Command and Scripting Interpreter: AppleScript T1059.002
Tactic: Execution
Adversaries may abuse AppleScript for execution. AppleScript is a macOS scripting language designed to control applications and parts of the OS via inter-application messages called AppleEvents. These AppleEvent messages can be sent independently or easily scripted with AppleScript. These events can locate open windows, send keystrokes, and interact with almost any open application locally or remotely.
Events covered
2 catalog events are tagged with this technique by at least one rule.
| Provider | Event | Title |
|---|---|---|
| ESF | exec | Process Execution (Notify) |
| ESF | write | File Write (NOTIFY) |
Authoring guide
Patterns shared across the 27 rules above: which fields they filter on, what specific values they look for, and what they exclude. The catalog normalizes field names across vendors so Sigma's Image, Elastic's process.name, and Splunk's process_name collapse into one row. Each rule contributes at most once per row.
Fields filtered most (25 distinct)
The fields most rules look at when detecting this technique. The How column shows the operators authors use (eq, wildcard, regex_match, match) and how often each appears. Sample values are concrete examples to start from, not an exhaustive list.
Top indicator values (287 distinct)
Specific (field, operator, value) combinations the rules check for, ranked by how many rules under this technique use each one. The Corpus reach column counts how many rules across the entire catalog (any technique) check the same combination. High numbers point to widely-used indicators that are likely noisy on their own; combine them with another condition for useful signal. Blank means the combination is specific to rules under this technique. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that use it.
Exclusions (79 distinct)
Field/operator/value combinations excluded by rules under this technique (top-level not() clauses), sorted by how many rules exclude each. These are the false-positive paths the community has learned to filter out. A new rule that ignores the high-count entries here will likely fire on the same noisy paths. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that exclude it.
Rules under this technique
Every rule in the catalog tagged with this technique, grouped by vendor. Click a rule title for its full predicates, exclusions, and indicators.
Sigma 9 rules
- Atomic MacOS Stealer - FileGrabber Activity
- Axios NPM Compromise Indicators - macOS
- Clipboard Access Via OSAScript
- JXA In-memory Execution Via OSAScript
- MacOS Scripting Interpreter AppleScript
- Osacompile Execution By Potentially Suspicious Applet/Osascript
- OSACompile Run-Only Execution
- Suspicious Execution via macOS Script Editor
- Suspicious Microsoft Office Child Process - MacOS
Elastic 16 rules
- Apple Script Execution followed by Network Connection
- Apple Scripting Execution with Administrator Privileges
- Creation of Hidden Login Item via Apple Script
- Execution via GitHub Actions Runner
- Execution via OpenClaw Agent
- Execution with Explicit Credentials via Scripting
- Google Calendar C2 via Script Interpreter
- Potential Etherhiding C2 via Blockchain Connection
- Prompt for Credentials with Osascript
- Shell Execution via Apple Scripting
- Suspicious AWS S3 Connection via Script Interpreter
- Suspicious Browser Child Process
- Suspicious Curl to Jamf Endpoint
- Suspicious Emond Child Process
- Suspicious Installer Package Spawns Network Event
- Suspicious macOS MS Office Child Process