Sigma rule: User Added To Admin Group Via Dscl

Rule

Title

User Added To Admin Group Via Dscl

Status

test

Level

medium

Author

Sohan G (D4rkCiph3r)

Date

2023-03-19

File

rules/macos/process_creation/proc_creation_macos_dscl_add_user_to_admin_group.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects attempts to create and add an account to the admin group via "dscl"

Log source

product

macos

category

process_creation

Detection

selection: # adds to admin group
    Image|endswith: '/dscl'
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - ' -append '
        - ' /Groups/admin '
        - ' GroupMembership '
condition: selection

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Legitimate administration activities

Tags

• attack.persistence
• attack.initial-access
• attack.privilege-escalation
• attack.stealth
• attack.t1078.003

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1078.003

Related rules

• 0c1ffcf9-efa9-436e-ab68-23a9496ebf5b (obsolete)

References

• https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/master/atomics/T1078.003/T1078.003.md#atomic-test-2---create-local-account-with-admin-privileges---macos
• https://ss64.com/osx/dscl.html

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_dscl_add_user_to_admin_group.yml