Suspicious LaunchAgent Plist Creation via Shell Copy

PremiumReviewedSigma · Medium · v1
Product
macos
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-11-02
Updated
2026-11-02

ATT&CK techniques

Persistence → Priv Esc
  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Execution

  5. Defense Evasion

  6. Cred Access

  7. Discovery

  8. Lateral Movement

  9. Collection

  10. C2

  11. Exfiltration

  12. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects a copy command writing a property list file into a LaunchAgents directory on macOS. Silver Sparrow establishes persistence by using cp to place a malicious plist under LaunchAgents so its payload runs at login. Writing plist files into LaunchAgents via shell utilities is a common macOS persistence technique.

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Pivot detection · T1543.001 · 9 related

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