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This document describes a threat finding type in Security Command Center. Threat findings are generated by
threat detectors when they detect
a potential threat in your cloud resources. For a full list of available threat findings, see Threat findings index.
Overview
Container Threat Detection observed a malicious URL in the argument list of an
executable process. Attackers can load malware or malicious libraries
through malicious URLs.
How to respond
To respond to this finding, do the following:
Step 1: Review finding details
Open a Malicious URL Observed finding as directed in
Reviewing findings. The details panel for the
finding opens to the Summary tab.
On the Summary tab, review the information in the following sections:
What was detected, especially the following fields:
URI: the malicious URI observed.
Added binary: the full path of the process binary that received
the arguments that contain the malicious URL.
Arguments: the arguments provided when invoking the process binary.
Environment variables: the environment variables that were in
effect when the process binary was invoked.
Containers: the name of the container.
Kubernetes pods: the pod name and namespace.
Affected resource, especially the following fields:
Resource display name: the name of the affected resource.
Resource full name: the full resource name
of the cluster. The full resource name includes the following
information:
The project that contains the cluster: projects/PROJECT_ID
The location in which the cluster is located: either
zone/ZONE or locations/LOCATION
The name of the cluster: projects/CLUSTER_NAME
Related links, especially the following fields:
VirusTotal indicator: link to the VirusTotal analysis page.
On the JSON tab, in the sourceProperties attribute,
note the value of the VM_Instance_Name property.
Step 2: Review cluster and node
In the Google Cloud console, go to the Kubernetes clusters page.
On the Google Cloud console toolbar, select the project that appears in
Resource full name (resource.name), if necessary. The project
name appears after /projects/ in the full resource name.
Click on the cluster name that you noted in Resource display name
(resource.display_name) of the finding summary. The Clusters
page opens.
In the Metadata section on the **Cluster details page, note any
of the user-defined information that might be helpful in resolving the
threat, such as information that identifies the cluster owner.
Click the Nodes tab.
From the listed nodes, select the node that
matches the value of VM_Instance_Name that you noted in the finding
JSON earlier.
On the Details tab of the Node details page, in the
Annotations section, note the value of the
container.googleapis.com/instance_id annotation.
Step 3: Review Pod
In the Google Cloud console, go to the Kubernetes Workloads page.
On the Google Cloud console toolbar, select the project that you noted
in the Resource full name (resource.name) of the cluster in the
finding summary, if necessary.
Click Show system workloads.
Filter the list of workloads by the cluster name that you noted in
Resource full name (resource.name)of the finding summary and, if
necessary, the pod Namespace (kubernetes.pods.ns) that you noted.
Click on the workload name that matches the value of the VM_Instance_Name
property that you noted in the finding JSON earlier. The Pod details
page opens.
On the Pod details page, note any information about the Pod that
might help you resolve the threat.
Check the SHA-256 hash value for the binary flagged as malicious on
VirusTotal by clicking the link in
VirusTotal indicator. VirusTotal is an Alphabet-owned service that
provides context on potentially malicious files, URLs, domains, and IP
addresses.
To develop a response plan, combine your
investigation results with the MITRE research and VirusTotal analysis.
Step 7: Implement your response
The following response plan might be appropriate for this finding, but might also impact operations.
Carefully evaluate the information you gather in your investigation to determine the best way to
resolve findings.
Contact the owner of the project with the compromised container.
Stop or delete the
compromised container and replace it with a
new container.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-09-04 UTC."],[],[],null,["| Premium and Enterprise [service tiers](/security-command-center/docs/service-tiers)\n\nThis document describes a threat finding type in Security Command Center. Threat findings are generated by\n[threat detectors](/security-command-center/docs/concepts-security-sources#threats) when they detect\na potential threat in your cloud resources. For a full list of available threat findings, see [Threat findings index](/security-command-center/docs/threat-findings-index).\n\nOverview\n| **Preview**\n|\n|\n| This feature is subject to the \"Pre-GA Offerings Terms\" in the General Service Terms section\n| of the [Service Specific Terms](/terms/service-terms#1).\n|\n| Pre-GA features are available \"as is\" and might have limited support.\n|\n| For more information, see the\n| [launch stage descriptions](/products#product-launch-stages).\n\nContainer Threat Detection observed a malicious URL in the argument list of an\nexecutable process. Attackers can load malware or malicious libraries\nthrough malicious URLs.\n\nHow to respond\n\nTo respond to this finding, do the following:\n\nStep 1: Review finding details\n\n1. Open a `Malicious URL Observed` finding as directed in\n [Reviewing findings](/security-command-center/docs/how-to-investigate-threats#reviewing_findings). The details panel for the\n finding opens to the **Summary** tab.\n\n2. On the **Summary** tab, review the information in the following sections:\n\n - **What was detected** , especially the following fields:\n - **URI**: the malicious URI observed.\n - **Added binary**: the full path of the process binary that received the arguments that contain the malicious URL.\n - **Arguments**: the arguments provided when invoking the process binary.\n - **Environment variables**: the environment variables that were in effect when the process binary was invoked.\n - **Containers**: the name of the container.\n - **Kubernetes pods**: the pod name and namespace.\n - **Affected resource** , especially the following fields:\n - **Resource display name**: the name of the affected resource.\n - **Resource full name** : the [full resource name](/apis/design/resource_names) of the cluster. The full resource name includes the following information:\n - The project that contains the cluster: `projects/`\u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003ePROJECT_ID\u003c/var\u003e\n - The location in which the cluster is located: either `zone/`\u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eZONE\u003c/var\u003e or `locations/`\u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eLOCATION\u003c/var\u003e\n - The name of the cluster: `projects/`\u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eCLUSTER_NAME\u003c/var\u003e\n - **Related links** , especially the following fields:\n - **VirusTotal indicator**: link to the VirusTotal analysis page.\n3. On the **JSON** tab, in the `sourceProperties` attribute,\n note the value of the `VM_Instance_Name` property.\n\nStep 2: Review cluster and node\n\n1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the **Kubernetes clusters** page.\n\n [Go to Kubernetes clusters](https://console.cloud.google.com/kubernetes/list)\n2. On the Google Cloud console toolbar, select the project that appears in\n **Resource full name** (`resource.name`), if necessary. The project\n name appears after `/projects/` in the full resource name.\n\n3. Click on the cluster name that you noted in **Resource display name**\n (`resource.display_name`) of the finding summary. The **Clusters**\n page opens.\n\n4. In the **Metadata section** on the \\*\\*Cluster details page, note any\n of the user-defined information that might be helpful in resolving the\n threat, such as information that identifies the cluster owner.\n\n5. Click the Nodes tab.\n\n6. From the listed nodes, select the node that\n matches the value of `VM_Instance_Name` that you noted in the finding\n JSON earlier.\n\n7. On the **Details** tab of the **Node details** page, in the\n **Annotations** section, note the value of the\n `container.googleapis.com/instance_id` annotation.\n\nStep 3: Review Pod\n\n1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the **Kubernetes Workloads** page.\n\n [Go to Kubernetes Workloads](https://console.cloud.google.com/kubernetes/workload)\n2. On the Google Cloud console toolbar, select the project that you noted\n in the **Resource full name** (`resource.name`) of the cluster in the\n finding summary, if necessary.\n\n3. Click **Show system workloads**.\n\n4. Filter the list of workloads by the cluster name that you noted in\n **Resource full name** (`resource.name`)of the finding summary and, if\n necessary, the pod **Namespace** (`kubernetes.pods.ns`) that you noted.\n\n5. Click on the workload name that matches the value of the `VM_Instance_Name`\n property that you noted in the finding JSON earlier. The **Pod details**\n page opens.\n\n6. On the **Pod details** page, note any information about the Pod that\n might help you resolve the threat.\n\nStep 4: Check logs\n\n1. In the Google Cloud console, go to **Logs Explorer**.\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n [Go to Logs Explorer](https://console.cloud.google.com/logs/query)\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n2. On the Google Cloud console toolbar, select the project that appears in\n **Resource full name** (`resource.name`), if necessary.\n\n3. Set **Select time range** to the period of interest.\n\n4. On the page that loads, do the following:\n\n 1. Find Pod logs for your pod (`kubernetes.pods.name`) by using the following filter:\n - `resource.type=\"k8s_container\"`\n - `resource.labels.project_id=\"`\u003cvar class=\"edit\" translate=\"no\"\u003ePROJECT_ID\u003c/var\u003e`\"`\n - `resource.labels.location=\"`\u003cvar class=\"edit\" translate=\"no\"\u003eLOCATION\u003c/var\u003e`\"`\n - `resource.labels.cluster_name=\"`\u003cvar class=\"edit\" translate=\"no\"\u003eCLUSTER_NAME\u003c/var\u003e`\"`\n - `resource.labels.namespace_name=\"`\u003cvar class=\"edit\" translate=\"no\"\u003eNAMESPACE_NAME\u003c/var\u003e`\"`\n - `resource.labels.pod_name=\"`\u003cvar class=\"edit\" translate=\"no\"\u003ePOD_NAME\u003c/var\u003e`\"`\n 2. Find cluster audit logs by using the following filter:\n - `logName=\"projects/`\u003cvar class=\"edit\" translate=\"no\"\u003ePROJECT_NAME\u003c/var\u003e`/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity\"`\n - `resource.type=\"k8s_cluster\"`\n - `resource.labels.project_id=\"`\u003cvar class=\"edit\" translate=\"no\"\u003ePROJECT_ID\u003c/var\u003e`\"`\n - `resource.labels.location=\"`\u003cvar class=\"edit\" translate=\"no\"\u003eLOCATION_OR_ZONE\u003c/var\u003e`\"`\n - `resource.labels.cluster_name=\"`\u003cvar class=\"edit\" translate=\"no\"\u003eCLUSTER_NAME/var>\"\u003c/var\u003e\n - \u003cvar class=\"edit\" translate=\"no\"\u003ePOD_NAME\u003c/var\u003e\n 3. Find GKE node console logs by using the following filter:\n - `resource.type=\"gce_instance\"`\n - `resource.labels.instance_id=\"`\u003cvar class=\"edit\" translate=\"no\"\u003eINSTANCE_ID\u003c/var\u003e`\"`\n\nStep 5: Investigate the running container\n\nIf the container is still running, it might be possible to investigate the\ncontainer environment directly.\n\n1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the **Kubernetes clusters** page.\n\n [Go to Kubernetes clusters](https://console.cloud.google.com/kubernetes/list)\n2. Click the name of the cluster shown in `resource.labels.cluster_name`.\n\n3. On the **Clusters** page, click **Connect** , and then click **Run in\n Cloud Shell**.\n\n Cloud Shell launches and adds commands for the cluster in the\n terminal.\n4. Press enter and, if the **Authorize Cloud Shell** dialog appears,\n click **Authorize**.\n\n5. Connect to the container environment by running the following command:\n\n kubectl exec --namespace=\u003cvar class=\"edit\" translate=\"no\"\u003ePOD_NAMESPACE\u003c/var\u003e -ti \u003cvar class=\"edit\" translate=\"no\"\u003ePOD_NAME\u003c/var\u003e -c \u003cvar class=\"edit\" translate=\"no\"\u003eCONTAINER_NAME\u003c/var\u003e -- /bin/sh\n\n Replace \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eCONTAINER_NAME\u003c/var\u003e with the name of the container\n that you noted in the finding summary earlier.\n\n This command requires the container to have a shell installed at `/bin/sh`.\n\nStep 6: Research attack and response methods\n\n1. Check [Safe Browsing site status](https://transparencyreport.google.com/safe-browsing/search) to get details on why the URL is classified as malicious.\n2. Review MITRE ATT\\&CK framework entries for this finding type: [Ingress Tool Transfer](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1105/).\n3. Check the SHA-256 hash value for the binary flagged as malicious on [VirusTotal](https://www.virustotal.com) by clicking the link in **VirusTotal indicator**. VirusTotal is an Alphabet-owned service that provides context on potentially malicious files, URLs, domains, and IP addresses.\n4. To develop a response plan, combine your investigation results with the MITRE research and VirusTotal analysis.\n\nStep 7: Implement your response\n\n\nThe following response plan might be appropriate for this finding, but might also impact operations.\nCarefully evaluate the information you gather in your investigation to determine the best way to\nresolve findings.\n\n- Contact the owner of the project with the compromised container.\n- Stop or [delete](/container-registry/docs/managing#deleting_images) the compromised container and replace it with a [new container](/compute/docs/containers).\n\nWhat's next\n\n- Learn [how to work with threat\n findings in Security Command Center](/security-command-center/docs/how-to-investigate-threats).\n- Refer to the [Threat findings index](/security-command-center/docs/threat-findings-index).\n- Learn how to [review a\n finding](/security-command-center/docs/how-to-investigate-threats#reviewing_findings) through the Google Cloud console.\n- Learn about the [services that\n generate threat findings](/security-command-center/docs/concepts-security-sources#threats)."]]