CKS Monitoring, Logging and Runtime Security Practice Question
In a Falco rule, you have the condition: 'evt.type=execve and proc.name=bash and container.id!=host'. What does this rule detect?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
A bash shell being spawned inside a container
The rule triggers when a bash shell is executed (execve) inside any container (container.id != host). It does not check for interactive use; it simply detects bash execution.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
A non-root bash process on the host
Why it's wrong here
The `container.id!=host` filter excludes host-level activity, so this rule never fires for host bash processes; it matches only bash execve calls inside containers. The option is tempting because Falco can monitor host processes, and dropping the container filter would indeed detect host bash execution — but that is a different rule.
- ✓
A bash shell being spawned inside a container
Why this is correct
The condition matches execve system calls where the executed process is bash and the container ID is not the host, so it fires on shells spawned inside containers. This detects interactive or scripted bash execution within containerised workloads, not host-level bash.
- ✗
An interactive shell session inside a container
Why it's wrong here
The rule fires on any execve of bash within a container, including non-interactive invocations such as scripts or cron jobs; interactivity is not evaluated. Detecting interactive sessions requires terminal-related fields, for example proc.tty or isatty, which the condition omits.
- ✗
A bash process reading /etc/shadow
Why it's wrong here
The rule does not include any file access conditions; it only checks for execve of bash.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CKS practice question is part of Courseiva's free CNCF certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CKS exam.