- Tactics
- Persistence, Privilege Escalation
- Platforms
- macOS
- Reference
- attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1547.007
Description
Adversaries may modify plist files to automatically run an application when a user logs in. When a user logs out or restarts via the macOS Graphical User Interface (GUI), a prompt is provided to the user with a checkbox to “Reopen windows when logging back in”.(Citation: Re-Open windows on Mac) When selected, all applications currently open are added to a property list file named com.apple.loginwindow.[UUID].plist within the ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost directory.(Citation: Methods of Mac Malware Persistence)(Citation: Wardle Persistence Chapter) Applications listed in this file are automatically reopened upon the user’s next logon.
Adversaries can establish Persistence by adding a malicious application path to the com.apple.loginwindow.[UUID].plist file to execute payloads when a user logs in.
How GTK Cyber trains on this
GTK Cyber's Threat Hunting with Data Science course teaches you to build machine-learning detections for techniques like this across the MITRE ATT&CK framework, including the Persistence, Privilege Escalation tactic this technique falls under. Practitioner-led, focused on real detections, not memorizing technique IDs.
Related techniques
- T1037 — Boot or Logon Initialization Scripts
- T1053 — Scheduled Task/Job
- T1055 — Process Injection
- T1068 — Exploitation for Privilege Escalation
- T1078 — Valid Accounts
- T1098 — Account Manipulation
- T1112 — Modify Registry
- T1133 — External Remote Services
- T1134 — Access Token Manipulation
- T1136 — Create Account
- T1137 — Office Application Startup
- T1176 — Software Extensions