Sigma rule: Suspicious History File Operations

A detection rule from the SigmaHQ repository, shown as its author published it. Dataset version ref-9d13f62ceb0f, updated 2021-11-27T00:00:00.000Z.

Rule

Title
Suspicious History File Operations
Status
test
Level
medium
Author
Mikhail Larin, oscd.community
Date
2020-10-17
Modified
2021-11-27
File
rules/macos/process_creation/proc_creation_macos_susp_histfile_operations.yml
Commit
ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects commandline operations on shell history files

Log source

product
macos
category
process_creation

Detection

selection:
    CommandLine|contains:
        - '.bash_history'
        - '.zsh_history'
        - '.zhistory'
        - '.history'
        - '.sh_history'
        - 'fish_history'
condition: selection

False positives (as the rule lists them)

  • Legitimate administrative activity
  • Legitimate software, cleaning hist file

Tags

  • attack.credential-access
  • attack.t1552.003

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

References

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

Sources and licences

  • SigmaHQ

    "Suspicious History File Operations" by Mikhail Larin, oscd.community (SigmaHQ). Rule: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/macos/process_creation/proc_creation_macos_susp_histfile_operations.yml.
    Licensed under the Detection Rule License (DRL) 1.1: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/Detection-Rule-License

    Detection Rule License (DRL) 1.1

Cite this page

Dragons Eye Ransomware Tracker, "Sigma rule: Suspicious History File Operations",
entity page, dataset version ref-9d13f62ceb0f, updated 2021-11-27T00:00:00.000Z,
https://ransomware-tracker.com/detections/sigma/508a9374-ad52-4789-b568-fc358def2c65 (accessed 2026-11-03).
Underlying source: SigmaHQ rule 508a9374-ad52-4789-b568-fc358def2c65, commit ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84.

Pages change. The dataset version identifies the data, but no archive of old versions is kept, so this citation cannot be replayed later.