Firmware Modification — Detection Telemetry

Collection and providers

Collect approved OEM firmware inventory/update audit and compare version or measured hashes against a known baseline. Use read-only vendor-supported interfaces.

• osquery: Scheduled host-state queries; supported tables and privileges vary by OS. Select a table that actually exposes the required object.
• Linux Audit plus inventory snapshots: Events explain changes; snapshots describe state at collection time.

Configuration

• Define the inventory query, allowed host set, interval and least-privileged reader. Store a stable asset ID, observation time and collector version.
• Keep successive snapshots and calculate additions, removals and changed attributes. Pair state changes with audit events when available.
• Export collector health and missed-poll counts so a missing snapshot is not misclassified as a missing asset.

Synthetic event example

Project-normalized synthetic JSON, not a native provider log, captured event, attack verdict or validated detection. A parser/adapter is required for a real SIEM. Example names, IPs and values are fictional.

{
  "schema": "1200km.telemetry.example.v1",
  "synthetic": true,
  "timestamp": "2026-09-27T12:00:00Z",
  "telemetry_id": "DC0004",
  "collector": "illustrative-lab-collector",
  "observation": {
    "asset_id": "lab-device-1",
    "firmware_before": "1.0-lab",
    "firmware_after": "1.1-lab",
    "change_ticket": "LAB-42"
  }
}

Visibility and validation

Snapshots miss short-lived objects and do not identify who caused a change. A generic inventory agent is not guaranteed to expose firmware or kernel-level details.

• Record the lab scope, collector version, effective configuration and expected source fields before testing.
• Use an approved benign action or read-only snapshot appropriate to this type. For destructive, privileged or physical effects, use a reviewed fixture or existing authorized evidence instead of causing the effect.
• Verify the native source record locally and at the collector; compare timestamps, identity, object, action/result and the type-specific fields listed below. Save a redacted real capture separately from the synthetic example.
• Check a normal baseline and collector-loss case. Fixture parsing proves parser behavior only; it does not prove sensor coverage or malicious-behavior detection.

Primary sources

• osquery scheduled configuration
• Linux Audit rule configuration