Detection: MacOS Kextload Usage

Updated Date: 2026-04-15 ID: 9d680775-84a6-4625-a8ea-8182b9427ce4 Author: Raven Tait, Splunk Type: TTP Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

Detects execution of the kextload command on macOS systems. The kextload utility is used to manually load kernel extensions (KEXTs) into the macOS kernel, which can introduce privileged code at the kernel level. While legitimate for driver installation and system administration, misuse may indicate attempts to install unauthorized, malicious, or persistence-enabling kernel extensions.

Search

 1
 2| tstats `security_content_summariesonly`
 3  count min(_time) as firstTime
 4        max(_time) as lastTime
 5
 6from datamodel=Endpoint.Processes where
 7
 8Processes.process_name = "kextload"
 9
10AND NOT
11
12Processes.process IN (
13    "*-help*",
14    "* -h *"
15)
16
17by Processes.dest Processes.original_file_name Processes.parent_process_id
18   Processes.process Processes.process_exec Processes.process_guid
19   Processes.process_hash Processes.process_id
20   Processes.process_current_directory Processes.process_name
21   Processes.process_path Processes.user
22   Processes.user_id Processes.vendor_product
23
24
25| `drop_dm_object_name(Processes)`
26
27| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
28
29| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
30
31| `macos_kextload_usage_filter`

Data Source

Name	Platform	Sourcetype	Source
Osquery Results	Other	`'osquery:results'`	`'osquery'`

Macros Used

Name	Value
security_content_ctime	`convert timeformat="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S" ctime($field$)`
macos_kextload_usage_filter	`search *`

macos_kextload_usage_filter is an empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.

Annotations

- MITRE ATT&CK

+ Kill Chain Phases

+ NIST

+ CIS

- Threat Actors

ID	Technique	Tactic
T1543	Create or Modify System Process	Persistence

Exploitation

Installation

DE.CM

CIS 10

Default Configuration

This detection is configured by default in Splunk Enterprise Security to run with the following settings:

Setting	Value
Disabled	true
Cron Schedule	`0 * * * *`
Earliest Time	`-70m@m`
Latest Time	`-10m@m`
Schedule Window	`auto`
Creates Notable	Yes
Rule Title	`%name%`
Rule Description	`%description%`
Notable Event Fields	user, dest
Creates Risk Event	True

This configuration file applies to all detections of type TTP. These detections will use Risk Based Alerting and generate Notable Events.

Implementation

This detection uses osquery and endpoint security on MacOS. Follow the link in references, which describes how to setup process auditing in MacOS with endpoint security and osquery. Also the TA-OSquery must be deployed across your indexers and universal forwarders in order to have the osquery data populate the data models.

Known False Positives

Administrators installing new drivers could use this application.

Associated Analytic Story

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message:

Possible kernel extension loaded on $dest$ by $user$ via $process$

Risk Object	Risk Object Type	Risk Score	Threat Objects
dest	system	50	process
user	user	50	process

References

Detection Testing

Test Type	Status	Dataset	Source	Sourcetype
Validation	✅ Passing	N/A	N/A	N/A
Unit	✅ Passing	Dataset	`osquery`	`osquery:results`
Integration	✅ Passing	Dataset	`osquery`	`osquery:results`

Replay any dataset to Splunk Enterprise by using our replay.py tool or the UI. Alternatively you can replay a dataset into a Splunk Attack Range

Source: GitHub | Version: 2