Command and Scripting Interpreter: AppleScript T1059.002

Adversaries may abuse AppleScript for execution. AppleScript is a macOS scripting language designed to control applications and parts of the OS via inter-application messages called AppleEvents. These AppleEvent messages can be sent independently or easily scripted with AppleScript. These events can locate open windows, send keystrokes, and interact with almost any open application locally or remotely.

Events covered

2 catalog events are tagged with this technique by at least one rule.

Authoring guide

Patterns shared across the 2 rules above: which fields they filter on, what specific values they look for, and what they exclude. The catalog normalizes field names across vendors so Sigma's Image, Elastic's process.name, and Splunk's process_name collapse into one row. Each rule contributes at most once per row.

Fields filtered most (1 distinct)

The fields most rules look at when detecting this technique. The How column shows the operators authors use (eq, wildcard, regex_match, match) and how often each appears. Sample values are concrete examples to start from, not an exhaustive list.

FieldRulesHowSample values
CommandLine2contains 2-h , -rf , /library/caches/com.apple.act.mond, /tmp, /tmp/6202033

Top indicator values (17 distinct)

Specific (field, operator, value) combinations the rules check for, ranked by how many rules under this technique use each one. The Corpus reach column counts how many rules across the entire catalog (any technique) check the same combination. High numbers point to widely-used indicators that are likely noisy on their own; combine them with another condition for useful signal. Blank means the combination is specific to rules under this technique. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that use it.

FieldKindValueRules (here)Corpus reach
CommandLinecontains
-h
1
CommandLinecontains
-rf
1
CommandLinecontains
/library/caches/com.apple.act.mond
1
CommandLinecontains
/tmp
1
CommandLinecontains
/tmp/6202033
1
CommandLinecontains
buildid
1
CommandLinecontains
cl: 0
1
CommandLinecontains
curl
112
CommandLinecontains
curl
112
CommandLinecontains
file=@/tmp/out.zip
1
CommandLinecontains
filegrabber
1
CommandLinecontains
nohup
12
CommandLinecontains
osascript
1
CommandLinecontains
packages.npm.org/product
1
CommandLinecontains
post
1
CommandLinecontains
rm
12
CommandLinecontains
user:
1

Rules under this technique

Every rule in the catalog tagged with this technique, grouped by vendor. Click a rule title for its full predicates, exclusions, and indicators.

Sigma 2 rules