Command-line tool to perform various persistence mechanism techniques on macOS. This tool was designed to be used by threat hunters for cyber threat emulation purposes.

Install

Do it up:

$ pip3 install poisonapple --user

Note: PoisonApple was written & tested using Python 3.9, it should work using Python 3.6+

Important Notes!

• PoisonApple will make modifications to your macOS system, it's advised to only use PoisonApple on a virtual machine. Although any persistence mechanism technique added using this tool can also be easily removed (-r), please use with caution!
• Be advised: This tool will likely cause common AV / EDR / other macOS security products to generate alerts.
• To understand how any of these techniques work in-depth please see The Art of Mac Malware, Volume 1: Analysis - Chapter 0x2: Persistence by Patrick Wardle of Objective-See. It's a fantastic resource.

Usage

See PoisonApple switch options (--help):

$ poisonapple --helpusage: poisonapple [-h] [-l] [-t TECHNIQUE] [-n NAME] [-c COMMAND] [-r]Command-line tool to perform various persistence mechanism techniques on macOS.optional arguments:  -h, --help            show this help message and exit  -l, --list            list available persistence mechanism techniques  -t TECHNIQUE, --technique TECHNIQUE                        persistence mechanism technique to use  -n NAME, --name NAME  name for the file or label used for persistence  -c COMMAND, --command COMMAND                        command(s) to execute for persistence  -r, --remove          remove persistence mechanism

List of available techniques:

$ poisonapple --list      ,       _______       __  .-.:|.-.   |   _   .-----|__|-----.-----.-----..'        '. |.  |   |  |  |  |__ --|  |  |  |  |'-."~".  .-' |.  ____|_____|__|_____|_____|__|__|  } ` }  {   |:  |  _______             __  } } }  {   |::.| |   _   .-----.-----|  |-----.  } ` }  {   `---' |.  |   |  |  |  |  |  |  -__|.-'"~"   '-.       |.  _   |   __|   __|__|_____|'.        .'       |:  |   |__|  |__|  '-_.._-'         |::.|:. |                   `--- ---' v0.2.0+--------------------+| AtJob              |+--------------------+| Bashrc             |+--------------------+| Cron               |+--------------------+| CronRoot           |+--------------------+| Emond              |+--------------------+| LaunchAgent        |+--------------------+| LaunchAgentUser    |+--------------------+| LaunchDaemon       |+---   -----------------+| LoginHook          |+--------------------+| LoginHookUser      |+--------------------+| LoginItem          |+--------------------+| LogoutHook         |+--------------------+| LogoutHookUser     |+--------------------+| Periodic           |+--------------------+| Reopen             |+--------------------+| Zshrc              |+--------------------+

Apply a persistence mechanism:

$ poisonapple -t LaunchAgentUser -n testing      ,       _______       __  .-.:|.-.   |   _   .-----|__|-----.-----.-----..'        '. |.  |   |  |  |  |__ --|  |  |  |  |'-."~".  .-' |.  ____|_____|__|_____|_____|__|__|  } ` }  {   |:  |  _______             __  } } }  {   |::.| |   _   .-----.-----|  |-----.  } ` }  {   `---' |.  |   |  |  |  |  |  |  -__|.-'"~"   '-.       |.  _   |   __|   __|__|_____|'.        .'       |:  |   |__|  |__|  '-_.._-'         |::.|:. |                   `--- ---' v0.2.0[+] Success! The persistence mechanism action was successful: LaunchAgentUser

If no command is specified (-c) a default trigger command will be used which writes to a file on the Desktop every time the persistence mechanism is triggered:

$ cat ~/Desktop/PoisonApple-LaunchAgentUserTriggered @ Tue Mar 23 17:46:02 CDT 2021 Triggered @ Tue Mar 23 17:46:13 CDT 2021 Triggered @ Tue Mar 23 17:46:23 CDT 2021 Triggered @ Tue Mar 23 17:46:33 CDT 2021 Triggered @ Tue Mar 23 17:46:43 CDT 2021 Triggered @ Tue Mar 23 17:46:53 CDT 2021 Triggered @ Tue Mar 23 17:47:03 CDT 2021 Triggered @ Tue Mar 23 17:47:13 CDT 2021 Triggered @ Tue Mar 23 17:48:05 CDT 2021 Triggered @ Tue Mar 23 17:48:15 CDT 2021

Remove a persistence mechanism:

$ poisonapple -t LaunchAgentUser -n testing -r...

Use a custom command:

$ poisonapple -t LaunchAgentUser -n foo -c "echo foo >> /Users/user/Desktop/foo"...