Execution

What is Execution Monitoring?

Runtime Detection: Jibril monitors system activity in real-time to identify suspicious behaviors that may indicate security breaches or intrusion attempts. It specifically focuses on program execution patterns, analyzing which binaries are run, how they're invoked, and whether these patterns match known attack signatures.

How Does Execution Monitoring Work?

1. Binary Execution Tracking: Jibril continuously monitors all program executions on the system, capturing detailed information about every binary that runs. This includes system utilities, user applications, scripts, and other executable content.

2. Argument Pattern Analysis: When programs execute, Jibril captures and analyzes their command-line arguments. Certain argument patterns can indicate malicious intent—for example, unusual flag combinations, obfuscated commands, or attempts to exploit parameter vulnerabilities.

3. Execution Context Evaluation: Jibril examines the conditions surrounding program execution, including:

   • The user context (particularly privilege level and whether elevation occurred)

   • Timing patterns (executions during unusual hours)

   • Parent-child process relationships

   • Directory location of execution (e.g., from temporary folders)

   • Environmental variables and system state

4. Pattern Matching and Correlation: Collected execution data is compared against:

   • Known malicious execution patterns from Jibril's threat intelligence database

   • Baseline of normal system behavior

   • Temporal sequences that might indicate multi-stage attacks

5. In-kernel Data Processing: Using eBPF technology, Jibril processes much of this information directly within kernel space, minimizing performance impact while maintaining comprehensive visibility into execution events.

Where Does Execution Monitoring Operate?

Jibril's execution monitoring capabilities operate at multiple levels within the system:

• Kernel Space: eBPF hooks intercept execution-related syscalls (like execve) directly in the kernel

• Process Creation Points: Monitoring occurs at the precise moment when new processes are spawned

• Binary Loading Phase: Interception during the ELF loader process provides early detection opportunities

• System-wide Coverage: All execution events across the entire system are captured, regardless of which user initiated them

Why is Execution Monitoring Important?

1. Attack Vector Coverage: Program execution is a fundamental requirement for most attacks—malware must execute, living-off-the-land techniques rely on binary execution, and privilege escalation typically involves running specific programs.

2. Early Detection: By monitoring at the execution level, threats can be identified at their initial stages before they achieve persistence or lateral movement.

3. Reduced False Positives: The rich contextual information around program execution allows for more accurate threat determination compared to signature-based detection alone.

4. Forensic Value: Detailed execution logs provide invaluable evidence for incident response, allowing security teams to reconstruct attack timelines and understand breach methodologies.

Conclusion

Execution monitoring forms a critical component of Jibril's defense strategy. By leveraging eBPF technology to observe program execution patterns in real-time and comparing them against known malicious behaviors, Jibril can rapidly identify potential threats with minimal system impact. This approach provides comprehensive visibility into one of the most fundamental aspects of system operation—what code is running and under what circumstances—creating a powerful detection mechanism for modern security threats.