Elastic Security Detection Rules

Suspicious StartupItem Plist Creation

Last updated a month ago on 2026-01-30
Created a month ago on 2026-01-30

About

Detects the creation or modification of a StartupParameters.plist file, indicating the presence of a StartupItem on the system. StartupItems have been deprecated on modern macOS systems (post Mavericks) in favor of Launch Daemons but still function. Creation of a StartupItem should be highly suspicious as legitimate applications no longer use this method for persistence.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: macOSUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: PersistenceData Source: Elastic DefendLanguage: eql
Severity
high
Risk Score
73
MITRE ATT&CK™

Persistence (TA0003)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Boot or Logon Initialization Scripts (T1037)(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.file-*
Related Integrations

endpoint(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Query
text code block:
file where host.os.type == "macos" and event.type != "deletion" and 
  file.name == "StartupParameters.plist" and 
  file.path like ("/System/Library/StartupItems/*/StartupParameters.plist", 
  "/Library/StartupItems/*/StartupParameters.plist") and
  not (process.code_signature.signing_id == "com.apple.shove" and process.code_signature.trusted == true)

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Suspicious StartupItem Plist Creation 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).