New

The executive guide to generative AI

Read more

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:

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&CKTM

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))
Was this helpful?
Feedback