Malicious Remote Script Piped to a Shell on macOS (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Execution

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
- T1059.002AppleScript
- T1204.004Malicious Copy and Paste
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects a macOS command line that downloads remote content with curl and pipes it straight into a shell or osascript, the paste-and-run delivery behavior behind macOS stealers such as Atomic and Odyssey that trick users into running a one-liner in Terminal. macOS paste-and-run stealer campaigns are called out in the Red Canary Threat Detection Report. Detecting the download-and-execute pipe surfaces infostealer installation at the execution stage.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1059.002 — drag to rearrange

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Suspicious AppleScript Payload Execution via osascript (macOS)

Suspicious AppleScript Execution Spawning a Shell via Osascript

Suspicious osascript Execution of Encoded AppleScript on macOS (via process_creation)

Suspicious Credential Prompt Phishing via osascript (via process_creation)

Malicious ClickFix Stager Piping curl Output to osascript

Suspicious Shell Execution Referencing Mounted DMG Volume via Terminal (macOS)

Malicious Remote Script Piped to a Shell on macOS (via process_creation)

Pivot detection · T1059.002 · 9 related

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

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