Potential Persistence via Atom Init Script Modification

Last updated 9 months ago on 2025-03-18

Created 5 years ago on 2021-01-21

About

Identifies modifications to the Atom desktop text editor Init File. Adversaries may add malicious JavaScript code to the init.coffee file that will be executed upon the Atom application opening.

Tags

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

Severity

low

Risk Score

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.*
Related Integrations: endpoint(external, opens in a new tab or window)
Query

✄𐘗text code block:
✄𐘗file where host.os.type == "macos" and event.action == "modification" and
 file.path like "/Users/*/.atom/init.coffee" and 
 not process.name like ("Atom", "xpcproxy") and 
 not user.name == "root"

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Potential Persistence via Atom Init Script Modification 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).