Attempt to Disable Gatekeeper

Elastic Stack Serverless Security

Detects attempts to disable Gatekeeper on macOS. Gatekeeper is a security feature that’s designed to ensure that only trusted software is run. Adversaries may attempt to disable Gatekeeper before executing malicious code.

Rule type: query

Rule indices:

• auditbeat-*
• logs-endpoint.events.*

Severity: medium

Risk score: 47

Runs every: 5m

Searches indices from: now-9m (https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/common-options.html#date-math[Date Math format], see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References:

• https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202491
• https://community.carbonblack.com/t5/Threat-Advisories-Documents/TAU-TIN-Shlayer-OSX/ta-p/68397

Tags:

• Elastic
• Host
• macOS
• Threat Detection
• Defense Evasion

Version: 2

Rule authors:

• Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

event.category:process and event.type:(start or process_started) and
  process.args:(spctl and "--master-disable")

Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM

• Tactic:

  • Name: Defense Evasion
  • ID: TA0005
  • Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0005/

• Technique:

  • Name: Subvert Trust Controls
  • ID: T1553
  • Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1553/