Elastic Security Detection Rules

Potential Successful SSH Brute Force Attack via macOS Security Events

Last updated 7 days ago on 2026-09-09
Created 7 days ago on 2026-09-09

About

Identifies a burst of failed inbound SSH authentication attempts on a macOS host followed shortly by a successful SSH authentication on the same host, using sshd authentication messages collected by the macOS Security Events integration. A successful login immediately after repeated failures indicates that a password brute force or password spraying attack against an exposed SSH service has likely succeeded.
Tags
OS: macOSUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Credential AccessTactic: Initial AccessData Source: macOS Security EventsLanguage: eql
Severity
high
Risk Score
73
MITRE ATT&CK™

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

↳ Brute Force (T1110)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Initial Access (TA0001)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Valid Accounts (T1078)(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-macos.authentication-*
Related Integrations

macos(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Query
text code block:
sequence by host.id with maxspan=15s
  [authentication where event.dataset == "macos.authentication" and host.os.type == "macos" and
    macos.event.message.description : ("Failed password for*",
                                      "Failed keyboard-interactive/pam for*",
                                      "error: PAM: authentication error for*")] with runs=10
  [authentication where event.dataset == "macos.authentication" and host.os.type == "macos" and
   macos.event.message.description : "Accepted *"]

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Potential Successful SSH Brute Force Attack via macOS Security Events 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).