// question

On a Linux system, review process creation logs to spot any dd commands reading from /proc/*/mem. What was the name of the file where the dumped memory was written?

Reference KQL answer and model-by-model comparison.

7e91138a-8e74-456d-a007-973d67a0bb80
question id
20/23
models correct
1
valid answer
87%
success rate
// reference answer

Human-validated correct answer for this question.

T1003.007.bin
// model comparison
ModelAnswerKQL queryStatusTriesTimeCost
gemini-2.5-flash-preview-04-17
/tmp/T1003.007.bin
DeviceProcessEvents
| where ActionType == "ProcessCreated"
| where ProcessCommandLine has "dd" and ProcessCommandLine has "if=/proc/" and ProcessCommandLine has "/mem"
| extend OutputFileName = extract(@"of=([^ ]+)", 1, ProcessCommandLine)
| where isnotempty(OutputFileName)
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, ProcessCommandLine, OutputFileName
| order by TimeGenerated asc
pass112.52s0.0066
gpt-35-turbo
no answer
no query generatedfail50.00s0.0110
gpt-4-turbo-2024-04-09
T1003.007.bin
DeviceProcessEvents
| where ProcessCommandLine has 'dd' and ProcessCommandLine has '/proc/' and ProcessCommandLine has '/mem'
| parse ProcessCommandLine with * 'of=' FileName ' ' *
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, InitiatingProcessFileName, ProcessCommandLine, ProcessId, FileName
pass429.78s0.2129
gpt-4.1
/tmp/T1003.007.bin
DeviceProcessEvents
| where ActionType == "ProcessCreated"
| where FileName == "dd" or ProcessCommandLine has "dd "
| where ProcessCommandLine matches regex @"if=/proc/\d+/mem"
| extend outputFile = extract(@"of=([^\s]+)", 1, ProcessCommandLine)
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, AccountName, ProcessCommandLine, outputFile
| where isnotempty(outputFile)
pass15.03s0.0114
gpt-4.1-finetuned
/tmp/T1003.007.bin
DeviceProcessEvents
| where FileName in~ ("dd", "dd.exe")
// Look for command with the input file i.e. if=/proc/PID/mem
| where ProcessCommandLine has_all ("if=/proc", "/mem")
// Project the output file after the 'of=' syntax in the command
| extend DumpWrittenOnHostFile = trim(@"'", tostring(extract(@"of=([\w-\.:/\\]*?) ",1,ProcessCommandLine )))
| where isnotempty(DumpWrittenOnHostFile)
| summarize any(*) by DumpWrittenOnHostFile
| order by tostring(DumpWrittenOnHostFile) asc
| take 50
// Project only the output file name in the memory dump file
| project DumpWrittenOnHostFile //, *

// Uncomment to show results and files dropped by each host
// | extend HostName = tostring(split(DeviceName, '.') [0]), DnsDomain = tostring(strcat_array(array_slice(split(DeviceName, '.'), 1, -1), '.'))
 
pass532.11s0.0220
gpt-4.1-mini
/tmp/T1003.007.bin
DeviceProcessEvents
| where ProcessCommandLine has "dd" and ProcessCommandLine matches regex @"/proc/[0-9]+/mem"
| extend OutputFile = extract(@"of=([^\s]+)", 1, ProcessCommandLine)
| where isnotempty(OutputFile)
| summarize count() by OutputFile
| order by count_ desc
pass118.58s0.0022
gpt-4.1-nano
T1003.007.bin
DeviceProcessEvents
| where ProcessCommandLine contains 'dd' and ProcessCommandLine contains '/proc/' and ProcessCommandLine contains 'mem'
| project TimeGenerated, ProcessId, ProcessCommandLine
| extend OutputFile=extract("of=([^ ]+)", 1, ProcessCommandLine)
| where isnotempty(OutputFile)
pass325.47s0.0014
gpt-4o
/tmp/T1003.007.bin
DeviceProcessEvents
| where ProcessCommandLine contains "dd" and ProcessCommandLine contains "/proc/" and ProcessCommandLine contains "/mem"
| project InitiatingProcessCommandLine, FileName
pass25.22s0.0329
gpt-5-high
T1003.007.bin
let linuxDevices = DeviceInfo
| where OSPlatform =~ "Linux"
| distinct DeviceId;
DeviceProcessEvents
| where DeviceId in (linuxDevices)
| where FileName =~ "dd" or ProcessCommandLine matches regex @"(?i)\bdd\b"
| where ProcessCommandLine matches regex @"/proc/(?:\d+|self)/mem"
// Extract of= argument (optionally double-quoted)
| extend of_file = extract(@'(?i)\bof\s*=\s*"?([^ \t";|]+)"?', 1, ProcessCommandLine)
// Extract shell redirection target (>, >>, 1>, etc.; optionally double-quoted)
| extend redirect_file = extract(@'(?:^|\s)(?:\d?>|>>)\n\s*"?(/[^ \t";|]+)"?', 1, ProcessCommandLine)
| extend DumpTargetPath = coalesce(of_file, redirect_file)
| where isnotempty(DumpTargetPath)
| extend DumpTargetFileName = tostring(split(DumpTargetPath, "/")[array_length(split(DumpTargetPath, "/")) - 1])
| project Time=ProcessCreationTime, DeviceName, AccountName, ProcessId, CommandLine=ProcessCommandLine, DumpTargetPath, DumpTargetFileName
| order by Time desc
pass189.46s0.0487
gpt-5-mini-high
no answer
no query generatedfail50.00s0.0160
gpt-5-mini-low
/tmp/T1003.007.bin
// Find dd processes that read from /proc/*/mem and capture destination file name
let dd_procs = DeviceProcessEvents
| where isnotempty(ProcessCommandLine)
// Look for dd commands reading from /proc/<pid>/mem or /proc/*/mem and redirecting to a file
| where ProcessCommandLine has 'dd' and (ProcessCommandLine has '/proc/' and ProcessCommandLine has 'mem')
| extend dd_from = tostring(extract(@"(if=\s*[^\s]+|if=\S+)", 1, ProcessCommandLine))
| extend dd_to = tostring(extract(@"(of=\s*[^\s]+|of=\S+|>\s*\S+)", 1, ProcessCommandLine))
| extend dd_to = replace(@"^of=", "", dd_to)
| extend dd_to = trim(" ", replace(@">", "", dd_to))
| extend dd_from = trim(" ", replace(@"if=", "", dd_from))
| extend proc_pid = tostring(extract(@"/proc/(\d+)/mem", 1, ProcessCommandLine))
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, ProcessId, ProcessCommandLine, dd_from, dd_to, proc_pid;

// Also look in DeviceEvents and DeviceFileEvents for file creation/writes by processes named dd or with cmdline containing dd
let file_writes = (
    DeviceEvents
    | where isnotempty(InitiatingProcessFileName) or isnotempty(InitiatingProcessCommandLine)
    | where (InitiatingProcessFileName == 'dd' or InitiatingProcessCommandLine has ' dd ') or (FileName has '.' )
    | where ActionType in ('FileCreated','FileWritten','FileModified','FileCreated')
    | project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, FileName, FolderPath, FileSize, InitiatingProcessFileName, InitiatingProcessCommandLine, InitiatingProcessId
)
| union (
    DeviceFileEvents
    | where isnotempty(InitiatingProcessFileName) or isnotempty(InitiatingProcessCommandLine)
    | where (InitiatingProcessFileName == 'dd' or InitiatingProcessCommandLine has ' dd ') or (FileName has '.' )
    | where ActionType in ('FileCreated','FileWritten','FileModified')
    | project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, FileName, FolderPath, FileSize, InitiatingProcessFileName, InitiatingProcessCommandLine, InitiatingProcessId
);

// Join dd processes to file writes by time and device and process id if available
dd_procs
| join kind=leftouter (file_writes) on DeviceName
| where isempty(proc_pid) or proc_pid == tostring(InitiatingProcessId) or ProcessCommandLine has tostring(InitiatingProcessId)
| project TimeGenerated=coalesce(TimeGenerated, TimeGenerated1), DeviceName, ProcessId, ProcessCommandLine, dd_from, dd_to, FileName, FolderPath, FileSize, InitiatingProcessFileName, InitiatingProcessCommandLine
| summarize any(dd_to), any(FileName), any(FolderPath), any(InitiatingProcessCommandLine) by DeviceName, ProcessId, ProcessCommandLine, dd_from
| extend DumpedFile = coalesce(any_dd_to, any_FileName, any_FolderPath)
| project DeviceName, ProcessId, ProcessCommandLine, dd_from, DumpedFile
| where isnotempty(DumpedFile)
| distinct DeviceName, ProcessId, ProcessCommandLine, dd_from, DumpedFile
| take 100
pass128.39s0.0045
gpt-5-mini-medium
/tmp/T1003.007.bin
// Find dd processes reading from /proc/*/mem and determine output file
let ddProcs = union
(
    DeviceProcessEvents
    | where isnotempty(ProcessCommandLine)
    | where ProcessCommandLine has "dd" and ProcessCommandLine has "/proc/" and ProcessCommandLine has "mem"
    | extend Time = coalesce(ProcessCreationTime, TimeGenerated)
    | project Time, DeviceName, DeviceId, ProcessId, ProcessCommandLine, ProcessFileName = FileName
),
(
    DeviceEvents
    | where isnotempty(ProcessCommandLine)
    | where ProcessCommandLine has "dd" and ProcessCommandLine has "/proc/" and ProcessCommandLine has "mem"
    | extend Time = coalesce(ProcessCreationTime, TimeGenerated)
    | project Time, DeviceName, DeviceId, ProcessId, ProcessCommandLine, ProcessFileName = FileName
);

let files = DeviceFileEvents
| where isnotempty(FileName)
| project FileTime = TimeGenerated, DeviceName, DeviceId, InitiatingProcessId, FileName, FolderPath, ActionType;

ddProcs
| extend of_param = extract(@"\bof=([^\s]+)", 1, ProcessCommandLine)
| extend redirect_param = extract(@">\s*([^\s]+)", 1, ProcessCommandLine)
| extend OutFile = coalesce(of_param, redirect_param)
| join kind=leftouter (
    files
) on DeviceId, $left.ProcessId == $right.InitiatingProcessId
| extend FileMatchedTimeWindow = iff(FileTime >= Time - 1m and FileTime <= Time + 5m, true, false)
| where isnotempty(OutFile) or FileMatchedTimeWindow == true
| project Time, DeviceName, ProcessId, ProcessFileName, ProcessCommandLine, OutFile, MatchedFile = FileName, FolderPath, FileTime, ActionType
| order by Time desc
pass251.81s0.0118
gpt-5-nano-high
/tmp/T1003.007.bin
DeviceProcessEvents
| extend CommandLine = coalesce(InitiatingProcessCommandLine, ProcessCommandLine)
| where TimeGenerated between (ago(1d) .. now())
| where tolower(CommandLine) contains "dd" and tolower(CommandLine) contains "/proc/" and tolower(CommandLine) contains "/mem"
| extend OutputFile = extract(@"(?i)of=([^\s]+)", 1, CommandLine)
| where isnotempty(OutputFile)
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, InitiatingProcessId, ProcessId, CommandLine, OutputFile
| sort by TimeGenerated desc
pass5114.14s0.0075
gpt-5-nano-medium
/tmp/T1003.007.bin
DeviceProcessEvents
| where ProcessCommandLine has "dd" and ProcessCommandLine has "/proc/" and ProcessCommandLine has "mem"
| extend OutputFile = tostring(extract(@"of=([^\s]+)", 1, ProcessCommandLine))
| where isnotempty(OutputFile)
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, ProcessCommandLine, OutputFile
| order by TimeGenerated desc
pass143.99s0.0020
grok-3-beta
/tmp/T1003.007.bin
DeviceProcessEvents
| where ProcessCommandLine contains "dd"
| where ProcessCommandLine contains "/proc/" and ProcessCommandLine contains "mem"
| extend OutputFile = extract("of=([^\\s]+)", 1, ProcessCommandLine)
| project Timestamp, DeviceName, ProcessCommandLine, OutputFile, AccountName, InitiatingProcessFileName
| order by Timestamp desc
pass336.99s0.0635
grok-3-mini-beta
/tmp/T1003.007.bin
let LinuxDevices = DeviceInfo
| where OSPlatform == "Linux"
| distinct DeviceId;
DeviceProcessEvents
| where DeviceId in (LinuxDevices)
| where FileName == "dd"
| where ProcessCommandLine contains "/proc/" and ProcessCommandLine contains "mem"
| extend OutputFile = extract(@"of=([^ ]+)", 1, ProcessCommandLine)
| project Timestamp, ProcessCommandLine, OutputFile
| summarize arg_max(Timestamp, *) by OutputFile
pass117.11s0.0016
o1-high
/tmp/T1003.007.bin
DeviceProcessEvents
| where ActionType in ("CreateProcess", "ProcessCreated")
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceId, DeviceName, ProcessCommandLine
// Join with DeviceInfo to ensure we only look at Linux systems
| join kind=inner (
    DeviceInfo
    | project DeviceId, OSPlatform
) on DeviceId
| where OSPlatform == "Linux"
| where ProcessCommandLine has "dd "
    and ProcessCommandLine has "if=/proc/"
    and ProcessCommandLine has "/mem"
    and ProcessCommandLine has " of="
| parse kind=regex ProcessCommandLine with * "if=" Source " of=" DumpFile " " *
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, Source, DumpFile
| order by TimeGenerated desc
pass140.48s0.3006
o1-low
/tmp/T1003.007.bin
let LinuxDevices = DeviceInfo
| where OSPlatform == "Linux"
| distinct DeviceId;

DeviceProcessEvents
| where DeviceId in (LinuxDevices)
| where ActionType == "ProcessCreated"
| where FileName =~ "dd"
| where ProcessCommandLine has "if=/proc/" and ProcessCommandLine has "/mem"
| extend DumpedFile = extract(@"of=([^\s]+)",1,ProcessCommandLine)
| where isnotempty(DumpedFile)
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, ProcessCommandLine, DumpedFile
| order by TimeGenerated desc
pass366.08s0.4989
o3-high
T1003.007.bin
let LinuxDevices = DeviceInfo
| where OSPlatform =~ "Linux"
| summarize by DeviceId;
DeviceProcessEvents
| where DeviceId in (LinuxDevices)
| where FileName =~ "dd"
| where ProcessCommandLine has "/proc/" and ProcessCommandLine has "/mem"
// Pull out the destination file (first match wins)
| extend DumpFilePath = coalesce(
        extract(@"of=([^\s]+)", 1, ProcessCommandLine),     //  dd if=... of=/tmp/dump
        extract(@">>\s*([^\s]+)", 1, ProcessCommandLine),  //  dd if=... >> /tmp/dump
        extract(@">\s*([^\s]+)", 1, ProcessCommandLine)    //  dd if=... > /tmp/dump
    )
| where isnotempty(DumpFilePath)
| extend DumpFileName = tostring(split(DumpFilePath, "/")[-1])
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, AccountName, ProcessCommandLine, DumpFilePath, DumpFileName
| sort by TimeGenerated desc
pass138.68s0.0237
o3-mini-high
T1003.007.bin
DeviceProcessEvents
| where InitiatingProcessCommandLine has "dd"
| where InitiatingProcessCommandLine has "if=/proc/" and InitiatingProcessCommandLine has "mem"
| extend dump_file = extract(@"of=(\S+)", 1, InitiatingProcessCommandLine)
| where isnotempty(dump_file)
| project TimeGenerated, InitiatingProcessCommandLine, dump_file
pass125.09s0.0149
o3-mini-low
T1003.007.bin
DeviceProcessEvents
| where ProcessCommandLine has "dd"
| where ProcessCommandLine has "if=/proc/" and ProcessCommandLine has "mem"
| extend DumpFile = extract(@"of=([^ \t]+)", 1, ProcessCommandLine)
| where isnotempty(DumpFile)
| project TimeGenerated, ProcessCommandLine, DumpFile
| order by TimeGenerated desc
pass136.77s0.0117
o4-mini-high
no answer
no query generatedfail50.00s0.0369
o4-mini-low
/tmp/T1003.007.bin
DeviceProcessEvents
| where ActionType == "ProcessCreated"
| where ProcessCommandLine has "dd" and ProcessCommandLine has "if=/proc/"
| extend DumpFile = extract(@"of=(\S+)", 1, ProcessCommandLine)
| project TimeGenerated, DeviceName, ProcessCommandLine, DumpFile
pass134.05s0.0109