Untrusted Disabling of macOS Gatekeeper via Spctl (via process_creation)
- Product
- macos
- Category
- process_creation
- Author
- HuntRule
- Published
- 2026-09-03
- Updated
- 2026-09-03
ATT&CK techniques
Defense EvasionRecon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact
What it detects
This rule detects spctl --master-disable, which turns off Gatekeeper so unsigned and unnotarized applications can run without warning, a defense-evasion step preceding malware execution on macOS. Disabling Gatekeeper is a technique tracked in the Red Canary Threat Detection Report macOS coverage. Detecting this command surfaces an attacker removing code-signing enforcement.
Reporting behind it
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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