Suspicious Automator Workflows Execution

Identifies the execution of the Automator Workflows process followed by a network connection from it’s XPC service. Adversaries may drop a custom workflow template that hosts malicious JavaScript for Automation (JXA) code as an alternative to using osascript.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

auditbeat-*
logs-endpoint.events.*

Severity: medium

Risk score: 47

Runs every: 5m

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

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References:

https://posts.specterops.io/persistent-jxa-66e1c3cd1cf5

Tags:

Elastic
Host
macOS
Threat Detection
Execution

Version: 101

Rule authors:

Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Rule query

edit

sequence by host.id with maxspan=30s
 [process where event.type in ("start", "process_started") and process.name == "automator"]
 [network where process.name:"com.apple.automator.runner"]

Framework: MITRE ATT&CK^TM

Tactic:
- Name: Execution
- ID: TA0002
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0002/
Technique:
- Name: Command and Scripting Interpreter
- ID: T1059
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1059/

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