SoftwareUpdate Preferences Modificationedit

Identifies changes to the SoftwareUpdate preferences using the built-in defaults command. Adversaries may abuse this in an attempt to disable security updates.

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

Potential false positivesedit

Authorized SoftwareUpdate Settings Changes

Rule queryedit

event.category:process and event.type:(start or process_started) and
process.name:defaults and process.args:(write and "-bool" and
(com.apple.SoftwareUpdate or
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.plist) and not (TRUE or
true))

Threat mappingedit

Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM