Launch Agent Creation or Modification and Immediate Loading

An adversary can establish persistence by installing a new launch agent that executes at login by using launchd or launchctl to load a plist into the appropriate directories.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

auditbeat-*
logs-endpoint.events.*

Severity: low

Risk score: 21

Runs every: 5m

Searches indices from: now-9m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References:

https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/BPSystemStartup/Chapters/CreatingLaunchdJobs.html

Tags:

Elastic
Host
macOS
Threat Detection
Persistence

Version: 101

Rule authors:

Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Rule query

edit

sequence by host.id with maxspan=1m
 [file where event.type != "deletion" and
  file.path : ("/System/Library/LaunchAgents/*", "/Library/LaunchAgents/*", "/Users/*/Library/LaunchAgents/*")
 ]
 [process where event.type in ("start", "process_started") and process.name == "launchctl" and process.args == "load"]

Framework: MITRE ATT&CK^TM

Tactic:
- Name: Persistence
- ID: TA0003
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0003/
Technique:
- Name: Create or Modify System Process
- ID: T1543
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1543/
Sub-technique:
- Name: Launch Agent
- ID: T1543.001
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1543/001/

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