Detect Apple Multiple Products Buffer Overflow Exploitation (CVE-2025-31277) in Elastic Security
Detects potential exploitation of CVE-2025-31277, a buffer overflow vulnerability (CWE-119) affecting multiple Apple products. This vulnerability is listed in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, indicating active exploitation in the wild. Successful exploitation may allow attackers to execute arbitrary code, escalate privileges, or cause denial of service on affected Apple devices and systems.
MITRE ATT&CK
Elastic Detection Query
sequence by host.id with maxspan=5m
[process where host.os.type in ("macos", "ios") and
process.name in ("mdmclient", "mobileassetd", "softwareupdated", "nsurlsessiond", "trustd", "accountsd", "apsd", "securityd") and
event.action in ("process_stopped", "process_error", "crash")]
[process where host.os.type in ("macos", "ios") and
process.parent.name in ("mdmclient", "mobileassetd", "softwareupdated", "nsurlsessiond", "trustd", "accountsd", "apsd", "securityd") and
process.name in ("sh", "bash", "zsh", "python3", "perl", "ruby", "osascript")]EQL sequence rule detecting a two-stage exploitation pattern: an Apple system daemon crash followed within 5 minutes by a child shell or scripting process spawned from the same daemon, indicative of CVE-2025-31277 buffer overflow exploitation.
Data Sources
Required Tables
False Positives & Tuning
- Automated software update workflows that restart daemons and trigger post-update scripts
- System integrity protection repairs that restart services and execute validation scripts
- Enterprise MDM solutions that use daemon context to execute management scripts
Other platforms for CVE-2025-31277
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 Apple System Daemon Crash with Non-Zero Exit
Expected signal: Process crash event for 'trustd' (or mock process) with SIGSEGV signal, non-zero exit code, and EXC_BAD_ACCESS exception type visible in /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/ and EDR crash telemetry
- Test 2Spawn Shell from Apple Daemon Context (Post-Exploitation Simulation)
Expected signal: ProcessCreate event showing bash spawning /tmp/daemon_spawn_test.sh, with subsequent child processes for whoami, uname, id, and ls commands — EDR should record full process ancestry and command lines
- Test 3Generate Crash Report Artifact for Apple Daemon
Expected signal: File creation event in ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/ for trustd crash file; log collection agents (Elastic Agent, CrowdStrike) should ingest the .crash file and surface EXC_BAD_ACCESS exception type in SIEM
Unlock Pro Content
Get the full detection package for CVE-2025-31277 including response playbook, investigation guide, and atomic red team tests.