ESXi External Root Login Activity
Last updated 2 days ago on 2026-07-17
About
This detection identifies instances where the ESXi UI is accessed using the root account instead of a delegated administrative user. Direct root access to the UI bypasses role-based access controls and auditing practices, and may indicate risky behavior, misconfiguration, or unauthorized activity by a malicious actor using compromised credentials.
- Platform
Splunk
- Tags
- Data Source: SplunkDomain: ApplicationRule Type: QueryOS: Any
- Severity
- medium
- Risk Score
- 47
- False Positives
- Limited false positives in most environments, however tune as needed. Administrators may use the root account for troubleshooting or initial user creation.
- Source
- View on GitHub(external, opens in a new tab or window)
Definition
- Rule Language
- SPL
- Rule Type
- query
text code block:`esxi_syslog` Message="*root*" AND Message="*logged in*" | rex field=_raw "root@(?<SrcIpAddr>\d{1,3}(?:\.\d{1,3}){3})" | rex field=_raw "Z (?<dest>[\w\.]+)\s" | search SrcIpAddr != "127.0.0.1" AND SrcIpAddr != 192.168.0.0/16 AND SrcIpAddr != 172.16.0.0/12 AND SrcIpAddr != 10.0.0.0/8 | stats min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime count by dest SrcIpAddr | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` | `esxi_external_root_login_activity_filter`
View this rule on Splunk
This rule was sourced from the official Splunk public repository. View the original rule on GitHub(external, opens in a new tab or window).