huntrule

Suspicious Child Processes Spawned by Browsers on macOS

Alerts on browser-launched child processes on macOS where the child is a shell or scripting/utility binary, excluding known benign browser scripts.

FreeReviewedSigma · Medium · v2
Product
macos
Category
process_creation
Author
Sohan G (D4rkCiph3r) (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published
2023-04-05
Updated
2026-07-31
AnalysisDetection

ATT&CK techniques

Initial Access → Execution

  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 flags process creation on macOS where the parent process name indicates a web browser component (e.g., WebKit WebContent, Firefox, Chrome/Helper, Edge, Safari, Opera, Tor Browser) and the child executable path ends with common scripting or networking interpreters (bash, sh, python, perl, php, curl, wget, osascript, pwsh, etc.). Such activity matters because it can reflect code execution triggered by browser exploitation or malicious web content leading to command execution. Detection relies on process creation telemetry including parent image name and the child image path and command-line content, while filtering out known benign browser install/update/recovery utilities and Tor default configuration usage.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1059 — drag to rearrange
Windows: Suspicious Script/Command Child Processes Spawned by ArcSOC.exe
Linux: Shell spawned by rsync without -e flag in command line
Malicious Web Server Process Spawning Command Interpreter via Web Shell (via process_creation)
Suspicious VMware Guest Operation Output Staging in vmware-system Temp Directory (via file_event)
Suspicious Hidden PowerShell Web Download via ClickFix Tactic
Malicious Command Shell Spawned by SQL Server via Process Creation (via process_creation)
Suspicious Script Interpreter Spawned by Excel via DarkGate Lure
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Malicious China Chopper Web Shell Command Pattern in IIS Worker Process (via process_creation)
Suspicious Child Processes Spawned by Browsers on macOS
Pivot detection · T1059 · 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.