strange arguments in some EXEC audit events

Hello, I'd like to ask about one thing regarding audit I don't understand: We are running auditd configured to log some syscalls (ie exec) and everything works fine, but quite often we're getting some strange records: type=SYSCALL msg=audit(1236001721.608:55239): arch=c000003e syscall=59 success=yes exit=0 a0=7f1407a74653 a1=7fff1088d710 a2=12cf580 a3=7f1408884770 items=2 ppid=20278 pid=23246 auid=0 uid=0 gid=0 euid=0 suid=0 fsuid=0 egid=0 sgid=0 fsgid=0 tty=pts4 ses=25 comm="sh" exe="/bin/bash" subj=kernel key=(null) type=EXECVE msg=audit(1236001721.608:55239): argc=3 a0="sh" a1="-c" a2=66696C65202D4C202F7661722F6C6F672F61756469742F61756469742E6C6F6720323E2F6465762F6E756C6C type=CWD msg=audit(1236001721.608:55239): cwd="/var/log/audit" type=PATH msg=audit(1236001721.608:55239): item=0 name="/bin/sh" inode=97403 dev=08:01 mode=0100755 ouid=0 ogid=0 rdev=00:00 obj=unlabeled type=PATH msg=audit(1236001721.608:55239): item=1 name=(null) inode=63681 dev=08:01 mode=0100755 ouid=0 ogid=0 rdev=00:00 obj=unlabeled type=SYSCALL msg=audit(1236001721.609:55240): arch=c000003e syscall=59 success=yes exit=0 a0=11ee410 a1=11ee9d0 a2=11ed260 a3=0 items=2 ppid=23246 pid=23247 auid=0 uid=0 gid=0 euid=0 suid=0 fsuid=0 egid=0 sgid=0 fsgid=0 tty=pts4 ses=25 comm="file" exe="/usr/bin/file" subj=kernel key=(null) I'm not sure what "66696C65202D4C202F7661722F6C6F672F61756469742F61756469742E6C6F6720323E2F6465762F6E756C6C" argument might be, is it somehow encoded string? It seems to remain unchanged across multiple events... Could somebody shed some light on it for me? Thanks a lot in advance! BR nik -- ------------------------------------- Nikola CIPRICH LinuxBox.cz, s.r.o. 28. rijna 168, 709 01 Ostrava tel.: +420 596 603 142 fax: +420 596 621 273 mobil: +420 777 093 799 www.linuxbox.cz mobil servis: +420 737 238 656 email servis: servis(a)linuxbox.cz -------------------------------------