IMPORTANT: No additional bug fixes or documentation updates will be released for this version. For the latest information, see the current release documentation.

« Modification of Dynamic Linker Preload Shared Object Modification of OpenSSH Binaries »

› › ›

Modification of Environment Variable via Launchctl

edit

Modification of Environment Variable via Launchctl

edit

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.

Rule type: query

Rule indices:

auditbeat-*
logs-endpoint.events.*

Severity: medium

Risk score: 47

Runs every: 5 minutes

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

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References:

https://github.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/blob/master//modules/post/osx/escalate/tccbypass.rb

Tags:

Elastic
Host
macOS
Threat Detection
Defense Evasion

Version: 4 (version history)

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.12.0

Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 8.4.0

Rule authors: Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Rule query

edit

event.category:process and event.type:start and
process.name:launchctl and process.args:(setenv and not (JAVA*_HOME
or RUNTIME_JAVA_HOME or
DBUS_LAUNCHD_SESSION_BUS_SOCKET or
ANT_HOME or LG_WEBOS_TV_SDK_HOME or
WEBOS_CLI_TV or EDEN_ENV)
) and not process.parent.executable:("/Applications/NoMachine.app/Co
ntents/Frameworks/bin/nxserver.bin" or
"/usr/local/bin/kr" or
"/Applications/NoMachine.app/Contents/Frameworks/bin/nxserver.bin" or
"/Applications/IntelliJ IDEA
CE.app/Contents/jbr/Contents/Home/lib/jspawnhelper") and not
process.args : "*.vmoptions"

Threat mapping

edit

Framework: MITRE ATT&CK^TM

Tactic:
- Name: Defense Evasion
- ID: TA0005
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0005/
Technique:
- Name: Hijack Execution Flow
- ID: T1574
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1574/

Rule version history

edit

Version 4 (8.4.0 release)

Updated query, changed from:

event.category:process and event.type:start and
process.name:launchctl and process.args:(setenv and not (JAVA*_HOME
or RUNTIME_JAVA_HOME or
DBUS_LAUNCHD_SESSION_BUS_SOCKET or
ANT_HOME or LG_WEBOS_TV_SDK_HOME or
WEBOS_CLI_TV or EDEN_ENV)
) and not process.parent.executable:("/Applications/NoMachine.app/Co
ntents/Frameworks/bin/nxserver.bin" or
"/usr/local/bin/kr" or
"/Applications/NoMachine.app/Contents/Frameworks/bin/nxserver.bin" or
"/Applications/IntelliJ IDEA
CE.app/Contents/jbr/Contents/Home/lib/jspawnhelper")

Version 2 (7.13.0 release)

Updated query, changed from:

event.category:process and event.type:start and process.name:launchctl
and process.args:(setenv and not (JAVA*_HOME or RUNTIME_JAVA_HOME or
DBUS_LAUNCHD_SESSION_BUS_SOCKET or ANT_HOME))

« Modification of Dynamic Linker Preload Shared Object Modification of OpenSSH Binaries »