In a Linux environment, you observe a process labeled like the cron daemon but running from an unexpected path. Investigate creation events to uncover the actual filename used by this fake cron process.

DeviceProcessEvents | where ActionType == "ProcessCreated" | where FileName contains "cron" | where strcat(FolderPath, "/", FileName) !in ("/usr/sbin/cron", "/usr/bin/cron", "/sbin/cron") | project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, FileName, FolderPath, ProcessCommandLine, InitiatingProcessCommandLine, ProcessId

DeviceProcessEvents | where FileName contains 'cron' and not(FolderPath startswith '/usr/sbin/') | project DeviceName, FileName, FolderPath, ProcessCommandLine, ProcessCreationTime, InitiatingProcessCommandLine, InitiatingProcessFileName, InitiatingProcessFolderPath | order by ProcessCreationTime desc

DeviceProcessEvents | where FileName == "cron" | where FolderPath !in ("/usr/sbin", "/usr/bin") // Optionally: add more standard cron paths as needed | project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, AccountName, FolderPath, FileName, ProcessCommandLine, InitiatingProcessFileName, InitiatingProcessFolderPath, SHA256 | order by TimeGenerated desc

DeviceProcessEvents | where ActionType == "ProcessCreated" | where FileName contains "cron" | where FolderPath !contains "/usr/sbin/" and FolderPath !contains "/usr/bin/" and FolderPath !contains "/bin/" | project DeviceName, FileName, FolderPath, ProcessCreationTime, ProcessCommandLine, InitiatingProcessFileName | sort by ProcessCreationTime desc

let LinuxDevices = DeviceInfo | where OSPlatform =~ "Linux" | summarize arg_max(TimeGenerated, DeviceName) by DeviceId | project DeviceId, DeviceName; let SuspiciousCronProcs = DeviceProcessEvents | where ActionType == "ProcessCreated" | join kind=inner (LinuxDevices) on DeviceId | extend fn = tolower(FileName), fp = tolower(FolderPath), pcmd = tostring(ProcessCommandLine), ipcmd = tostring(InitiatingProcessCommandLine) | extend LabeledCron = fn in ("cron","crond") | extend ExecASpoof = pcmd has "exec -a cron" or pcmd has "exec -a crond" or ipcmd has "exec -a cron" or ipcmd has "exec -a crond" | extend ExpectedCronDir = fp startswith "/usr/sbin/" or fp startswith "/sbin/" | where (LabeledCron and ExpectedCronDir == false) or ExecASpoof | extend ExecAChildTarget = extract(@"(?i)exec\s+-a\s+\S+\s+(\S+)", 1, pcmd) | extend ExecAParentTarget = extract(@"(?i)exec\s+-a\s+\S+\s+(\S+)", 1, ipcmd) | extend ActualExecutedBinaryRaw = coalesce(ExecAChildTarget, ExecAParentTarget, FolderPath) | extend ActualExecutedBinary = trim(" '\"", ActualExecutedBinaryRaw) | extend CronLabelUsed = iif(LabeledCron, FileName, coalesce( extract(@"(?i)exec\s+-a\s+((cron|crond))\b", 1, pcmd), extract(@"(?i)exec\s+-a\s+((cron|crond))\b", 1, ipcmd))) | extend ActualExecutedFileName = extract(@"([^/\\]+)$", 1, ActualExecutedBinary) | project CronProcTime=TimeGenerated, DeviceId, DeviceName, CronLabelUsed, OnDiskImagePath=FolderPath, ActualExecutedBinary, ActualExecutedFileName, ProcessCommandLine, InitiatingProcessFileName, InitiatingProcessFolderPath, InitiatingProcessCommandLine, SHA256, MD5, ReportId; let FileHistory = DeviceFileEvents | where ActionType in ("FileCreated","FileRenamed") | project DeviceId, FileEventTime=TimeGenerated, FileEventAction=ActionType, FilePath=FolderPath, NewFileName=FileName, PreviousPath=strcat(PreviousFolderPath, iif(isempty(PreviousFileName), "", strcat("/", PreviousFileName))); let Base = SuspiciousCronProcs | extend FileEventTime = datetime(null), FileEventAction = "", FilePath = "", PreviousPath = "", NewFileName = ""; let OnDiskJoin = SuspiciousCronProcs | join kind=leftouter (FileHistory) on $left.DeviceId == $right.DeviceId and $left.OnDiskImagePath == $right.FilePath | where isnotempty(FileEventTime) and FileEventTime between (CronProcTime - 14d .. CronProcTime + 1h) | project-away FilePath; let ActualExecJoin = SuspiciousCronProcs | where ActualExecutedBinary startswith "/" | join kind=leftouter (FileHistory) on $left.DeviceId == $right.DeviceId and $left.ActualExecutedBinary == $right.FilePath | where isnotempty(FileEventTime) and FileEventTime between (CronProcTime - 14d .. CronProcTime + 1h) | project-away FilePath; union Base, OnDiskJoin, ActualExecJoin | order by CronProcTime desc, FileEventTime asc

// Investigate fake cron-like processes on Linux and find the actual filename used by the fake cron binary let lookback = 14d; let legit_paths = dynamic(["/usr/sbin/cron","/usr/bin/cron","/sbin/cron","/bin/cron"]); // Candidate process events that mention cron in file name or command line let SuspiciousProcs = DeviceProcessEvents | where TimeGenerated >= ago(lookback) // Best-effort Linux filter: unix-like FolderPath or DeviceName containing linux | where isnotempty(FolderPath) and FolderPath contains "/" or tolower(DeviceName) has "linux" | where tolower(FileName) has "cron" or tolower(ProcessCommandLine) has "cron" or tolower(ProcessCommandLine) has "crond" | extend observed_name = FileName, observed_cmd = ProcessCommandLine, observed_path = iif(isnotempty(FolderPath) and isnotempty(FileName), strcat(FolderPath, "/", FileName), tostring(FileName)) // exclude processes running from known legit cron paths | where not( tolower(observed_path) startswith tolower(legit_paths[0]) or tolower(observed_path) startswith tolower(legit_paths[1]) or tolower(observed_path) startswith tolower(legit_paths[2]) or tolower(observed_path) startswith tolower(legit_paths[3]) ) | project ProcTime=TimeGenerated, DeviceName, ProcessId, observed_name, observed_cmd, observed_path, InitiatingProcessFileName, InitiatingProcessCommandLine, SHA256, MD5; // File events that could indicate creation/deployment of the fake cron binary let FileCreates = DeviceFileEvents | where TimeGenerated >= ago(lookback) | where ActionType has_any ("Create","Created","Copy","Copied","Move","Moved","Write","Written") | where tolower(FileName) has "cron" or tolower(FolderPath) has "cron" or tolower(PreviousFileName) has "cron" or tolower(PreviousFolderPath) has "cron" | project FileTime=TimeGenerated, FileDeviceName=DeviceName, FileName, FolderPath, PreviousFileName, PreviousFolderPath, MD5, SHA256, FileOriginUrl, FileOriginIP, ActionType; // Join processes to file create events on device and within a time window (1 hour before/after process start) SuspiciousProcs | join kind=leftouter ( FileCreates ) on $left.DeviceName == $right.FileDeviceName | where FileTime between (ProcTime - 1h .. ProcTime + 1h) or isnull(FileTime) | extend creation_time = coalesce(FileTime, ProcTime) | project creation_time, DeviceName, ProcessId, observed_name, observed_path, observed_cmd, FileName, FolderPath, PreviousFileName, PreviousFolderPath, ActionType, MD5 = coalesce(MD5, SHA256), SHA256, FileOriginUrl, FileOriginIP | distinct DeviceName, ProcessId, observed_name, observed_path, observed_cmd, FileName, FolderPath, PreviousFileName, PreviousFolderPath, ActionType, MD5, SHA256, FileOriginUrl, FileOriginIP, creation_time | sort by creation_time desc | take 500

let TimeRange = 14d; DeviceProcessEvents | where InitiatingProcessCreationTime >= ago(TimeRange) | where (tolower(InitiatingProcessFileName) contains "cron" or tolower(InitiatingProcessCommandLine) contains "cron" or tolower(FileName) contains "cron" or tolower(InitiatingProcessFolderPath) contains "cron") | extend InitiatingPath = strcat(InitiatingProcessFolderPath, "/", InitiatingProcessFileName) | join kind=leftouter ( DeviceFileEvents | project InitiatingProcessId, FileName, FolderPath, PreviousFileName, PreviousFolderPath ) on InitiatingProcessId | project TimeGenerated = InitiatingProcessCreationTime, DeviceName, DeviceId, InitiatingProcessId, InitiatingProcessFileName, InitiatingProcessFolderPath, InitiatingProcessCommandLine, InitiatingPath, FileName, FolderPath, PreviousFileName, PreviousFolderPath | sort by TimeGenerated desc | take 200

DeviceProcessEvents | where TimeGenerated >= ago(24h) | where (tolower(InitiatingProcessFileName) contains "cron" or tolower(FileName) contains "cron" or tolower(ProcessCommandLine) contains "cron") | where not (tolower(InitiatingProcessFolderPath) contains "/usr/bin" or tolower(InitiatingProcessFolderPath) contains "/usr/sbin" or tolower(InitiatingProcessFolderPath) contains "/bin" or tolower(InitiatingProcessFolderPath) contains "/sbin") | project TimeGenerated, InitiatingProcessCreationTime, InitiatingProcessFileName, InitiatingProcessFolderPath, ProcessCommandLine, FileName, FolderPath, DeviceName, DeviceId, InitiatingProcessId, InitiatingProcessMD5, InitiatingProcessSHA256

DeviceProcessEvents | where FileName contains "cron" | where FolderPath !startswith "/usr/sbin/" and FolderPath !startswith "/usr/bin/" | project DeviceName, FileName, FolderPath, ProcessCreationTime, ProcessCommandLine, SHA1, SHA256, Timestamp | order by Timestamp desc

let linuxDevices = DeviceInfo | where OSPlatform == "Linux" | distinct DeviceId; DeviceProcessEvents | where ActionType == "ProcessCreated" | where FileName =~ "cron" | where DeviceId in (linuxDevices) | project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, DeviceId, FileName, FolderPath, ProcessCommandLine | order by TimeGenerated desc

DeviceInfo | where OSPlatform == "Linux" | distinct DeviceId | join kind=inner ( DeviceProcessEvents | where ActionType == "ProcessCreated" // Catch partial matches on the name "cron" | where FileName contains "cron" // Exclude typical cron binaries/paths | where FolderPath !startswith "/usr/bin" and FolderPath !startswith "/usr/sbin" and FolderPath !startswith "/bin" and FolderPath !startswith "/sbin" | project TimeGenerated, DeviceId, DeviceName, AccountName, FolderPath, FileName, ProcessCommandLine, InitiatingProcessFileName, InitiatingProcessCommandLine ) on DeviceId | project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, AccountName, FolderPath, FileName, ProcessCommandLine, InitiatingProcessFileName, InitiatingProcessCommandLine | order by TimeGenerated desc

DeviceProcessEvents | where ActionType == "ProcessCreated" // Look for processes with 'cron' in the name | where FileName contains "cron" // Exclude typical cron daemon location; adjust the path condition as needed | where FolderPath !contains "/usr/sbin" | extend ExecutablePath = strcat(FolderPath, "/", FileName) | project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, FileName, FolderPath, ExecutablePath, ProcessCommandLine, InitiatingProcessCommandLine | sort by TimeGenerated desc

DeviceProcessEvents | where FileName contains "cron" // Filter out known legitimate cron daemon location | where FolderPath !startswith "/usr/sbin/" // Optionally, you can add additional filters for Linux environment if available | project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, FileName, FolderPath, ProcessCommandLine | sort by TimeGenerated desc