Suspicious Browser Child Process

Last updated 9 months ago on 2025-03-18

Created 5 years ago on 2020-12-23

About

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.

Tags

Domain: EndpointOS: macOSUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Initial AccessTactic: ExecutionData Source: Elastic DefendLanguage: eql

Severity

high

Risk Score

MITRE ATT&CK™

Execution (TA0002)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Exploitation for Client Execution (T1203)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Initial Access (TA0001)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Drive-by Compromise (T1189)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

License

Elastic License v2(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Definition

Rule Type: Event Correlation Rule
Integration Pack: Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Index Patterns: logs-endpoint.events.process*
Related Integrations: endpoint(external, opens in a new tab or window)
Query

✄𐘗text code block:
✄𐘗process where host.os.type == "macos" and event.type in ("start", "process_started") and
  process.parent.name like~ ("Google Chrome", "Google Chrome Helper*", "firefox", "Opera", "Safari", "com.apple.WebKit.WebContent", "Microsoft Edge") and
  ((process.name like~ ("sh", "bash", "dash", "ksh", "tcsh", "zsh") and process.command_line : ("*curl*", "*nscurl*", "*wget*", "*whoami*", "*pwd*")) or
  process.name like~ ("curl", "wget", "python*", "perl*", "php*", "osascript", "pwsh")) and
  process.command_line != null

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Suspicious Browser Child Process in the Elastic Security detection engine by installing this rule into your Elastic Stack.

To setup this rule, check out the installation guide for Prebuilt Security Detection Rules(external, opens in a new tab or window).