Keychain Password Retrieval via Command Line

Last updated 9 months ago on 2025-03-18

Created 6 years ago on 2020-01-06

About

Adversaries may collect keychain storage data from a system to in order to acquire credentials. Keychains are the built-in way for macOS to keep track of users' passwords and credentials for many services and features, including Wi-Fi and website passwords, secure notes, certificates, and Kerberos.

Tags

Domain: EndpointOS: macOSUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Credential AccessData Source: Elastic DefendLanguage: eql

Severity

high

Risk Score

MITRE ATT&CK™

Credential Access (TA0006)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Credentials from Password Stores (T1555)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

False Positive Examples

Applications for password management.

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.action == "exec" and
 process.name == "security" and
 process.args like ("-wa", "-ga") and process.args like~ ("find-generic-password", "find-internet-password") and
 process.command_line : ("*Chrome*", "*Chromium*", "*Opera*", "*Safari*", "*Brave*", "*Microsoft Edge*", "*Firefox*") and
 not process.parent.executable like "/Applications/Keeper Password Manager.app/Contents/Frameworks/Keeper Password Manager Helper*/Contents/MacOS/Keeper Password Manager Helper*"

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Keychain Password Retrieval via Command Line 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).