Boot or Logon Autostart Execution: Login Items T1547.015

Tactics: Persistence, Privilege Escalation

Adversaries may add login items to execute upon user login to gain persistence or escalate privileges. Login items are applications, documents, folders, or server connections that are automatically launched when a user logs in. Login items can be added via a shared file list or Service Management Framework. Shared file list login items can be set using scripting languages such as AppleScript, whereas the Service Management Framework uses the API call SMLoginItemSetEnabled.

Events covered

1 catalog event is tagged with this technique by at least one rule.

ProviderEventTitle
SysmonEvent ID 11FileCreate

Authoring guide

Patterns shared across the 2 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 (6 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
CommandLine1wildcard 1osascript*login item*hidden:true*
Image1ends_with 1\cmd.exe, \cscript.exe, \mshta.exe
TargetFilename1ends_with 1\appdata\local\packages\microsoft.windowsterminal_8wekyb3...
event.type1in 1process_started, start
host.os.type1eq 1
process_name1eq 1osascript

Top indicator values (11 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
CommandLinewildcard
osascript*login item*hidden:true*
1
Imageends_with
\cmd.exe
1130
Imageends_with
\cscript.exe
173
Imageends_with
\mshta.exe
167
Imageends_with
\powershell.exe
1182
Imageends_with
\pwsh.exe
1168
Imageends_with
\wscript.exe
175
TargetFilenameends_with
\appdata\local\packages\microsoft.windowsterminal_8wekyb3d8bbwe\localstate\se...
1
event.typein
process_started
140
event.typein
start
142
process_nameeq
osascript
110

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)

Sigma 1 rule

Elastic 1 rule