osquery Forensics & Incident Response

osquery Forensics & Incident Response

Overview

osquery transforms operating systems into queryable relational databases, enabling security analysts to investigate compromises using SQL rather than traditional CLI tools. This skill provides forensic investigation workflows, common detection queries, and incident response patterns for rapid evidence collection across Linux, macOS, and Windows endpoints.

Core capabilities:

• SQL-based system interrogation for process, network, file, and user analysis
• Cross-platform forensic artifact collection (Linux, macOS, Windows)
• Live system analysis without deploying heavyweight forensic tools
• Threat hunting queries mapped to MITRE ATT&CK techniques
• Scheduled monitoring with osqueryd for continuous detection
• Integration with SIEM and incident response platforms

Quick Start

Interactive Investigation (osqueryi)

# Launch interactive shell
osqueryi

# Check running processes
SELECT pid, name, path, cmdline, uid FROM processes WHERE name LIKE '%suspicious%';

# Identify listening network services
SELECT DISTINCT processes.name, listening_ports.port, listening_ports.address, processes.pid, processes.path
FROM listening_ports
JOIN processes USING (pid)
WHERE listening_ports.address != '127.0.0.1';

# Find processes with deleted executables (potential malware)
SELECT name, path, pid, cmdline FROM processes WHERE on_disk = 0;

# Check persistence mechanisms (Linux/macOS cron jobs)
SELECT command, path FROM crontab;

One-Liner Forensic Queries