Suspicious Interpreter Spawned by launchd from Application Bundle

ATT&CK techniques

Execution → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
- T1059.004Unix Shell
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
- T1553.001Gatekeeper Bypass
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects the macOS launchd process directly spawning a shell or script interpreter that executes a payload located inside an application bundle Contents/MacOS path. This behavior corresponds to the CVE-2021-30657 Gatekeeper bypass where an app lacking an Info.plist is launched without notarization checks. It lets attackers run arbitrary code while evading Gatekeeper.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1059.004 — drag to rearrange

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Suspicious Interpreter Spawned by launchd from Application Bundle

Pivot detection · T1059.004 · 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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