# Suspicious Process Execution by Agent

- **Severity:** Critical
- **Signature ID:** `a8b3c4d5-e6f7-5891-b2c3-d4e5f6a7b8c9`
- **MITRE ATLAS:** AML.T0050 (Command and Scripting Interpreter), AML.T0072 (Reverse Shell), AML.T0053 (AI Agent Tool Invocation)
- **OWASP:** ASI07 (Unsafe Autonomous Code Execution)

## Summary

An AI agent with shell access runs a command that launches known hacking tools or dangerous command patterns, such as piping downloaded scripts straight into a shell. This is caught at the operating system level when the process actually executes, not just when a request is intercepted.

## How the attack works

An AI agent is given a task or is manipulated (via prompt injection or a compromised instruction) into running a shell command. That command spawns a child process matching a known attack tool or a risky pattern, such as fetching a remote script and piping it directly into bash. Because this is observed at the syscall/exec level, it is caught even if earlier defensive layers that only watch API calls or intercept requests miss it. The result is arbitrary code running under the agent's privileges.

## Why it matters

Successful execution can give an attacker code execution on the host running the agent, using whatever permissions and access that agent has — potentially leading to data theft, lateral movement, or persistence.

## What you can do

- Restrict which binaries and commands an AI agent is allowed to execute; use an allowlist instead of relying on detection alone.
- Run agents with the minimum OS-level privileges needed, ideally in a sandboxed or containerized environment.
- Review any curl/wget-to-shell pipelines used in legitimate workflows and replace them with verified, pinned scripts instead of live piping.
- Alert on and investigate any agent-spawned process that doesn't match its expected, narrow set of tools.

## Known benign look-alikes

- Legitimate curl pipelines in authorised developer workflows
- Security testing and penetration testing exercises

## References

- https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1059/
- https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1573/

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Source: https://www.netzilo.com/threats/suspicious-process-exec