Credentials from Password Stores: Keychain T1555.001

Tactic: Credential Access

Adversaries may acquire credentials from Keychain. Keychain (or Keychain Services) is the macOS credential management system that stores account names, passwords, private keys, certificates, sensitive application data, payment data, and secure notes. There are three types of Keychains: Login Keychain, System Keychain, and Local Items (iCloud) Keychain. The default Keychain is the Login Keychain, which stores user passwords and information. The System Keychain stores items accessed by the operating system, such as items shared among users on a host. The Local Items (iCloud) Keychain is used for items synced with Apple’s iCloud service.

Events covered

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

ProviderEventTitle
ESFexecProcess Execution (Notify)

Authoring guide

Patterns shared across the 8 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 (14 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
host.os.type5eq 5
process.args4eq 2, in 1, wildcard 1-d, -ga, -wa, /Library/Keychains/*, /Users/*/Library/Keychains/*
process_name4in 2, eq 1, starts_with 1cat, cp, bash, dd, python
CommandLine3contains 3 dump-keychain , export , login-keychain , -d, -p
EventType3eq 3exec, open
event.type3in 3process_started, start
Image2eq 2/usr/bin/security
event.category1eq 1file
message1contains 1denied, dump, export
process.code_signature.exists1eq 1false
process.code_signature.trusted1eq 1false
process.parent.code_signature.exists1eq 1false
process.parent.code_signature.trusted1eq 1false
subsystem1eq 1com.apple.securityd

Top indicator values (63 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.typein
process_started
340
event.typein
start
342
CommandLinecontains
find-certificate
22
CommandLinecontains
dump-keychain
1
CommandLinecontains
export
13
CommandLinecontains
login-keychain
1
CommandLinecontains
-d
18
CommandLinecontains
-p
1
CommandLinecontains
.keychain
1
CommandLinecontains
brave
1
CommandLinecontains
chrome
1
CommandLinecontains
chromium
1
CommandLinecontains
dump-keychain
1
CommandLinecontains
firefox
1
CommandLinecontains
keychaindump
1
CommandLinecontains
library/keychains/
1
CommandLinecontains
microsoft edge
1
CommandLinecontains
opera
1
CommandLinecontains
safari
1
EventTypeeq
exec
2171
EventTypeeq
open
115
Imageeq
/usr/bin/security
22
process_namein
cat
223
process_namein
cp
29
event.categoryeq
file
131
messagecontains
denied
15
messagecontains
dump
1
messagecontains
export
1
messagecontains
failed
1
messagecontains
keychain
1

Exclusions (2 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
ParentImagewildcard
/applications/keeper password manager.app/contents/frameworks/keeper...
1
process.Ext.effective_parent.executableeq
/Library/Elastic/Endpoint/elastic-endpoint.app/Contents/MacOS/elastic-endpoint
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)

Sigma 2 rules

Elastic 5 rules

Splunk 1 rule