Apple Script Execution followed by Network Connection

Last updated 5 months ago on 2025-03-18

Created 5 years ago on 2020-12-07

About

Detects execution via the Apple script interpreter (osascript) followed by a network connection from the same process within a short time period. Adversaries may use malicious scripts for execution and command and control.

Tags

Domain: EndpointOS: macOSUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Command and ControlTactic: ExecutionData Source: Elastic DefendLanguage: eql

Severity

medium

Risk Score

MITRE ATT&CK™

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

↳ Command and Scripting Interpreter (T1059)(opens in a new tab or window)

Command and Control (TA0011)(opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Ingress Tool Transfer (T1105)(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.network*logs-endpoint.events.process*
Related Integrations: endpoint(opens in a new tab or window)
Query

sequence by host.id, process.entity_id with maxspan=30s
 [process where host.os.type == "macos" and event.type == "start" and process.name == "osascript"]
 [network where host.os.type == "macos" and event.type == "start" and process.name == "osascript" and
   not cidrmatch(destination.ip, 
       "240.0.0.0/4", "233.252.0.0/24", "224.0.0.0/4", "198.19.0.0/16", "192.18.0.0/15", 
       "192.0.0.0/24", "10.0.0.0/8", "127.0.0.0/8", "169.254.0.0/16", "172.16.0.0/12", 
       "192.0.2.0/24", "192.31.196.0/24", "192.52.193.0/24", "192.168.0.0/16", "192.88.99.0/24", 
       "100.64.0.0/10", "192.175.48.0/24", "198.18.0.0/15", "198.51.100.0/24", "203.0.113.0/24",
       "::1", "FE80::/10", "FF00::/8")]

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Apple Script Execution followed by Network Connection 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).