Detect CVE-2022-48503 Apple Multiple Products Unspecified Vulnerability Exploitation in Elastic Security
Detects potential exploitation of CVE-2022-48503, an unspecified vulnerability affecting Apple multiple products. This CVE is listed in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, indicating active exploitation in the wild. Detection focuses on suspicious process activity, network connections, and crash telemetry from Apple ecosystem processes that may indicate exploitation attempts.
MITRE ATT&CK
- Tactic
- Initial Access Execution Persistence
Elastic Detection Query
sequence by host.name with maxspan=5m
[process where event.type == "start"
and process.name : ("Safari", "com.apple.WebKit*", "WebKitWebProcess")
and not process.parent.name : ("launchd", "Finder", "Dock")]
[any where event.category : ("network", "process")
and (
(event.category == "network" and network.direction == "egress" and destination.port in (80, 443, 4444, 8080, 8443))
or
(event.category == "process" and process.name : ("bash", "zsh", "sh", "python*", "ruby", "perl"))
)
]Uses EQL sequence detection to correlate Apple WebKit process starts with subsequent suspicious network egress or shell interpreter spawning within a 5-minute window, indicating potential CVE-2022-48503 exploitation.
Data Sources
Required Tables
False Positives & Tuning
- Browser automation tools triggering both WebKit processes and shell commands
- Development environments where Safari is tested alongside terminal workflows
- Security research environments performing controlled exploit testing
- Enterprise proxy configurations causing unusual network destination patterns
Other platforms for CVE-2022-48503
Testing Methodology
Validate this detection against 3 adversary techniques from Atomic Red Team. Each test below lists the behaviour to exercise and the telemetry you should expect to see. Executable commands and cleanup steps are available with Pro.
- Test 1Simulate Safari Child Shell Spawn (macOS)
Expected signal: Process launch event showing bash or osascript spawned in temporal proximity to Safari process activity; macOS Unified Log entries capturing both process starts
- Test 2WebKit Process Crash Simulation (macOS)
Expected signal: Crash report generated in ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/ for safaridriver; macOS Unified Log capturing SIGABRT receipt; endpoint EDR (CrowdStrike/Defender) process termination event with abnormal exit code
- Test 3Suspicious Outbound Connection from Safari Process (macOS)
Expected signal: Network connection event logged by endpoint EDR showing outbound TCP to port 4444 from curl process with Safari user-agent; DNS or network flow records capturing the connection attempt
Unlock Pro Content
Get the full detection package for CVE-2022-48503 including response playbook, investigation guide, and atomic red team tests.