Question Analysis
Linux hosts may log events when new files are added to /var/spool/cron/crontabs. Query those logs for a creation or write action in that directory and determine the file name that was added.
2d943c18-e74a-44bf-936f-25ade6cccab4
Question ID
13/16
Models Correct
1
Valid Answer
81%
Success Rate
Reference Answer
Human-validated correct answer for this question
persistevil
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 | persistevil | DeviceFileEvents
| where FolderPath startswith "/var/spool/cron/crontabs"
| where ActionType == "FileCreated" or ActionType == "FileWritten"
| project Timestamp, DeviceName, FolderPath, FileName, ActionType, InitiatingProcessCommandLine | Correct | 1 | 11.16s | 0.0055 |
| gpt-35-turbo | No answer provided | No query generated | Incorrect | 5 | 0.00s | 0.0109 |
| gpt-4-turbo-2024-04-09 | No answer provided | No query generated | Incorrect | 5 | 0.00s | 0.2263 |
| gpt-4.1 | persistevil | DeviceFileEvents
| where FolderPath startswith "/var/spool/cron/crontabs"
| where ActionType in ("FileCreated", "FileCreated (CreateFile)", "FileWritten", "FileCreatedOrWritten")
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, FolderPath, FileName, ActionType, InitiatingProcessAccountName, InitiatingProcessFileName | Correct | 1 | 4.21s | 0.0118 |
| gpt-4.1-finetuned | persistevil | DeviceFileEvents
| where (ActionType =~ "FileCreated" or ActionType =~ "FileModified")
| where FolderPath contains "/var/spool/cron/crontabs/"
| project-reorder Timestamp, ActionType, FileName, FolderPath, InitiatingProcessCommandLine, InitiatingProcessParentFileName, InitiatingProcessFileName, MD5, SHA256
| extend timestamp = Timestamp, FileNameArray = split(FolderPath, "/")
| extend FileName = tostring(FileNameArray[4])
| project-rename MDTimestamp = Timestamp, MDEventTime = timestamp, MDDeviceName = DeviceName, MDFolderPath = FolderPath, MDProcessName = InitiatingProcessCommandLine, MDParentProcessName = InitiatingProcessParentFileName, MDMD5 = MD5, MDOwner = InitiatingProcessAccountName
| extend NTDomain = iff(MDOwner contains "@", tostring(split(MDOwner, "@", 1)[0]), MDOwner)
| extend NTDomain = iff(MDOwner contains "\\", tostring(split(MDOwner, "\\", 1)[0]), NTDomain)
| extend Name = iff(MDOwner contains "@", tostring(split(MDOwner, "@", 0)[0]), MDOwner)
| extend Name = iff(MDOwner contains "\\", tostring(split(MDOwner, "@", 0)[1]), Name)
| project MDTimestamp, MDEventTime, MDDeviceName, FileName, MDFolderPath, MDProcessName, MDParentProcessName, MDMD5, SHA256, NTDomain ,Name
| extend OSPlatform = "Linux"
| distinct MDTimestamp , MDEventTime, MDDeviceName, OSPlatform, FileName, MDFolderPath, MDProcessName, MDMD5, SHA256, NTDomain, Name, MDParentProcessName
| project MDTimestamp, MDEventTime, MDDeviceName, OSPlatform, FileName, MDFolderPath, MDProcessName, MDMD5, SHA256, NTDomain, Name, MDParentProcessName
| extend timestamp = MDTimestamp, Name = tostring(split(Name, "@", 0)[0])
| extend Account_0_Name = Name
| extend Account_0_NTDomain = NTDomain
| extend Host_0_HostName = MDDeviceName
| extend Host_0_OSType = OSPlatform
| extend File_0_Name = FileName
| extend File_0_Directory = MDFolderPath
| extend Process_0_ProcessId = MDProcessName
| extend FileHash_0_Algorithm = "MD5"
| extend FileHash_0_Value = MDMD5
| extend FileHash_1_Algorithm = "SHA256"
| extend FileHash_1_Value = SHA256
| extend Process_1_ProcessId = MDParentProcessName
| Correct | 3 | 41.24s | 0.0426 |
| gpt-4.1-mini | persistevil | DeviceFileEvents
| where FolderPath startswith "/var/spool/cron/crontabs"
| where ActionType in ("FileCreated", "FileWritten")
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, FileName, ActionType, InitiatingProcessAccountName
| order by TimeGenerated desc | Correct | 1 | 20.43s | 0.0023 |
| gpt-4.1-nano | No answer provided | No query generated | Incorrect | 5 | 0.00s | 0.0017 |
| gpt-4o | persistevil | DeviceFileEvents
| where FolderPath contains '/var/spool/cron/crontabs' and ActionType in ('FileCreated', 'FileModified')
| project TimeGenerated, FileName, FolderPath, ActionType | Correct | 3 | 19.12s | 0.0403 |
| grok-3-beta | persistevil | DeviceFileEvents
| where ActionType in ('FileCreated', 'FileModified')
| where FolderPath contains '/var/spool/cron/crontabs'
| project Timestamp, DeviceName, FileName, FolderPath, InitiatingProcessAccountName, InitiatingProcessFileName
| order by Timestamp desc | Correct | 1 | 12.00s | 0.0223 |
| grok-3-mini-beta | persistevil | DeviceFileEvents
| where FolderPath has "/var/spool/cron/crontabs"
| where ActionType in~ ('FileCreated', 'FileModified')
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, FileName, ActionType
| summarize AddedFiles = make_set(FileName), LatestTime = arg_max(TimeGenerated, *) by DeviceName, ActionType
| order by LatestTime desc | Correct | 3 | 31.57s | 0.0044 |
| o1-high | persistevil | DeviceFileEvents
| where ActionType in ("FileCreated","FileModified")
| where FolderPath startswith "/var/spool/cron/crontabs"
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceId, DeviceName, ActionType, FolderPath, FileName | Correct | 1 | 27.48s | 0.1803 |
| o1-low | persistevil | DeviceFileEvents
| where FolderPath startswith "/var/spool/cron/crontabs"
and ActionType in ("FileCreated", "FileModified")
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, ActionType, FolderPath, FileName | Correct | 1 | 22.67s | 0.1964 |
| o3-mini-high | persistevil | union isfuzzy=true DeviceFileEvents, DeviceEvents
| where FolderPath has "/var/spool/cron/crontabs"
| where ActionType in ("FileCreated", "FileWrite", "FileWritten")
| project TimeGenerated, FileName, ActionType, FolderPath | Correct | 2 | 26.58s | 0.0180 |
| o3-mini-low | persistevil | union withsource=TableName DeviceFileEvents, DeviceEvents, DeviceProcessEvents
| where isnotempty(FolderPath) and tolower(FolderPath) contains "/var/spool/cron/crontabs"
| where tolower(ActionType) contains "creat" or tolower(ActionType) contains "write"
| project TimeGenerated, FileName, ActionType, FolderPath, TableName
| order by TimeGenerated desc | Correct | 4 | 85.24s | 0.0311 |
| o4-mini-high | persistevil | DeviceFileEvents
| where FolderPath has "/var/spool/cron/crontabs"
| where ActionType in ("FileCreated", "FileWritten", "FileModified", "FileOpenedWrite")
| summarize FirstSeen = min(TimeGenerated), LastSeen = max(TimeGenerated), EventCount = count() by FileName
| sort by LastSeen desc | Correct | 1 | 22.88s | 0.0070 |
| o4-mini-low | persistevil | DeviceFileEvents
| where FolderPath startswith "/var/spool/cron/crontabs"
| where ActionType in ("FileCreated", "FileWrite", "FileModified")
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, FileName, FolderPath, ActionType, InitiatingProcessCommandLine
| sort by TimeGenerated desc | Correct | 4 | 105.87s | 0.0336 |