Persistence via Docker Shortcut Modification

Last updated 5 months ago on 2025-03-18
Created 5 years ago on 2020-12-18

About

An adversary can establish persistence by modifying an existing macOS dock property list in order to execute a malicious application instead of the intended one when invoked.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: macOSUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: PersistenceData Source: Elastic DefendLanguage: eql
Severity
medium
Risk Score
47
MITRE ATT&CK™

Persistence (TA0003)(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
file where host.os.type == "macos" and event.action == "modification" and
 file.path like "/Users/*/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist" and
 ((process.name like~ ("osascript", "python*", "sh", "bash", "zsh", "node") or Effective_process.name like~ ("osascript", "python*", "sh", "bash", "zsh", "node")) or
  (process.code_signature.exists == false or process.code_signature.trusted == false))

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Persistence via Docker Shortcut 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(opens in a new tab or window).