISTSIZE=0 | DeviceProcessEvents
// Filter for HISTSIZE assignments of zero, optionally preceded by 'export'
| where ProcessCommandLine matches regex @"\b(?:export\s+)?HISTSIZE\s*=\s*0\b"
// Restrict to Linux devices
| join kind=inner (
DeviceInfo
| where OSPlatform == "Linux"
| distinct DeviceId
) on DeviceId
// Select and rename fields of interest
| project Timestamp = TimeGenerated,
DeviceName,
AccountName,
ProcessCommandLine,
ProcessId
// Sort chronologically
| sort by Timestamp asc | Correct | 4 | 154.36s | 0.0335 |
o4-mini-low | export HISTSIZE=0 | DeviceProcessEvents
// (The time filter is applied by the calling context)
| join kind=inner (
DeviceInfo
| where OSPlatform == "Linux"
| project DeviceId
) on DeviceId
| where ProcessCommandLine matches regex @"(?i)\b(export\s+)?HISTSIZE\s*=\s*0\b"
| project TimeGenerated=Timestamp, DeviceName, AccountName, CommandLine=ProcessCommandLine
| sort by TimeGenerated desc | Correct | 2 | 111.05s | 0.0219 |