kevmap

TechniquesT1036.009 › AN1224

AN1224 Analytic 1224

macOS · attack.mitre.org · ATT&CK Enterprise v19.2

<p>Detects execution patterns where a child process is detached from its original parent, often showing up under 'launchd' (PID 1) with no parent lineage. These breakages in the process tree are indicative of evasive techniques using daemon(), fork() or background execution flags.</p>
Detects
T1036.009 Break Process Trees
Part of
DET0443 Detection Strategy for Masquerading via Breaking Process Trees

Log sources and channels

Exactly as MITRE states them in x_mitre_log_source_references. Where a channel is vague, it is vague in the source; kevmap does not tidy it.

Log sourceChannelData component
macos:unifiedlogProcess creation with parent PID of 1 (launchd)DC0032 Process Creation
fs:fsusageDetached process execution with no associated parentDC0021 OS API Execution

Mutable elements

Parameters MITRE marks as environment-specific. These are the knobs you are expected to tune; they are why an analytic is not a rule.

FieldDescription
AnomalyParentPIDTriggering PID used to flag abnormal child adoption (commonly PID 1)
AllowedServicesAllowlist of background daemons legitimately using launchd as parent
ProcessNameEntropyEntropy score threshold for abnormal process names in detached state