IMPORTANT: No additional bug fixes or documentation updates will be released for this version. For the latest information, see the current release documentation.
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Elastic Docs ›Elastic Security Solution [8.5] ›Detections and alerts ›Prebuilt rule reference

Modification of Environment Variable via Launchctl

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Modification of Environment Variable via Launchctl

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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.

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: 100 (version history)

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.12.0

Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 8.5.0

Rule authors: Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Rule query

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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

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Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM

Rule version history

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Version 100 (8.5.0 release)
  • Formatting only
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))
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