Sigma rule: User Added To Admin Group - MacOS

Rule

Title

User Added To Admin Group - MacOS

Status

deprecated

Level

medium

Author

Sohan G (D4rkCiph3r)

Date

2023/03/19

Modified

2023/08/22

File

deprecated/macos/proc_creation_macos_add_to_admin_group.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects attempts to create and/or add an account to the admin group, thus granting admin privileges.

Log source

product

macos

category

process_creation

Detection

selection_sysadminctl: #creates and adds new user to admin group
    Image|endswith: '/sysadminctl'
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - ' -addUser '
        - ' -admin '
selection_dscl: #adds to admin group
    Image|endswith: '/dscl'
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - ' -append '
        - ' /Groups/admin '
        - ' GroupMembership '
condition: 1 of selection_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Legitimate administration activities

Tags

• attack.t1078.003
• attack.initial_access
• attack.privilege_escalation

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1078.003

References

• https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/master/atomics/T1078.003/T1078.003.md#atomic-test-3---create-local-account-with-admin-privileges-using-sysadminctl-utility---macos
• https://ss64.com/osx/dscl.html
• https://ss64.com/osx/sysadminctl.html

Read on 2026-11-03T00:58:21.399Z under licence sigma-drl-1.1@d5f4c36a from https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/deprecated/macos/proc_creation_macos_add_to_admin_group.yml