Identifies when a user has queried for deprecated Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) in AWS. This may indicate an adversary looking for outdated AMIs that may be vulnerable to exploitation. While deprecated AMIs are not inherently malicious or indicative of a breach, they may be more susceptible to vulnerabilities and should be investigated for potential security risks.

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Identifies PowerShell scripts with a disproportionately high number of numeric characters, often indicating the presence of obfuscated or encoded payloads. This behavior is typical of obfuscation methods involving byte arrays, character code manipulation, or embedded encoded strings used to deliver and execute malicious content.

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Identifies PowerShell scripts that use invalid escape sequences as a form of obfuscation. This technique introduces backticks (`) between characters in a way that does not correspond to valid PowerShell escape sequences, breaking up strings and bypassing pattern-based detections while preserving execution logic. This is designed to evade static analysis and bypass security protections such as the Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI).

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Identifies PowerShell scripts with an unusually high proportion of whitespace and special characters, often indicative of obfuscation. This behavior is commonly associated with techniques such as SecureString encoding, formatting obfuscation, or character-level manipulation designed to bypass static analysis and AMSI inspection.

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Identifies PowerShell scripts that use string concatenation as a form of obfuscation. These methods are designed to evade static analysis and bypass security protections such as the Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI).

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Identifies PowerShell scripts that use string reordering and runtime reconstruction techniques as a form of obfuscation. These methods are designed to evade static analysis and bypass security protections such as the Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI).

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The kubeconfig file is a critical component in Kubernetes environments, containing configuration details for accessing and managing Kubernetes clusters. Attackers may attempt to get access to, create or modify kubeconfig files to gain unauthorized initial access to Kubernetes clusters or move laterally within the cluster.

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The kubeconfig file is a critical component in Kubernetes environments, containing configuration details for accessing and managing Kubernetes clusters. Attackers may attempt to get access to, create, or modify kubeconfig files to gain unauthorized initial access to Kubernetes clusters or move laterally within the cluster. This rule detects process discovery executions that involve kubeconfig files, particularly those executed from common shell environments or world-writeable directories.

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This rule detects when a container management binary is run from inside a container. These binaries are critical components of many containerized environments, and their presence and execution in unauthorized containers could indicate compromise or a misconfiguration.

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This rule detects the use of the "kubectl auth --can-i" command, which is used to check permissions in Kubernetes clusters. Attackers may use this command to enumerate permissions and discover potential misconfigurations in the cluster, allowing them to gain unauthorized access or escalate privileges.

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Identifies potential relay attacks against a machine account by identifying network share access events coming from a remote source.ip but using the target server computer account. This may indicate a successful SMB relay attack.

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Identifies modifications in registry keys associated with abuse of the Outlook Home Page functionality for command and control or persistence.

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Identifies .url shortcut files downloaded from outside the local network. These shortcut files are commonly used in phishing campaigns.

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Identifies a suspicious Diagnostics Utility for Internet Explorer child process. This may indicate the successful exploitation of the vulnerability CVE-2025-33053.

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Identifies potential brute-force attempts against Microsoft 365 user accounts by detecting a high number of failed interactive or non-interactive login attempts within a 30-minute window from a single source. Attackers may attempt to brute force user accounts to gain unauthorized access to Microsoft 365 services via different services such as Exchange, SharePoint, or Teams.

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Identifies a high count of failed Microsoft Entra ID sign-in attempts as the result of the target user account being locked out. Adversaries may attempt to brute-force user accounts by repeatedly trying to authenticate with incorrect credentials, leading to account lockouts by Entra ID Smart Lockout policies.

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Identifies Windows programs run from unexpected parent processes. This could indicate masquerading or other strange activity on a system.

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This rule detects the creation of Loadable Kernel Module (LKM) configuration files. Attackers may create or modify these files to allow their LKMs to be loaded upon reboot, ensuring persistence on a compromised system.

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Identifies the removal of access permissions from a shared AWS EC2 EBS snapshot. EBS snapshots are essential for data retention and disaster recovery. Adversaries may revoke or modify snapshot permissions to prevent legitimate users from accessing backups, thereby obstructing recovery efforts after data loss or destructive actions. This tactic can also be used to evade detection or maintain exclusive access to critical backups, ultimately increasing the impact of an attack and complicating incident response.

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Identifies AWS EC2 EBS snaphots being shared with another AWS account or made public. EBS virtual disks can be copied into snapshots, which can then be shared with an external AWS account or made public. Adversaries may attempt this in order to copy the snapshot into an environment they control, to access the data.

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Identifies potential enumeration activity using AzureHound, SharpHound, or BloodHound across Microsoft cloud services. These tools are often used by red teamers and adversaries to map users, groups, roles, applications, and access relationships within Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) and Microsoft 365.

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Detects known PowerShell offensive tooling functions names in PowerShell scripts. Attackers commonly use out-of-the-box offensive tools without modifying the code. This rule aim is to take advantage of that.

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Identifies user risk detection events via Microsofts Entra ID Protection service. Entra ID Protection detects user risk activity such as anonymized IP addresses, unlikely travel, password spray, and more.

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Identifies sign-in risk detection events via Microsofts Entra ID Protection service. Entra ID Protection detects sign-in activity such as anonymized IP addresses, unlikely travel, password spray, and more.

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This rule monitors the creation/alteration of a shell configuration file. Unix systems use shell configuration files to set environment variables, create aliases, and customize the user's environment. Adversaries may modify or add a shell configuration file to execute malicious code and gain persistence in the system. This behavior is consistent with the Kaiji malware family.

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Identifies when a user creates a new inbox rule in Microsoft 365 that deletes or moves emails containing suspicious keywords. Adversaries who have compromised accounts often create inbox rules to hide alerts, security notifications, or other sensitive messages by automatically deleting them or moving them to obscure folders. Common destinations include Deleted Items, Junk Email, RSS Feeds, and RSS Subscriptions. This is a New Terms rule that triggers only when the user principal name and associated source IP address have not been observed performing this activity in the past 14 days.

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LSA protecton is provided to prevent nonprotected processes from reading memory and injecting code. This feature provides added security for the credentials that LSA stores and manages. Adversaries may modify the RunAsPPL registry and wait or initiate a system restart to enable Lsass credentials access.

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Identifies potential brute-force attacks targeting Microsoft 365 user accounts by analyzing failed sign-in patterns in Microsoft Entra ID Sign-In Logs. This detection focuses on a high volume of failed interactive or non-interactive authentication attempts within a short time window, often indicative of password spraying, credential stuffing, or password guessing. Adversaries may use these techniques to gain unauthorized access to Microsoft 365 services such as Exchange Online, SharePoint, or Teams.

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Identifies brute-force authentication activity targeting Microsoft 365 user accounts using failed sign-in patterns that match password spraying, credential stuffing, or password guessing behavior. Adversaries may attempt brute-force authentication with credentials obtained from previous breaches, leaks, marketplaces or guessable passwords.

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Detects modifications in the msDS-ManagedAccountPrecededByLink attribute of a delegated managed service account by an unusual subject account. Attackers can abuse this attribute to take over the permission of a target account and inherit it's permissions allowing them to further elevate privileges.

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Detects the creation of a delegated Managed Service Account by an unusual subject account. Attackers can abuse the dMSA account migration feature to elevate privileges abusing weak persmission allowing users child objects rights or msDS-DelegatedManagedServiceAccount rights.

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Identifies remote execution via Windows PowerShell remoting. Windows PowerShell remoting allows a user to run any Windows PowerShell command on one or more remote computers. This could be an indication of lateral movement.

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Identifies remote execution via Windows Remote Management (WinRM) remote shell on a target host. This could be an indication of lateral movement.

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Identifies suspicious command execution (cmd) via Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) on a remote host. This could be indicative of adversary lateral movement.

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Identifies processes executed via Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) on a remote host. This could be indicative of adversary lateral movement, but could be noisy if administrators use WMI to remotely manage hosts.

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Identifies when the SYSTEM account uses an account discovery utility. This could be a sign of discovery activity after an adversary has achieved privilege escalation.

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Detects a burst of Microsoft 365 user account lockouts within a short 5-minute window. A high number of IdsLocked login errors across multiple user accounts may indicate brute-force attempts for the same users resulting in lockouts.

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Identifies run key or startup key registry modifications. In order to survive reboots and other system interrupts, attackers will modify run keys within the registry or leverage startup folder items as a form of persistence.

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Identifies first-time modifications to scheduled tasks by user accounts, excluding system activity and machine accounts.

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This rule correlate Azure or Office 356 mail successful sign-in events with network security alerts by source.ip. Adversaries may trigger some network security alerts such as reputation or other anomalies before accessing cloud resources.

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Detects use of wbadmin.exe to delete backup catalogs, system state backups, or other backup data. Ransomware and other malware may do this to prevent system recovery.

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Identifies access to email resources via Microsoft Graph API using an first-party application on behalf of a user principal. This behavior may indicate an adversary using a phished OAuth refresh token or a Primary Refresh Token (PRT) to access email resources. The pattern includes requests to Microsoft Graph API endpoints related to email, such as /me/mailFolders/inbox/messages or /users/{user_id}/messages, using a public client application ID and a user principal object ID. This is a New Terms rule that only signals if the application ID and user principal object ID have not been seen doing this activity in the last 14 days.

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Identifies potential session hijacking or token replay in Microsoft Entra ID. This rule detects cases where a user signs in and subsequently accesses Microsoft Graph from a different IP address using the same session ID within a short time window. This may indicate the use of a stolen refresh/access token or session cookie to impersonate the user and interact with Microsoft services.

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Identifies suspicious creation of Alternate Data Streams on highly targeted files. This is uncommon for legitimate files and sometimes done by adversaries to hide malware.

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This rule detects the execution of unusual commands via a descendant process of exim4. Attackers may use descendant processes of exim4 to evade detection and establish persistence or execute post-exploitation commands on a target system.

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This rule detects suspicious child process from the kernel thread (kthreadd) parent process. Attackers may execute payloads from kernel space via kthreadd to perform actions on the host and evade detection. Through the usage of the new_terms rule type, this rule can identify uncommon child processes that may indicate the presence of a malicious process.

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This rule detects when a process executes the curl or wget command with an argument that includes the api.telegram.org domain. This may indicate command and control behavior.

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This rule detects the use of the default Cobalt Strike Team Server TLS certificate. Cobalt Strike is software for Adversary Simulations and Red Team Operations which are security assessments that replicate the tactics and techniques of an advanced adversary in a network. Modifications to the Packetbeat configuration can be made to include MD5 and SHA256 hashing algorithms (the default is SHA1). See the References section for additional information on module configuration.

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This rule detects the use of the LD_PRELOAD and LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variables in a command line argument. This behavior is unusual and may indicate an attempt to hijack the execution flow of a process. Threat actors may use this technique to evade defenses, escalate privileges, or maintain persistence on a system.

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Identifies PowerShell scripts that reconstruct the IEX (Invoke-Expression) command at runtime using indexed slices of environment variables. This technique leverages character access and join operations to build execution logic dynamically, bypassing static keyword detection and evading defenses such as AMSI.

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Identifies PowerShell scripts that use backtick-escaped characters inside ${} variable expansion as a form of obfuscation. These methods are designed to evade static analysis and bypass security protections such as the Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI).

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Identifies PowerShell scripts that use concatenated strings within dynamic command invocation (&() or .()) as a form of obfuscation. These methods are designed to evade static analysis and bypass security protections such as the Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI).

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Identifies PowerShell scripts that use negative index ranges to reverse the contents of a string or array at runtime as a form of obfuscation. This technique avoids direct use of reversal functions by iterating through array elements in reverse order. These methods are designed to evade static analysis and bypass security protections such as the Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI).

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Identifies PowerShell scripts that use reversed strings as a form of obfuscation. These methods are designed to evade static analysis and bypass security protections such as the Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI).

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Identifies PowerShell scripts that use character arrays and runtime string reconstruction as a form of obfuscation. This technique breaks strings into individual characters, often using constructs like char[] with index-based access or joining logic. These methods are designed to evade static analysis and bypass security protections such as the Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI).

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This rule detects the creation of a symbolic link from a system binary to a suspicious and writable location. This activity may indicate an attacker's attempt to evade detection by behavioral rules that depend on predefined process parent/child relationships. By executing the symlinked variant of a binary instead of the original, the attacker aims to bypass these rules. Through the new_terms rule type, this rule can identify uncommon parent processes that may indicate the presence of a malicious symlink.

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This rule detects the creation of unusually labeled named pipes (FIFOs) by the mkfifo command, which is often used by attackers to establish persistence on a target system or to execute commands in the background. Through the new_terms rule type, this rule can identify uncommon process command lines that may indicate the presence of a malicious named pipe.

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This rule detects the modification and reading of kernel features through built-in commands. Attackers may collect information, disable or weaken Linux kernel protections. For example, an attacker may modify ASLR protection by disabling kernel.randomize_va_space, allow ptrace by setting kernel.yama.ptrace_scope to 0, or disable the NMI watchdog by setting kernel.nmi_watchdog to 0. These changes may be used to impair defenses and evade detection.

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Detects the use of curl to upload an archived file to an internet server. Threat actors often will collect data on a system and compress it in an archive file before exfiltrating the file back to their C2 server for review. Many threat actors have been seen utilizing curl to upload this archive file with the collected data to do this. Use of curl in this way while not inherently malicious should be considered highly abnormal and suspicious activity.

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This rule detects when a process executes a command line containing hexadecimal characters. Malware authors may use hexadecimal encoding to obfuscate their payload and evade detection.

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This rule detects potential hex payload execution on Linux systems. Adversaries may use hex encoding to obfuscate payloads and evade detection mechanisms.

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This rule detects SSH session ID change followed by a suspicious SSHD child process, this may indicate the successful execution of a potentially malicious process through the Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) utility. PAM is a framework used by Linux systems to authenticate users. Adversaries may create malicious PAM modules that grant them persistence onto the target every time a user logs in by executing a backdoor script or command.

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Identifies Windows sanfbox processes indicating the start of a new container with sensitive configurations like write access to the host file system, network connection and automatic execution via logon command. Malware may abuse the sandbox feature to evade detection.

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Identifies rare connection attempts to a Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) resource. Attackers may inject WebDAV paths in files or features opened by a victim user to leak their NTLM credentials via forced authentication.

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This rule detects the use of git to clone a repository or download files from GitHub using wget or curl, followed by the creation of files in suspicious directories such as /tmp, /var/tmp, or /dev/shm. This behavior may indicate an attempt to download a payload, exploit or tool.

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This rule detects manual mount discovery via the /etc/exports or /etc/fstab file on Linux systems. These files are used by NFS (Network File System) to define which directories are shared with remote hosts. Attackers may access this file to gather information about shared directories and potential targets for further exploitation.

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This rule detects the creation of files named release_agent or notify_on_release, which are commonly associated with the abuse of Linux cgroup release mechanisms. In Docker or containerized environments, this behavior may indicate an attempt to exploit privilege escalation vulnerabilities such as CVE-2022-0492, where attackers use the release_agent feature to execute code on the host from within a container.

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This rule monitors for manual memory dumping via the proc filesystem. The proc filesystem in Linux provides a virtual filesystem that contains information about system processes and their memory mappings. Attackers may use this technique to dump the memory of a process, potentially extracting sensitive information such as credentials or encryption keys.

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Monitors for /proc//maps file reads. The /proc//maps file in Linux provides a memory map for a specific process, detailing the memory segments, permissions, and what files are mapped to these segments. Attackers may read a process's memory map to identify memory addresses for code injection or process hijacking.

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This rule detects suspicious paths mounted on Linux systems. The mount command is used to attach filesystems to the system, and attackers may use it to mount malicious filesystems or directories for data exfiltration or persistence.

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Adversaries may implement command and control (C2) communications that use common web services to hide their activity. This attack technique is typically targeted at an organization and uses web services common to the victim network, which allows the adversary to blend into legitimate traffic activity. These popular services are typically targeted since they have most likely been used before compromise, which helps malicious traffic blend in.

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Identifies concurrent azure signin events for the same user and from multiple sources, and where one of the authentication event has some suspicious properties often associated to DeviceCode and OAuth phishing. Adversaries may steal Refresh Tokens (RTs) via phishing to bypass multi-factor authentication (MFA) and gain unauthorized access to Azure resources.

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Identifies sign-ins on behalf of a principal user to the Microsoft Graph API from multiple IPs using the Microsoft Authentication Broker or Visual Studio Code application. This behavior may indicate an adversary using a phished OAuth refresh token.

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Identifies suspicious activity from the Microsoft Authentication Broker in Microsoft Entra ID sign-in logs. This behavior may indicate an adversary using a phished OAuth refresh token or a Primary Refresh Token (PRT) to register a device and access Microsoft services as a user. The pattern includes sign-ins from multiple IPs across services (Microsoft Graph, DRS, AAD) using the Authentication Broker client on behalf of a principal user.

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Detects the execution of the VScode portable binary with the tunnel command line option indicating an attempt to establish a remote tunnel session to Github or a remote VScode instance.

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Identifies the install of browser extensions. Malicious browser extensions can be installed via app store downloads masquerading as legitimate extensions, social engineering, or by an adversary that has already compromised a system.

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Identifies process execution from suspicious default Windows directories. This may be abused by adversaries to hide malware in trusted paths.

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Adversaries may install legitimate remote access tools (RAT) to compromised endpoints for further command-and-control (C2). Adversaries can rely on installed RATs for persistence, execution of native commands and more. This rule detects when a process is started whose name or code signature resembles commonly abused RATs. This is a New Terms rule type indicating the host has not seen this RAT process started before within the last 30 days.

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An instance of MSBuild, the Microsoft Build Engine, was started after being renamed. This is uncommon behavior and may indicate an attempt to run unnoticed or undetected.

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Identifies executables with names resembling legitimate business applications but lacking signatures from the original developer. Attackers may trick users into downloading malicious executables that masquerade as legitimate applications via malicious ads, forum posts, and tutorials, effectively gaining initial access.

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Identifies suspicious instances of communications apps, both unsigned and renamed ones, that can indicate an attempt to conceal malicious activity, bypass security features such as allowlists, or trick users into executing malware.

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This rule leverages Auditd data to detect the use of the prctl syscall to potentially hide a process by changing its name. The prctl syscall is used to control various process attributes. Attackers can use this syscall to change the name of a process to a hidden directory or file, making it harder to detect. The query looks for the prctl syscall with the PR_SET_NAME argument set to f (PR_SET_NAME is used to set the name of a process).

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Identifies suspicious instances of the Windows Error Reporting process (WerFault.exe or Wermgr.exe) with matching command-line and process executable values performing outgoing network connections. This may be indicative of a masquerading attempt to evade suspicious child process behavior detections.

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Identifies process execution from suspicious default Windows directories. This is sometimes done by adversaries to hide malware in trusted paths.

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Identifies execution from a directory masquerading as the Windows Program Files directories. These paths are trusted and usually host trusted third party programs. An adversary may leverage masquerading, along with low privileges to bypass detections allowlisting those folders.

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Identifies an executable or script file remotely downloaded via a TeamViewer transfer session.

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Identifies a suspicious AutoIt process execution. Malware written as an AutoIt script tends to rename the AutoIt executable to avoid detection.

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Identifies the execution of a process with a single character process name, differing from the original file name. This is often done by adversaries while staging, executing temporary utilities, or trying to bypass security detections based on the process name.

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Identifies the creation of the Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI) DLL in an unusual location. This may indicate an attempt to bypass AMSI by loading a rogue AMSI module instead of the legit one.

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Identifies suspicious child processes of communications apps, which can indicate a potential masquerading as the communication app or the exploitation of a vulnerability on the application causing it to execute code.

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Identifies the loading of a non Microsoft signed DLL that is missing on a default Windows install (phantom DLL) or one that can be loaded from a different location by a native Windows process. This may be abused to persist or elevate privileges via privileged file write vulnerabilities.

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A suspicious Endpoint Security parent process was detected. This may indicate a process hollowing or other form of code injection.

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Identifies suspicious psexec activity which is executing from the psexec service that has been renamed, possibly to evade detection.

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Identifies instances where VMware-related files, such as those with extensions like ".vmdk", ".vmx", ".vmxf", ".vmsd", ".vmsn", ".vswp", ".vmss", ".nvram", and ".vmem", are renamed on a Linux system. The rule monitors for the "rename" event action associated with these file types, which could indicate malicious activity.

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Identifies instances where the "index.html" file within the "/usr/lib/vmware/*" directory is renamed on a Linux system. The rule monitors for the "rename" event action associated with this specific file and path, which could indicate malicious activity.

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Identifies suspicious processes being spawned by the ScreenConnect client processes. This activity may indicate execution abusing unauthorized access to the ScreenConnect remote access software.

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This rule monitors for the copying or moving of a system binary. Adversaries may copy/move and rename system binaries to evade detection. Copying a system binary to a different location should not occur often, so if it does, the activity should be investigated.

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Identifies an attempt to bypass User Account Control (UAC) by masquerading as a Microsoft trusted Windows directory. Attackers may bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.

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Identifies network activity from unexpected system applications. This may indicate adversarial activity as these applications are often leveraged by adversaries to execute code and evade detection.

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This rule detects network events that may indicate the use of VNC traffic from the Internet. VNC is commonly used by system administrators to remotely control a system for maintenance or to use shared resources. It should almost never be directly exposed to the Internet, as it is frequently targeted and exploited by threat actors as an initial access or backdoor vector.

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This rule detects network events that may indicate the use of VNC traffic to the Internet. VNC is commonly used by system administrators to remotely control a system for maintenance or to use shared resources. It should almost never be directly exposed to the Internet, as it is frequently targeted and exploited by threat actors as an initial access or backdoor vector.

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This rule detects the use of SSH options that may indicate tunneling or port forwarding on Linux systems. This behavior is commonly associated with malicious activity, such as establishing a port forward, proxy or an encrypted tunnel to exfiltrate data.

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Identifies the creation of a Windows script downloaded from the internet followed by the execution of a scripting utility. Adversaries may use Windows script files for initial access and execution.

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Identifies a user being added to a privileged group in Active Directory. Privileged accounts and groups in Active Directory are those to which powerful rights, privileges, and permissions are granted that allow them to perform nearly any action in Active Directory and on domain-joined systems.

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Identifies a user being added to an active directory group by the SYSTEM (S-1-5-18) user. This behavior can indicate that the attacker has achieved SYSTEM privileges in a domain controller, which attackers can obtain by exploiting vulnerabilities or abusing default group privileges (e.g., Server Operators), and is attempting to pivot to a domain account.

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Identifies attempts to clear Windows event log stores. This is often done by attackers in an attempt to evade detection or destroy forensic evidence on a system.

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Identifies attempts to create a Windows User Account. This is sometimes done by attackers to persist or increase access to a system or domain.

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Identifies registry modification to force the system to fall back to NTLMv1 for authentication. This modification is possible with local administrator privileges and is commonly referred to as a NetNTLMv1 downgrade attack.

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Identifies attempt to perform session hijack via COM object registry modification by setting the RunAs value to Interactive User.

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Identifies PowerShell script blocks associated with multiple distinct detections, indicating likely malicious behavior.

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Indicates the creation or modification of a launch daemon, which adversaries may use to repeatedly execute malicious payloads as part of persistence.

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Identifies an instance of a Windows trusted program that is known to be vulnerable to DLL Search Order Hijacking starting after being renamed or from a non-standard path. This is uncommon behavior and may indicate an attempt to evade defenses via side loading a malicious DLL within the memory space of one of those processes.

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Identifies PowerShell scripts that reconstruct the IEX (Invoke-Expression) command by accessing and indexing the string representation of method references. This obfuscation technique uses constructs like ''.IndexOf.ToString() to expose method metadata as a string, then extracts specific characters through indexed access and joins them to form IEX, bypassing static keyword detection and evading defenses such as AMSI.

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Detects execution via the Apple script interpreter (osascript) followed by a network connection from the same process within a short time period. Adversaries may use malicious scripts for execution and command and control.

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Identifies execution of the Apple script interpreter (osascript) without a password prompt and with administrator privileges.

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Detects attempts to disable Gatekeeper on macOS. Gatekeeper is a security feature that's designed to ensure that only trusted software is run. Adversaries may attempt to disable Gatekeeper before executing malicious code.

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Identifies attempts to enable the root account using the dsenableroot command. This command may be abused by adversaries for persistence, as the root account is disabled by default.

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Adversaries may install a root certificate on a compromised system to avoid warnings when connecting to their command and control servers. Root certificates are used in public key cryptography to identify a root certificate authority (CA). When a root certificate is installed, the system or application will trust certificates in the root's chain of trust that have been signed by the root certificate.

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Identifies the execution of macOS built-in commands to mount a Server Message Block (SMB) network share. Adversaries may use valid accounts to interact with a remote network share using SMB.

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Identifies attempts to unload the Elastic Endpoint Security kernel extension via the kextunload command.

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Authorization plugins are used to extend the authorization services API and implement mechanisms that are not natively supported by the OS, such as multi-factor authentication with third party software. Adversaries may abuse this feature to persist and/or collect clear text credentials as they traverse the registered plugins during user logon.

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Identifies the creation of a hidden launch agent or daemon. An adversary may establish persistence by installing a new launch agent or daemon which executes at login.

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Identifies the execution of osascript to create a hidden login item. This may indicate an attempt to persist a malicious program while concealing its presence.

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Identifies the execution of macOS built-in commands used to dump user account hashes. Adversaries may attempt to dump credentials to obtain account login information in the form of a hash. These hashes can be cracked or leveraged for lateral movement.

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Adversaries may dump the content of the keychain storage data from a system to acquire credentials. Keychains are the built-in way for macOS to keep track of users' passwords and credentials for many services and features, including Wi-Fi and website passwords, secure notes, certificates, and Kerberos.

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Identifies the creation or modification of the Event Monitor Daemon (emond) rules. Adversaries may abuse this service by writing a rule to execute commands when a defined event occurs, such as system start up or user authentication.

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Identifies the execution of macOS built-in commands related to account or group enumeration. Adversaries may use account and group information to orient themselves before deciding how to act.

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Identifies attempts to execute a child process from within the context of an Electron application using the child_process Node.js module. Adversaries may abuse this technique to inherit permissions from parent processes.

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Identifies execution of the security_authtrampoline process via a scripting interpreter. This occurs when programs use AuthorizationExecute-WithPrivileges from the Security.framework to run another program with root privileges. It should not be run by itself, as this is a sign of execution with explicit logon credentials.

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Finder Sync plugins enable users to extend Finder’s functionality by modifying the user interface. Adversaries may abuse this feature by adding a rogue Finder Plugin to repeatedly execute malicious payloads for persistence.

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Identifies the use of the Kerberos credential cache (kcc) utility to dump locally cached Kerberos tickets. Adversaries may attempt to dump credential material in the form of tickets that can be leveraged for lateral movement.

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Adversaries may collect the keychain storage data from a system to acquire credentials. Keychains are the built-in way for macOS to keep track of users' passwords and credentials for many services and features such as WiFi passwords, websites, secure notes and certificates.

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Adversaries may collect keychain storage data from a system to in order to acquire credentials. Keychains are the built-in way for macOS to keep track of users' passwords and credentials for many services and features, including Wi-Fi and website passwords, secure notes, certificates, and Kerberos.

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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.

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Identifies modifications to an environment variable using the built-in launchctl command. Adversaries may execute their own malicious payloads by hijacking certain environment variables to load arbitrary libraries or bypass certain restrictions.

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Identifies changes to the Safari configuration using the built-in defaults command. Adversaries may attempt to enable or disable certain Safari settings, such as enabling JavaScript from Apple Events to ease in the hijacking of the users browser.

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Identifies the creation or modification of a DirectoryService PlugIns (dsplug) file. The DirectoryService daemon launches on each system boot and automatically reloads after crash. It scans and executes bundles that are located in the DirectoryServices PlugIns folder and can be abused by adversaries to maintain persistence.

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An adversary can establish persistence by modifying an existing macOS dock property list in order to execute a malicious application instead of the intended one when invoked.

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Detects modification of a Folder Action script. A Folder Action script is executed when the folder to which it is attached has items added or removed, or when its window is opened, closed, moved, or resized. Adversaries may abuse this feature to establish persistence by utilizing a malicious script.

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Identifies attempts to add an account to the admin group via the command line. This could be an indication of privilege escalation activity.

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Identifies attempts to create a local account that will be hidden from the macOS logon window. This may indicate an attempt to evade user attention while maintaining persistence using a separate local account.

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Identifies use of Bifrost, a known macOS Kerberos pentesting tool, which can be used to dump cached Kerberos tickets or attempt unauthorized authentication techniques such as pass-the-ticket/hash and kerberoasting.

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Identifies the creation of a suspicious zip file prepended with special characters. Sandboxed Microsoft Office applications on macOS are allowed to write files that start with special characters, which can be combined with an AutoStart location to achieve sandbox evasion.

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Identifies modifications to the Atom desktop text editor Init File. Adversaries may add malicious JavaScript code to the init.coffee file that will be executed upon the Atom application opening.

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Identifies the creation or modification of the default configuration for periodic tasks. Adversaries may abuse periodic tasks to execute malicious code or maintain persistence.

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Identifies use of the Secure Copy Protocol (SCP) to copy files locally by abusing the auto addition of the Secure Shell Daemon (sshd) to the authorized application list for Full Disk Access. This may indicate attempts to bypass macOS privacy controls to access sensitive files.

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Identifies the use of sqlite3 to directly modify the Transparency, Consent, and Control (TCC) SQLite database. This may indicate an attempt to bypass macOS privacy controls, including access to sensitive resources like the system camera, microphone, address book, and calendar.

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Identifies modifications to the root crontab file. Adversaries may overwrite this file to gain code execution with root privileges by exploiting privileged file write or move related vulnerabilities.

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Identifies the use of osascript to execute scripts via standard input that may prompt a user with a rogue dialog for credentials.

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Detects deletion of the quarantine attribute by an unusual process (xattr). In macOS, when applications or programs are downloaded from the internet, there is a quarantine flag set on the file. This attribute is read by Apple's Gatekeeper defense program at execution time. An adversary may disable this attribute to evade defenses.

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Detects use of the systemsetup command to enable remote SSH Login.

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Identifies when a screensaver plist file is modified by an unexpected process. An adversary can maintain persistence on a macOS endpoint by creating a malicious screensaver (.saver) file and configuring the screensaver plist file to execute code each time the screensaver is activated.

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Identifies the execution of the shell process (sh) via scripting (JXA or AppleScript). Adversaries may use the doShellScript functionality in JXA or do shell script in AppleScript to execute system commands.

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Identifies changes to the SoftwareUpdate preferences using the built-in defaults command. Adversaries may abuse this in an attempt to disable security updates.

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Adversaries may create or modify the Sublime application plugins or scripts to execute a malicious payload each time the Sublime application is started.

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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.

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Identifies the execution of a suspicious browser child process. Adversaries may gain access to a system through a user visiting a website over the normal course of browsing. With this technique, the user's web browser is typically targeted for exploitation.

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Identifies suspicious modifications of the calendar file by an unusual process. Adversaries may create a custom calendar notification procedure to execute a malicious program at a recurring interval to establish persistence.

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Detects attempts to exploit privilege escalation vulnerabilities related to the Adobe Acrobat Reader PrivilegedHelperTool responsible for installing updates. For more information, refer to CVE-2020-9615, CVE-2020-9614 and CVE-2020-9613 and verify that the impacted system is patched.

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Identifies attempts to create or modify a crontab via a process that is not crontab (i.e python, osascript, etc.). This activity should not be highly prevalent and could indicate the use of cron as a persistence mechanism by a threat actor.

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Identifies the execution of a suspicious child process of the Event Monitor Daemon (emond). Adversaries may abuse this service by writing a rule to execute commands when a defined event occurs, such as system start up or user authentication.

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Identifies the execution of a launchd child process with a hidden file. An adversary can establish persistence by installing a new logon item, launch agent, or daemon that executes upon login.

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Detects the execution of a MacOS installer package with an abnormal child process (e.g bash) followed immediately by a network connection via a suspicious process (e.g curl). Threat actors will build and distribute malicious MacOS installer packages, which have a .pkg extension, many times imitating valid software in order to persuade and infect their victims often using the package files (e.g pre/post install scripts etc.) to download additional tools or malicious software. If this rule fires it should indicate the installation of a malicious or suspicious package.

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Identifies the access or file open of web browser sensitive files by an untrusted/unsigned process or osascript. Adversaries may acquire credentials from web browsers by reading files specific to the target browser.

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Keychains are the built-in way for macOS to keep track of users' passwords and credentials for many services and features, including Wi-Fi and website passwords, secure notes, certificates, and Kerberos. Adversaries may collect the keychain storage data from a system to acquire credentials.

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Identifies the use of the mount_apfs command to mount the entire file system through Apple File System (APFS) snapshots as read-only and with the noowners flag set. This action enables the adversary to access almost any file in the file system, including all user data and files protected by Apple’s privacy framework (TCC).

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Identifies the execution of macOS built-in commands to connect to an existing Virtual Private Network (VPN). Adversaries may use VPN connections to laterally move and control remote systems on a network.

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Identifies the use of the built-in networksetup command to configure webproxy settings. This may indicate an attempt to hijack web browser traffic for credential access via traffic sniffing or redirection.

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Identifies rare instances of authentication requirements for Azure Entra ID principal users. An adversary with stolen credentials may attempt to authenticate with unusual authentication requirements, which is a rare event and may indicate an attempt to bypass conditional access policies (CAP) and multi-factor authentication (MFA) requirements. The authentication requirements specified may not be commonly used by the user based on their historical sign-in activity.

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Detects the creation of a WMI Event Subscription. Attackers can abuse this mechanism for persistence or to elevate to SYSTEM privileges.

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This rule detects the deletion of the authorized_keys or authorized_keys2 files on Linux systems. These files are used to store public keys for SSH authentication. Unauthorized deletion of these files can be an indicator of an attacker removing access to the system, and may be a precursor to further malicious activity.

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This rule detects the use of system search utilities like grep and find to search for AWS credentials inside a container. Unauthorized access to these sensitive files could lead to further compromise of the container environment or facilitate a container breakout to the underlying cloud environment.

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This rule detects when chmod or chown are used to add the execute permission to a file inside a container. Modifying file permissions to make a file executable could indicate malicious activity, as an attacker may attempt to run unauthorized or malicious code inside the container.

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This rule detects the use of the built-in Linux DebugFS utility from inside a container. DebugFS is a special file system debugging utility which supports reading and writing directly from a hard drive device. When launched inside a privileged container, a container deployed with all the capabilities of the host machine, an attacker can access sensitive host level files which could be used for further privilege escalation and container escapes to the host machine.

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This rule detects the use of the mount utility from inside a container. The mount command is used to make a device or file system accessible to the system, and then to connect its root directory to a specified mount point on the local file system. When launched inside a privileged container--a container deployed with all the capabilities of the host machine-- an attacker can access sensitive host level files which could be used for further privilege escalation and container escapes to the host machine. Any usage of mount inside a running privileged container should be further investigated.

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Identifies the use of a compression utility to collect known files containing sensitive information, such as credentials and system configurations inside a container.

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This rule detects the use of system search utilities like grep and find to search for private SSH keys or passwords inside a container. Unauthorized access to these sensitive files could lead to further compromise of the container environment or facilitate a container breakout to the underlying host machine.

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This rule detects an SSH or SSHD process executed from inside a container. This includes both the client ssh binary and server ssh daemon process. SSH usage inside a container should be avoided and monitored closely when necessary. With valid credentials an attacker may move laterally to other containers or to the underlying host through container breakout. They may also use valid SSH credentials as a persistence mechanism.

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This rule detects commonly abused network utilities running inside a container. Network utilities like nc, nmap, dig, tcpdump, ngrep, telnet, mitmproxy, zmap can be used for malicious purposes such as network reconnaissance, monitoring, or exploitation, and should be monitored closely within a container.

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This rule detects when an unusual interactive process is launched inside a container. Interactive processes are typically run in the foreground and require user input, which is unusual behavior for a containerized environment. This activity could indicate an attacker attempting to gain access to the container environment or perform malicious actions.

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This rule monitors the creation of shared object files by previously unknown processes. The creation of a shared object file involves compiling code into a dynamically linked library that can be loaded by other programs at runtime. While this process is typically used for legitimate purposes, malicious actors can leverage shared object files to execute unauthorized code, inject malicious functionality into legitimate processes, or bypass security controls. This allows malware to persist on the system, evade detection, and potentially compromise the integrity and confidentiality of the affected system and its data.

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Identifies execution of a suspicious program via scheduled tasks by looking at process lineage and command line usage.

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This rule detects when a base64 decoded payload is piped to an interpreter on Linux systems. Adversaries may use base64 encoding to obfuscate data and pipe it to an interpreter to execute malicious code. This technique may be used to evade detection by host- or network-based security controls.

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This rule detects potential Docker socket enumeration activity by monitoring processes that attempt to interact with the Docker socket file (/var/run/docker.sock). Docker socket enumeration is a common technique used by attackers to interact with the Docker daemon and perform various operations, such as creating, starting, stopping, and removing containers. Attackers may abuse Docker socket enumeration to gain unauthorized access to the host system, escalate privileges, or move laterally within the environment.

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This rule detects the creation of files in the /var/log/ directory via process executables located in world-writeable locations or via hidden processes. Attackers may attempt to hide their activities by creating files in the /var/log/ directory, which is commonly used for logging system events.

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This rule detects a high number of egress network connections from an unusual executable on a Linux system. This could indicate a command and control (C2) communication attempt, a brute force attack via a malware infection, or other malicious activity. ES|QL rules have limited fields available in its alert documents. Make sure to review the original documents to aid in the investigation of this alert.

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This rule detects the execution of kill, pkill, and killall commands on Linux systems. These commands are used to terminate processes on a system. Attackers may use these commands to kill security tools or other processes to evade detection or disrupt system operations.

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This rule detects Linux user account credential modification events where the echo command is used to directly echo a password into the passwd utility. This technique is used by malware to automate the process of user account credential modification on Linux systems post-infection.

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This detection identifies a Linux host that has potentially been infected with malware and is being used to conduct brute-force attacks against external systems over SSH (port 22 and common alternative SSH ports). The detection looks for a high volume of outbound connection attempts to non-private IP addresses from a single process. A compromised host may be part of a botnet or controlled by an attacker, attempting to gain unauthorized access to remote systems. This behavior is commonly observed in SSH brute-force campaigns where malware hijacks vulnerable machines to expand its attack surface. ES|QL rules have limited fields available in its alert documents. Make sure to review the original documents to aid in the investigation of this alert.

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