Adversaries may abuse launchctl to execute commands or programs. Launchctl interfaces with launchd, the service management framework for macOS. Launchctl supports taking subcommands on the command-line, interactively, or even redirected from standard input.1 Adversaries use launchctl to execute commands and programs as Launch Agents or Launch Daemons. Common subcommands include: <code>launchctl load</code>,<code>launchctl unload</code>, and <code>launchctl start</code>. Adversaries can use scripts or manually run the commands <code>launchctl load -w "%s/Library/LaunchAgents/%s"</code> or <code>/bin/launchctl load</code> to execute Launch Agents or Launch Daemons.23
- Launchctl Man
- Sofacy Komplex Trojan
- 20 macOS Common Tools and Techniques
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Auto-ingested and not human-reviewed; confidence and validity read by citation.