Suspicious Automator Workflows Execution

Elastic Stack Serverless Security

Identifies the execution of the Automator Workflows process followed by a network connection from it’s XPC service. Adversaries may drop a custom workflow template that hosts malicious JavaScript for Automation (JXA) code as an alternative to using osascript.

Rule type: eql

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://posts.specterops.io/persistent-jxa-66e1c3cd1cf5

Tags:

• Elastic
• Host
• macOS
• Threat Detection
• Execution

Version: 101

Rule authors:

• Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

sequence by host.id with maxspan=30s
 [process where event.type in ("start", "process_started") and process.name == "automator"]
 [network where process.name:"com.apple.automator.runner"]

Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM

• Tactic:

  • Name: Execution
  • ID: TA0002
  • Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0002/

• Technique:

  • Name: Command and Scripting Interpreter
  • ID: T1059
  • Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1059/