atomic-threat-coverage/Atomic_Threat_Coverage/Triggers/T1165.md

T1165 - Startup Items

Description from ATT&CK

Per Apple’s documentation, startup items execute during the final phase of the boot process and contain shell scripts or other executable files along with configuration information used by the system to determine the execution order for all startup items (Citation: Startup Items). This is technically a deprecated version (superseded by Launch Daemons), and thus the appropriate folder, /Library/StartupItems isn’t guaranteed to exist on the system by default, but does appear to exist by default on macOS Sierra. A startup item is a directory whose executable and configuration property list (plist), StartupParameters.plist, reside in the top-level directory.

An adversary can create the appropriate folders/files in the StartupItems directory to register their own persistence mechanism (Citation: Methods of Mac Malware Persistence). Additionally, since StartupItems run during the bootup phase of macOS, they will run as root. If an adversary is able to modify an existing Startup Item, then they will be able to Privilege Escalate as well.

Atomic Tests

• Atomic Test #1 - Startup Items

• Atomic Test #2 - Startup Items (emond rule)

Atomic Test #1 - Startup Items

Modify or create an file in StartupItems

Reference

Supported Platforms: macOS

Run it with these steps!

1. /Library/StartupItems/StartupParameters.plist

Atomic Test #2 - Startup Items (emond rule)

Establish persistence via a rule run by emond daemon at startup, based on https://posts.specterops.io/leveraging-emond-on-macos-for-persistence-a040a2785124

Supported Platforms: macOS

Inputs

Name	Description	Type	Default Value
plist	Path to emond plist file	path	/path/to/T1165_emond.plist

Run it with sh!

sudo cp "#{plist}" /etc/emond.d/rules/T1165_emond.plist
sudo touch /private/var/db/emondClients/T1165
#Clean up
sudo rm /etc/emond.d/rules/T1165_emond.plist
sudo rm /private/var/db/emondClients/T1165