Suspicious osascript Password Prompt via AppleScript Display Dialog (via process_creation)

PremiumReviewedSigma · Medium · v1
Product
macos
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-10-24
Updated
2026-10-24

ATT&CK techniques

Execution → Collection
  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Persistence

  5. Priv Esc

  6. Defense Evasion

  7. Discovery

  8. Lateral Movement

  9. C2

  10. Exfiltration

  11. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects osascript invoking an AppleScript display dialog that requests a password, the credential-harvesting behavior Red Canary tied to Atomic Stealer and related macOS malware. Legitimate applications rarely prompt for a password through scripted dialogs, so this combination indicates an attempt to socially engineer the user into revealing local credentials.

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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.