Suspicious Execution via macOS Script Editor — Sigma Rule

Rule metadata and linked tags

Author: Tim Rauch (rule), Elastic (idea). Source status: test; severity: medium. Source dates: 2022-10-21 / 2022-12-28.

{
  "category": "process_creation",
  "product": "macos"
}

Pinned original Sigma rule · Detection Rule License 1.1

Source SHA-256: 0cf77b055a8a63cda09f474f01515ff8c1803e00f2b4eadeeb53988144be3402

Detection logic

Original source YAML. Source-tag agreement is not proof of complete semantic coverage. This rule has not been compiled for a SIEM backend or validated against live telemetry here.

title: Suspicious Execution via macOS Script Editor
id: 6e4dcdd1-e48b-42f7-b2d8-3b413fc58cb4
status: test
description: Detects when the macOS Script Editor utility spawns an unusual child process.
author: Tim Rauch (rule), Elastic (idea)
references:
    - https://github.com/elastic/protections-artifacts/commit/746086721fd385d9f5c6647cada1788db4aea95f#diff-7f541fbc4a4a28a92970e8bf53effea5bd934604429112c920affb457f5b2685
    - https://wojciechregula.blog/post/macos-red-teaming-initial-access-via-applescript-url/
date: 2022-10-21
modified: 2022-12-28
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: macos
tags:
    - attack.defense-impairment
    - attack.t1566
    - attack.t1566.002
    - attack.initial-access
    - attack.t1059
    - attack.t1059.002
    - attack.t1204
    - attack.t1204.001
    - attack.execution
    - attack.persistence
    - attack.t1553
detection:
    selection_parent:
        ParentImage|endswith: '/Script Editor'
    selection_img:
        - Image|endswith:
              - '/curl'
              - '/bash'
              - '/sh'
              - '/zsh'
              - '/dash'
              - '/fish'
              - '/osascript'
              - '/mktemp'
              - '/chmod'
              - '/php'
              - '/nohup'
              - '/openssl'
              - '/plutil'
              - '/PlistBuddy'
              - '/xattr'
              - '/sqlite'
              - '/funzip'
              - '/popen'
        - Image|contains:
              - 'python'
              - 'perl'
    condition: all of selection_*
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: medium

Original YAML and metadata in JSON

False positives

• Unknown

Source references

• https://github.com/elastic/protections-artifacts/commit/746086721fd385d9f5c6647cada1788db4aea95f#diff-7f541fbc4a4a28a92970e8bf53effea5bd934604429112c920affb457f5b2685
• https://wojciechregula.blog/post/macos-red-teaming-initial-access-via-applescript-url/