[metadata] creation_date = "2022/04/25" integration = ["endpoint"] maturity = "production" min_stack_comments = "New fields added: required_fields, related_integrations, setup" min_stack_version = "8.3.0" updated_date = "2023/02/22" [rule] author = ["Elastic"] description = """ Identifies attempts to create or modify a crontab via a process that is not crontab (i.e python, osascript, etc.). This activity should not be highly prevalent and could indicate the use of cron as a persistence mechanism by a threat actor. """ from = "now-9m" index = ["logs-endpoint.events.*"] language = "eql" license = "Elastic License v2" name = "Suspicious CronTab Creation or Modification" references = [ "https://taomm.org/PDFs/vol1/CH%200x02%20Persistence.pdf", "https://theevilbit.github.io/beyond/beyond_0004/", ] risk_score = 47 rule_id = "530178da-92ea-43ce-94c2-8877a826783d" severity = "medium" tags = ["Elastic", "Host", "macOS", "Threat Detection", "Persistence"] timestamp_override = "event.ingested" type = "eql" query = ''' file where host.os.type == "macos" and event.type != "deletion" and process.name != null and file.path : "/private/var/at/tabs/*" and not process.executable == "/usr/bin/crontab" ''' [[rule.threat]] framework = "MITRE ATT&CK" [[rule.threat.technique]] id = "T1053" name = "Scheduled Task/Job" reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1053/" [[rule.threat.technique.subtechnique]] id = "T1053.003" name = "Cron" reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1053/003/" [rule.threat.tactic] id = "TA0003" name = "Persistence" reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0003/"