Potential Hidden Local User Account Creation

Last updated 5 months ago on 2025-03-18

Created 6 years ago on 2020-01-05

About

Identifies attempts to create a local account that will be hidden from the macOS logon window. This may indicate an attempt to evade user attention while maintaining persistence using a separate local account.

Tags

Domain: EndpointOS: macOSUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: PersistenceData Source: Elastic DefendLanguage: eql

Severity

medium

Risk Score

MITRE ATT&CK™

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

↳ Valid Accounts (T1078)(opens in a new tab or window)

License

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

Definition

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

process where host.os.type == "macos" and event.type in ("start", "process_started") and
 process.name == "dscl" and process.args like~ "IsHidden" and process.args like~ "create" and 
 process.args like~ ("true", "1", "yes")

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Potential Hidden Local User Account 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(opens in a new tab or window).