Persistence on macOS: BSides Orlando 2023

About the Talk

Presented for BSides Oralndo 2023, this in-depth talk offers a deep dive into code persistence techniques on macOS. It includes a crash course on macOS for beginners, the advantages of persistence, and detailed exploration of various persistence methods. The presentation culminates with a demo where a piece of malware from 2018 is revived, demonstrating persistence in action on modern Macs.

Attendees were challenged to reverse-engineer the malware and extract the root flag for a prize. As part of this challenge, I was the CTF Lead for the event hosting SunShineCTF from the Lockheed Martin Cyber Lab.

Key Takeaways

A comprehensive understanding of macOS persistence techniques, including:

• Comparative analysis of macOS to other operating systems.
• Practical persistence techniques and their application.
• In-depth discussion on macOS security measures and how to navigate them.
• Live demo of reviving and mitigating malware.
• Get Demo Materials