huntrule

macOS Remote System Discovery via arp or ping enumeration

Identifies macOS arp -a or ping to private/local IP ranges used for remote system enumeration.

FreeReviewedSigma · Informational · v2
Product
macos
Category
process_creation
Author
Alejandro Ortuno, oscd.community (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published
2020-10-22
Updated
2026-07-31
AnalysisDetection

ATT&CK techniques

Discovery

  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Execution

  5. Persistence

  6. Priv Esc

  7. Defense Evasion

  8. Cred Access

  9. Discovery

  10. Lateral Movement

  11. Collection

  12. C2

  13. Exfiltration

  14. Impact

What it detects

This rule identifies macOS process executions that enumerate other networked systems using either arp -a or ping commands containing common private and loopback IP address ranges. Remote discovery is a key step for attackers to map reachable hosts before further activity. It relies on process creation telemetry, matching executable paths that end with /arp or /ping and filtering on command-line arguments that include the targeted IP prefixes.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1018 — drag to rearrange
Suspicious Domain Controller Enumeration via Nltest by DeadLock Ransomware
Malicious DNS Hosts File Accessed via Network Share (via security)
Suspicious Active Directory Subnet Enumeration via ADFind Subnets Query (via process_creation)
Suspicious Remote Connection to ADWS Port 9389 via security
Uncommon Domain Trust Discovery via Nltest (via process_creation)
Suspicious AdFind Active Directory Reconnaissance Tool Execution (via process_creation)
Suspicious Domain Controller and Trust Enumeration via Nltest
Suspicious Active Directory Enumeration via ADWS PowerShell Cmdlets via ps_script
Suspicious Domain Controller Discovery via nltest
macOS Remote System Discovery via arp or ping enumeration
Pivot detection · T1018 · 9 related

Changelog

v2
  1. v2
    Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
  2. v1
    No changelog recorded for this version.2026-07-30

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.