Potential Privacy Control Bypass via TCCDB Modification

Last updated 5 months ago on 2025-03-18

Created 5 years ago on 2020-12-23

About

Identifies the use of sqlite3 to directly modify the Transparency, Consent, and Control (TCC) SQLite database. This may indicate an attempt to bypass macOS privacy controls, including access to sensitive resources like the system camera, microphone, address book, and calendar.

Tags

Domain: EndpointOS: macOSUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Defense EvasionData Source: Elastic DefendLanguage: eql

Severity

medium

Risk Score

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.process*
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 == "sqlite*" and
 process.args like "/*/Application Support/com.apple.TCC/TCC.db" and
 (process.parent.name like~ ("osascript", "bash", "sh", "zsh", "Terminal", "Python*") or (process.parent.code_signature.exists == false or process.parent.code_signature.trusted == false))

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Potential Privacy Control Bypass via TCCDB 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).