SoftwareUpdate Preferences Modification

Last updated 2 months ago on 2025-03-18

Created 4 years ago on 2021-01-15

About

Identifies changes to the SoftwareUpdate preferences using the built-in defaults command. Adversaries may abuse this in an attempt to disable security updates.

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)

False Positive Examples

Authorized SoftwareUpdate Settings Changes

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

process where host.os.type == "macos" and event.type in ("start", "process_started") and
 process.name == "defaults" and
 process.args like "write" and process.args like "-bool" and process.args like~ ("com.apple.SoftwareUpdate", "/Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.plist") and not process.args like ("TRUE", "true")

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect SoftwareUpdate Preferences 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).