MacOS LOLbin

name: MacOS LOLbin
id: 58d270fb-5b39-418e-a855-4b8ac046805e
version: 12
date: '2026-03-31'
author: Patrick Bareiss, Splunk
status: production
type: TTP
description: The following analytic detects multiple executions of Living off the Land (LOLbin) binaries on macOS within a short period. It leverages osquery to monitor process events and identifies commands such as "find", "crontab", "screencapture", "openssl", "curl", "wget", "killall", and "funzip". This activity is significant as LOLbins are often used by attackers to perform malicious actions while evading detection. If confirmed malicious, this behavior could allow attackers to execute arbitrary code, escalate privileges, or persist within the environment, posing a significant security risk.
data_source:
    - osquery
search: |-
    `osquery_macro` name=es_process_events columns.cmdline IN ("find*", "crontab*", "screencapture*", "openssl*", "curl*", "wget*", "killall*", "funzip*", "chmod*")
      | rename columns.* as *
      | stats  min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime values(cmdline) as cmdline, values(pid) as pid, values(parent) as parent, values(path) as path, values(signing_id) as signing_id,  dc(path) as dc_path
        BY username host
      | rename username as user, cmdline as process, path as process_path, host as dest
      | where dc_path > 3
      | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
      | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
      | `macos_lolbin_filter`
how_to_implement: This detection uses osquery and endpoint security on MacOS. Follow the link in references, which describes how to setup process auditing in MacOS with endpoint security and osquery.
known_false_positives: No false positives have been identified at this time.
references:
    - https://osquery.readthedocs.io/en/stable/deployment/process-auditing/
drilldown_searches:
    - name: View the detection results for - "$user$" and "$dest$"
      search: '%original_detection_search% | search  user = "$user$" dest = "$dest$"'
      earliest_offset: $info_min_time$
      latest_offset: $info_max_time$
    - name: View risk events for the last 7 days for - "$user$" and "$dest$"
      search: '| from datamodel Risk.All_Risk | search normalized_risk_object IN ("$user$", "$dest$") starthoursago=168  | stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime values(search_name) as "Search Name" values(risk_message) as "Risk Message" values(analyticstories) as "Analytic Stories" values(annotations._all) as "Annotations" values(annotations.mitre_attack.mitre_tactic) as "ATT&CK Tactics" by normalized_risk_object | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`'
      earliest_offset: $info_min_time$
      latest_offset: $info_max_time$
rba:
    message: Multiplle LOLbin are executed on host $dest$ by user $user$
    risk_objects:
        - field: user
          type: user
          score: 50
        - field: dest
          type: system
          score: 50
    threat_objects: []
tags:
    analytic_story:
        - Living Off The Land
        - Hellcat Ransomware
        - Axios Supply Chain Post Compromise
    asset_type: Endpoint
    mitre_attack_id:
        - T1059.004
    product:
        - Splunk Enterprise
        - Splunk Enterprise Security
        - Splunk Cloud
    security_domain: endpoint
tests:
    - name: True Positive Test
      attack_data:
        - data: https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/splunk/attack_data/master/datasets/attack_techniques/T1059.004/macos_lolbin/osquery.log
          source: osquery
          sourcetype: osquery:results