Dylib Loaded by Process in Suspicious Location

Description

Identifies instances where a dynamic library (dylib) is loaded by a process running from a suspicious or non-standard path on macOS. Threat actors may abuse this technique by using compromised or malicious processes originating from unusual locations to load dylibs for code injection, persistence, or privilege escalation. A dylib loaded from a suspicious process path can indicate that the process itself is malicious, has been tampered with, or is attempting to evade detection by operating from a non-standard location.

Query · eql

sequence by process.entity_id with maxspan=10s
[process where event.type == "start" and event.action == "exec" and 
  process.executable like~ ("/var/tmp/*", 
                            "/var/lib/*", 
                            "/tmp/*", 
                            "/var/folders/*",
                            "/Library/Graphics/*",
                            "/Library/Containers/*", 
                            "/Library/Services/*",
                            "/var/root/*", 
                            "/private/var/root/*",
                            "/Library/WebServer/*", 
                            "/Library/Fonts/*")]
[library where event.action == "load" and 
  not dll.code_signature.trusted == true and not
  dll.path like ("/Library/Apple/*", "/private/var/db/oah/*", "/System/Library/*", "/private/var/root/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/*", 
              "/private/var/root/Library/Caches/ms-playwright/*", "/Library/Developer/*", 
              "/usr/lib/libobjc-trampolines.dylib")]
Raw source Dylib Loaded by Process in Suspicious Location · Elastic TOML
Esc
Published by elastic/protections-artifacts ↗, licensed under Elastic License 2.0 ↗. Reproduced here unmodified. 
[rule]
description = """
Identifies instances where a dynamic library (dylib) is loaded by a process running from a suspicious or non-standard
path on macOS. Threat actors may abuse this technique by using compromised or malicious processes originating from
unusual locations to load dylibs for code injection, persistence, or privilege escalation. A dylib loaded from a
suspicious process path can indicate that the process itself is malicious, has been tampered with, or is attempting to
evade detection by operating from a non-standard location.
"""
id = "b97ecb91-b4bb-480e-a855-47f2a9ec107c"
license = "Elastic License v2"
name = "Dylib Loaded by Process in Suspicious Location"
os_list = ["macos"]
version = "1.0.24"

query = '''
sequence by process.entity_id with maxspan=10s
[process where event.type == "start" and event.action == "exec" and 
  process.executable like~ ("/var/tmp/*", 
                            "/var/lib/*", 
                            "/tmp/*", 
                            "/var/folders/*",
                            "/Library/Graphics/*",
                            "/Library/Containers/*", 
                            "/Library/Services/*",
                            "/var/root/*", 
                            "/private/var/root/*",
                            "/Library/WebServer/*", 
                            "/Library/Fonts/*")]
[library where event.action == "load" and 
  not dll.code_signature.trusted == true and not
  dll.path like ("/Library/Apple/*", "/private/var/db/oah/*", "/System/Library/*", "/private/var/root/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/*", 
              "/private/var/root/Library/Caches/ms-playwright/*", "/Library/Developer/*", 
              "/usr/lib/libobjc-trampolines.dylib")]
'''

min_endpoint_version = "8.11.0"
optional_actions = []
[[actions]]
action = "kill_process"
field = "process.entity_id"
state = 0

[[threat]]
framework = "MITRE ATT&CK"
[[threat.technique]]
id = "T1574"
name = "Hijack Execution Flow"
reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1574/"


[threat.tactic]
id = "TA0005"
name = "Defense Evasion"
reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0005/"

[internal]
min_endpoint_version = "8.11.0"

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