kevmap

TechniquesT1574.004 › AN0435

AN0435 Analytic 0435

macOS · attack.mitre.org · ATT&CK Enterprise v19.2

<p>Detection focuses on adversaries placing or modifying malicious dylibs in locations searched by legitimate applications. From the defender’s perspective, observable patterns include unexpected creation or modification of dylib files in application bundle paths, unusual module loads by processes compared to historical baselines, and execution of applications loading dylibs from suspicious directories (e.g., /tmp, user-controlled paths). Correlation across file system changes, process execution, and module loads provides high-fidelity detection.</p>
Detects
T1574.004 Dylib Hijacking
Part of
DET0152 Detection Strategy for Hijack Execution Flow: Dylib Hijacking

Log sources and channels

Exactly as MITRE states them in x_mitre_log_source_references. Where a channel is vague, it is vague in the source; kevmap does not tidy it.

Log sourceChannelData component
macos:unifiedlogprocess execution events with dylib load activityDC0016 Module Load
macos:unifiedlogcreate/modify dylib files in monitored directoriesDC0039 File Creation
macos:unifiedlogreplace existing dylibsDC0061 File Modification

Mutable elements

Parameters MITRE marks as environment-specific. These are the knobs you are expected to tune; they are why an analytic is not a rule.

FieldDescription
MonitoredDirectoriesApplication bundle directories (e.g., /Applications/*/Contents/MacOS, /Library/Frameworks). Adversaries may use non-standard paths like /tmp.
BaselineDylibsHistorical record of dylibs typically loaded by applications. Deviations should be flagged.
CorrelationWindowTimeframe to correlate dylib file modification with subsequent process execution and module loads.