Root escalation via pkexec/sudo spawned from Moodle web process

Ethan Andrews@eandrews

•updated Aug 4, 2026•3•0•13

This rule detects the execution of 'pkexec' or 'sudo' by a low-privilege web server process (e.g., Apache, Nginx, PHP-FPM) that results in a process running with root privileges. This pattern is indicative of privilege escalation attempts targeting local vulnerabilities, such as CVE-2021-4034 (PwnKit) or CVE-2021-3156 (Baron Samedit), where a compromised web application account attempts to elevate to root.