Elastic Security Detection Rules

Modification of Safari Settings via Defaults Command

Last updated 5 months ago on 2025-03-18
Created 5 years ago on 2021-01-14

About

Identifies changes to the Safari configuration using the built-in defaults command. Adversaries may attempt to enable or disable certain Safari settings, such as enabling JavaScript from Apple Events to ease in the hijacking of the users browser.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: macOSUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Defense EvasionData Source: Elastic DefendLanguage: eql
Severity
medium
Risk Score
47
MITRE ATT&CK™

Defense Evasion (TA0005)(opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Impair Defenses (T1562)(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 == "defaults" and process.args like~ ("com.apple.Safari", "write") and 
  not process.args like~ ("UniversalSearchEnabled", "SuppressSearchSuggestions", "WebKitTabToLinksPreferenceKey", 
                          "ShowFullURLInSmartSearchField", "com.apple.Safari.ContentPageGroupIdentifier.WebKit2TabsToLinks")

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Modification of Safari Settings via Defaults Command 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).