Modification of Safari Settings via Defaults Commandedit

Identifies changes to the Safari configuration using the built-in defaults command. Adversaries may attempt to enable or disable certain Safari settings, such as enabling JavaScript from Apple Events to ease in the hijacking of the users browser.

Rule type: query

Rule indices:

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

Severity: medium

Risk score: 47

Runs every: 5 minutes

Searches indices from: now-9m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References:

Tags:

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

Version: 1

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.12.0

Rule authors: Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Rule queryedit

event.category:process and event.type:start and process.name:defaults
and process.args: (com.apple.Safari and write and not (
UniversalSearchEnabled or SuppressSearchSuggestions or
WebKitTabToLinksPreferenceKey or ShowFullURLInSmartSearchField or
com.apple.Safari.ContentPageGroupIdentifier.WebKit2TabsToLinks ) )

Threat mappingedit

Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM