Potential Persistence via Periodic Tasks

Elastic Stack Serverless Security

Identifies the creation or modification of the default configuration for periodic tasks. Adversaries may abuse periodic tasks to execute malicious code or maintain persistence.

Rule type: query

Rule indices:

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

Severity: low

Risk score: 21

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://opensource.apple.com/source/crontabs/crontabs-13/private/etc/defaults/periodic.conf.auto.html
• https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/mac-os-x/0596003706/re328.html
• https://github.com/D00MFist/PersistentJXA/blob/master/PeriodicPersist.js

Tags:

• Elastic
• Host
• macOS
• Threat Detection
• Persistence

Version: 101

Rule authors:

• Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

event.category:"file" and not event.type:"deletion" and
 file.path:(/private/etc/periodic/* or /private/etc/defaults/periodic.conf or /private/etc/periodic.conf)

Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM

• Tactic:

  • Name: Persistence
  • ID: TA0003
  • Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0003/

• Technique:

  • Name: Scheduled Task/Job
  • ID: T1053
  • Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1053/

• Sub-technique:

  • Name: Cron
  • ID: T1053.003
  • Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1053/003/