Automated creation of lightweight behavioral indicators of compromise (IOCS)

An apparatus, comprising:

• one or more network interfaces to communicate with a network;
• a processor coupled to the network interfaces and configured to execute one or more processes;
• and
• a memory configured to store a process executable by the processor, the process when executed configured to:
• receive execution records regarding executions of a plurality of binaries from one or more monitoring agents that capture the execution records, the one or more monitoring agents being executed by one or more clients at which the binaries are executed, wherein the execution records comprise command line arguments used during the executions of the plurality of binaries;
• determine measures of similarity between the executions of the binaries based on their command line arguments used by the plurality of binaries during execution;
• cluster the executions into clusters based on the determined measures of similarity;
• and
• flag the command line arguments for a particular one of the clusters as an indicator of compromise for malware, based on at least one of the binaries associated with the particular cluster being malware that uses the same command line arguments as at least a portion of the flagged command line arguments.

A tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable medium storing program instructions that cause a device to execute a process comprising:

• receiving, by the device, execution records regarding executions of a plurality of binaries from one or more monitoring agents that capture the execution records, the one or more monitoring agents being executed by one or more clients at which the binaries are executed, wherein the execution records comprise command line arguments used during the executions of the plurality of binaries;
• determining, by the device, measures of similarity between the executions of the binaries based on their command line arguments;
• clustering, by the device, the executions into clusters based on the determined measures of similarity;
• and
• flagging, by the device, the command line arguments for a particular one of the clusters as an indicator of compromise for malware, based on at least one of the binaries associated with the particular cluster being malware that uses the same command line arguments as at least a portion of the flagged command line arguments.