---
- name: process
title: Process
group: 2
short: These fields contain information about a process.
description: >
These fields contain information about a process.
These fields can help you correlate metrics information with a process id/name
from a log message. The `process.pid` often stays in the metric itself and is
copied to the global field for correlation.
type: group
reusable:
top_level: true
expected:
- at: process
as: parent
short_override: Information about the parent process.
- at: process
as: entry_leader
short_override: First process from terminal or remote access via SSH, SSM, etc OR a service directly started by the init process.
- at: process
as: session_leader
short_override: Often the same as entry_leader. When it differs, it represents a session started within another session. e.g. using tmux
- at: process
as: group_leader
short_override: Information about the process group leader. In some cases this may be the same as the top level process.
- at: process.parent
as: group_leader
short_override: Information about the parent's process group leader. Only pid, start and entity_id fields are set.
- at: process.entry_leader
as: parent
short_override: Information about the entry leader's parent process. Only pid, start and entity_id fields are set.
- at: process.session_leader
as: parent
short_override: Information about the session leader's parent process. Only pid, start and entity_id fields are set.
- at: process.entry_leader.parent
as: session_leader
short_override: Information about the parent session of the entry leader. Only pid, start and entity_id fields are set.
- at: process.session_leader.parent
as: session_leader
short_override: Information about the parent session of the session leader. Only pid, start and entity_id fields are set.
- at: process
as: previous
short_override: An array of previous executions for the process, including the initial fork. Only executable and args are set.
normalize:
- array
fields:
- name: pid
format: string
level: core
type: long
description: >
Process id.
example: 4242
- name: entity_id
level: extended
type: keyword
short: Unique identifier for the process.
description: >
Unique identifier for the process.
The implementation of this is specified by the data source, but some
examples of what could be used here are a process-generated UUID,
Sysmon Process GUIDs, or a hash of some uniquely identifying components
of a process.
Constructing a globally unique identifier is a common practice to mitigate
PID reuse as well as to identify a specific process over time, across multiple
monitored hosts.
example: c2c455d9f99375d
- name: name
level: extended
type: keyword
short: Process name.
description: >
Process name.
Sometimes called program name or similar.
example: ssh
multi_fields:
- type: match_only_text
name: text
- name: pgid
format: string
level: extended
type: long
short: Deprecated identifier of the group of processes the process belongs to.
description: >
Deprecated for removal in next major version release. This field is superseded by
`process.group_leader.pid`.
Identifier of the group of processes the process belongs to.
- name: command_line
level: extended
type: wildcard
short: Full command line that started the process.
description: >
Full command line that started the process, including the absolute path
to the executable, and all arguments.
Some arguments may be filtered to protect sensitive information.
example: "/usr/bin/ssh -l user 10.0.0.16"
multi_fields:
- type: match_only_text
name: text
- name: args
level: extended
type: keyword
short: Array of process arguments.
description: >
Array of process arguments, starting with the absolute path to the executable.
May be filtered to protect sensitive information.
example: "[\"/usr/bin/ssh\", \"-l\", \"user\", \"10.0.0.16\"]"
normalize:
- array
- name: args_count
level: extended
type: long
short: Length of the process.args array.
description: >
Length of the process.args array.
This field can be useful for querying or performing bucket analysis on
how many arguments were provided to start a process.
More arguments may be an indication of suspicious activity.
example: 4
- name: executable
level: extended
type: keyword
description: >
Absolute path to the process executable.
example: /usr/bin/ssh
multi_fields:
- type: match_only_text
name: text
- name: title
level: extended
type: keyword
short: Process title.
description: >
Process title.
The proctitle, some times the same as process name. Can also be different:
for example a browser setting its title to the web page currently opened.
multi_fields:
- type: match_only_text
name: text
- name: thread.id
format: string
level: extended
type: long
example: 4242
description: >
Thread ID.
- name: thread.name
level: extended
type: keyword
example: 'thread-0'
description: >
Thread name.
- name: start
level: extended
type: date
example: "2016-05-23T08:05:34.853Z"
description: >
The time the process started.
- name: uptime
level: extended
type: long
example: 1325
description: >
Seconds the process has been up.
- name: working_directory
level: extended
type: keyword
example: /home/alice
description: >
The working directory of the process.
multi_fields:
- type: match_only_text
name: text
- name: exit_code
level: extended
type: long
example: 137
short: The exit code of the process.
description: >
The exit code of the process, if this is a termination event.
The field should be absent if there is no exit code for the event (e.g.
process start).
- name: end
level: extended
type: date
example: "2016-05-23T08:05:34.853Z"
description: >
The time the process ended.
- name: interactive
level: extended
type: boolean
example: true
short: Whether the process is connected to an interactive shell.
description: >
Whether the process is connected to an interactive shell.
Process interactivity is inferred from the processes file descriptors. If the character device for the controlling tty is the same as stdin and stderr for the process, the process is considered interactive.
Note: A non-interactive process can belong to an interactive session and is simply one that does not have open file descriptors reading the controlling TTY on FD 0 (stdin) or writing to the controlling TTY on FD 2 (stderr). A backgrounded process is still considered interactive if stdin and stderr are connected to the controlling TTY.
- name: same_as_process
level: extended
type: boolean
example: true
short: This boolean is used to identify if a leader process is the same as the top level process.
description: >
This boolean is used to identify if a leader process is the same as the top level process.
For example, if `process.group_leader.same_as_process = true`, it means the process event in question is the leader of its process group. Details under `process.*` like `pid` would be the same under `process.group_leader.*`
The same applies for both `process.session_leader` and `process.entry_leader`.
This field exists to the benefit of EQL and other rule engines since it's not possible to compare equality between two fields in a single document.
e.g
`process.entity_id` = `process.group_leader.entity_id` (top level process is the process group leader)
OR
`process.entity_id` = `process.entry_leader.entity_id` (top level process is the entry session leader)
Instead these rules could be written like:
`process.group_leader.same_as_process: true`
OR
`process.entry_leader.same_as_process: true`
Note: This field is only set on `process.entry_leader`, `process.session_leader` and `process.group_leader`.
- name: env_vars
level: extended
type: keyword
beta: This field is beta and subject to change.
short: Array of environment variable bindings.
description: >
Array of environment variable bindings.
Captured from a snapshot of the environment at the time of execution.
May be filtered to protect sensitive information.
example: "[\"PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin\", \"USER=ubuntu\"]"
normalize:
- array
- name: entry_meta.type
level: extended
type: keyword
short: The entry type for the entry session leader.
description: >
The entry type for the entry session leader.
Values include: init(e.g systemd), sshd, ssm, kubelet, teleport, terminal, console
Note: This field is only set on process.session_leader.
- name: entry_meta.source
level: extended
type: source
short: Entry point information for a session.
description: >
Entry point information for a session.
Remote client information such as ip, port and geo location.
- name: tty
level: extended
type: object
short: Information about the controlling TTY device.
description: >
Information about the controlling TTY device. If set, the process belongs to an interactive session.
- name: tty.char_device.major
level: extended
type: long
short: The TTY character device's major number.
description: >
The major number identifies the driver associated with the device. The character device's major and minor numbers can be algorithmically combined to produce the more familiar terminal identifiers such as "ttyS0" and "pts/0". For more details, please refer to the Linux kernel documentation.
example: 4
- name: tty.char_device.minor
level: extended
type: long
short: The TTY character device's minor number.
description: >
The minor number is used only by the driver specified by the major number; other parts of the kernel don’t use it, and merely pass it along to the driver. It is common for a driver to control several devices; the minor number provides a way for the driver to differentiate among them.
example: 1
- name: tty.rows
level: extended
type: long
beta: This field is beta and subject to change.
short: The number of character rows in the terminal. e.g terminal height
description: >
The number of character rows in the terminal. e.g terminal height
Terminal sizes can change, so this value reflects the maximum value for a given IO event. i.e. where event.action = 'text_output'
example: 24
- name: tty.columns
level: extended
type: long
beta: This field is beta and subject to change.
short: The number of character columns per line. e.g terminal width
description: >
The number of character columns per line. e.g terminal width
Terminal sizes can change, so this value reflects the maximum value for a given IO event. i.e. where event.action = 'text_output'
example: 80
- name: io
level: extended
type: object
beta: This field is beta and subject to change.
short: A chunk of input or output (IO) from a single process.
description: >
A chunk of input or output (IO) from a single process.
This field only appears on the top level process object, which is the process that wrote the output or read the input.
- name: io.type
level: extended
type: keyword
beta: This field is beta and subject to change.
short: The type of object on which the IO action (read or write) was taken.
description: >
The type of object on which the IO action (read or write) was taken.
Currently only 'tty' is supported. Other types may be added in the future for 'file' and 'socket' support.
- name: io.text
level: extended
type: wildcard
beta: This field is beta and subject to change.
short: A chunk of output or input sanitized to UTF-8.
description: >
A chunk of output or input sanitized to UTF-8.
Best efforts are made to ensure complete lines are captured in these events. Assumptions should NOT be made that multiple lines will appear in the same event. TTY output may contain terminal control codes such as for cursor movement, so some string queries may not match due to terminal codes inserted between characters of a word.
- name: io.total_bytes_captured
level: extended
type: long
beta: This field is beta and subject to change.
description: >
The total number of bytes captured in this event.
- name: io.total_bytes_skipped
level: extended
type: long
beta: This field is beta and subject to change.
short: The total number of bytes that were not captured due to implementation restrictions such as buffer size limits.
description: >
The total number of bytes that were not captured due to implementation restrictions such as buffer size limits. Implementors should strive to ensure this value is always zero
- name: io.max_bytes_per_process_exceeded
level: extended
type: boolean
beta: This field is beta and subject to change.
description: >
If true, the process producing the output has exceeded the max_kilobytes_per_process configuration setting.
- name: io.bytes_skipped
level: extended
type: object
beta: This field is beta and subject to change.
description: >
An array of byte offsets and lengths denoting where IO data has been skipped.
normalize:
- array
- name: io.bytes_skipped.offset
level: extended
type: long
beta: This field is beta and subject to change.
description: >
The byte offset into this event's io.text (or io.bytes in the future) where length bytes were skipped.
- name: io.bytes_skipped.length
level: extended
type: long
beta: This field is beta and subject to change.
description: >
The length of bytes skipped.