Detect Apple Multiple Products Use-After-Free Vulnerability (CVE-2023-43000) in Elastic Security
Detects exploitation of CVE-2023-43000, a use-after-free vulnerability (CWE-416) affecting multiple Apple products. This vulnerability is listed in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, indicating active exploitation in the wild. Use-after-free conditions in Apple system components can allow attackers to execute arbitrary code, escalate privileges, or achieve kernel-level compromise on affected macOS, iOS, and related platforms.
MITRE ATT&CK
- Tactic
- Privilege Escalation Execution
Elastic Detection Query
sequence by host.id with maxspan=10m
[process where host.os.family == "macos"
and (process.name in ("ReportCrash", "osanalyticshelper", "CrashReporter", "sysdiagnose")
or event.action in ("process_stopped", "process_crash"))
] by process.pid
[network where host.os.family == "macos"
and network.direction == "outbound"
and destination.port in (4444, 1337, 8080, 8443, 9001, 9002)
and not destination.ip in ("127.0.0.1", "::1", "10.0.0.0/8", "172.16.0.0/12", "192.168.0.0/16")
] by process.pidEQL sequence rule correlating macOS crash reporter activity with suspicious outbound network connections from the same process, indicating potential post-exploitation following CVE-2023-43000 use-after-free.
Data Sources
Required Tables
False Positives & Tuning
- Legitimate crash reporter processes establishing update or telemetry connections
- macOS System Integrity Protection activities generating similar process and network sequences
- Third-party security agents that monitor crashes and phone home with diagnostics
- Developer tools such as Xcode or LLDB that spawn crash handlers with network activity
Other platforms for CVE-2023-43000
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 macOS Use-After-Free Crash with C2-like Network Beacon
Expected signal: Process crash event for python3, EXC_BAD_ACCESS in crash logs, outbound TCP connection to LAB_C2_HOST:4444 from the same host within 10 seconds of crash
- Test 2Invoke CrashReporter from Non-Standard Parent Process
Expected signal: ProcessRollup2 event for ReportCrash with parent_process=bash; crash report file creation in DiagnosticReports directory
- Test 3Mass Crash Generation and External Reachback Simulation
Expected signal: 5 crash report files created in DiagnosticReports, 5 outbound HTTP connections to LAB_C2_HOST:4444 over ~5 seconds
Unlock Pro Content
Get the full detection package for CVE-2023-43000 including response playbook, investigation guide, and atomic red team tests.