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OSSEC / HIDS Rule 5402

OSSEC / HIDS rule catalog

  • Rule family: OSSEC / HIDS
  • Rule ID: 5402
  • Definition status: Present in current source
  • Alert message / subject: Successful sudo to ROOT executed
  • Rule level: 4
  • Definition checked: 2026-10-21

Interpretation and response

This event is recorded as “Successful sudo to ROOT executed”. Review the originating log and the affected host or service to determine whether the activity was expected.

An OSSEC/HIDS event records or correlates activity. Blocking depends on the originating application and any separately configured Active Response policy; an alert alone does not prove that an attack was blocked.

Documentation

The following guidance was migrated from the historical wiki and reviewed against the rule definition. Legacy ASL product names and interface instructions refer to the versions documented then. Use the current metadata above and your installed configuration when interpreting thresholds, notification settings and response behavior.

Example log message:

Server sudo: tortix : TTY=unknown ; PWD=/var/asl/www ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/var/asl/bin/asl –validate_gui

Explanation:

This means that a user or process successfully used sudo to execute a command as root.

Notes:

Careful analysis of sudo logs is recommended to ensure that users authorized to run root level commands, via sudo, are not exceeding their authority.

Known ASL use of sudo

These sudo events are caused by ASL, and may be ignored:

sudo: tortix : TTY=unknown ; PWD=/var/asl/www ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/var/asl/bin/asl -s -f -t

sudo: tortix : TTY=unknown ; PWD=/var/asl/www ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/var/asl/bin/asl –validate_gui

Source and revision

Migrated from HIDS_5402, wiki page 234, revision 2040 (20120103). Documentation review: 2026-10-21. An archived wiki status of Active is not a current deployment status.

For assistance, provide the rule ID, installed product and rule version, and a sanitized event to Atomicorp support .