Boot or Logon Autostart Execution: Plist Modification T1547.011

Tactics: Persistence, Privilege Escalation

Adversaries can modify property list files (plist files) to execute their code as part of establishing persistence. Plist files are used by macOS applications to store properties and configuration settings for applications and services. Applications use information plist files, Info.plist, to tell the operating system how to handle the application at runtime using structured metadata in the form of keys and values. Plist files are formatted in XML and based on Apple's Core Foundation DTD and can be saved in text or binary format.

Authoring guide

Patterns shared across the 3 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 (8 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.

FieldRulesHowSample values
TargetFilename2wildcard 2/library/launchagents/*, /library/launchagents/.*.plist, /library/launchdaemons/*, /library/launchdaemons/.*.plist, /system/library/launchagents/*
event.type2ne 2deletion
host.os.type2eq 2
Image1starts_with 1/library/fonts/, /library/graphics/, /library/webserver/
file.extension1eq 1plist
plist_file1is_not_null 1, ne 1<UNKNOWN_FILE>
process_name1wildcard 1bash, curl, java
strip1func_call 1

Top indicator values (32 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.

FieldKindValueRules (here)Corpus reach
event.typene
deletion
228
Imagestarts_with
/library/fonts/
1
Imagestarts_with
/library/graphics/
1
Imagestarts_with
/library/webserver/
1
Imagestarts_with
/private/tmp/
14
Imagestarts_with
/private/var/root/library/
1
Imagestarts_with
/tmp/
125
Imagestarts_with
/users/shared/
14
Imagestarts_with
/var/folders/
12
Imagestarts_with
/var/root/
12
Imagestarts_with
/var/tmp/
124
TargetFilenamewildcard
/library/launchagents/*
1
TargetFilenamewildcard
/library/launchagents/.*.plist
1
TargetFilenamewildcard
/library/launchdaemons/*
1
TargetFilenamewildcard
/library/launchdaemons/.*.plist
1
TargetFilenamewildcard
/system/library/launchagents/*
1
TargetFilenamewildcard
/system/library/launchagents/.*.plist
1
TargetFilenamewildcard
/system/library/launchdaemons/*
1
TargetFilenamewildcard
/system/library/launchdaemons/.*.plist
1
TargetFilenamewildcard
/users/*/library/launchagents/*
1
TargetFilenamewildcard
/users/*/library/launchagents/.*.plist
1
file.extensioneq
plist
1
plist_filene
<UNKNOWN_FILE>
1
process_namewildcard
bash
114
process_namewildcard
curl
116
process_namewildcard
java
14
process_namewildcard
nscurl
13
process_namewildcard
osascript
113
process_namewildcard
python*
124
process_namewildcard
sh
114

Exclusions (16 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.

FieldKindValueRules excluding
Imageeq
/opt/chef/embedded/bin/ruby
1
Imagein
/bin/bash
1
Imagein
/usr/bin/sed
1
Imagestarts_with
/library/privilegedhelpertools/
1
Imagestarts_with
/system/
1
file.namewildcard
.!*!*.plist
1
file.namewildcard
.chef-com*.plist
1
process.code_signature.signing_idin
com.apple.cat
1
process.code_signature.signing_idin
com.apple.cfprefsd
1
process.code_signature.signing_idin
com.apple.ditto
1
process.code_signature.signing_idin
com.apple.pico
1
process.code_signature.signing_idin
com.apple.shove
1
process.code_signature.signing_idin
com.apple.vim
1
process.code_signature.signing_idin
com.jetbrains.toolbox
1
process.code_signature.signing_idin
com.sublimetext.4
1

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.

Platform (all)
Domain (all)

Elastic 2 rules

Panther 1 rule