Adversaries may use a Login Hook to establish persistence executed upon user logon. A login hook is a plist file that points to a specific script to execute with root privileges upon user logon. The plist file is located in the <code>/Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist</code> file and can be modified using the <code>defaults</code> command-line utility. This behavior is the same for logout hooks where a script can be executed upon user logout. All hooks require administrator permissions to modify or create hooks.(Citation: Login Scripts Apple Dev)(Citation: LoginWindowScripts Apple Dev) 

Adversaries can add or insert a path to a malicious script in the <code>com.apple.loginwindow.plist</code> file, using the <code>LoginHook</code> or <code>LogoutHook</code> key-value pair. The malicious script is executed upon the next user login. If a login hook already exists, adversaries can add additional commands to an existing login hook. There can be only one login and logout hook on a system at a time.(Citation: S1 macOs Persistence)(Citation: Wardle Persistence Chapter)

**Note:** Login hooks were deprecated in 10.11 version of macOS in favor of [Launch Daemon](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1543/004) and [Launch Agent](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1543/001) 
Login Hook
source_name: mitre-attack  url: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1037/002  external_id: T1037.002     source_name: Login Scripts Apple Dev  description: Apple. (2016, September 13). Customizing Login and Logout. Retrieved April 1, 2022.  url: https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/BPSystemStartup/Chapters/CustomLogin.html     source_name: LoginWindowScripts Apple Dev  description: Apple. (n.d.). LoginWindowScripts. Retrieved April 1, 2022.  url: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/devicemanagement/loginwindowscripts     source_name: Wardle Persistence Chapter  description: Patrick Wardle. (n.d.). Chapter 0x2: Persistence. Retrieved April 13, 2022.  url: https://taomm.org/PDFs/vol1/CH%200x02%20Persistence.pdf     source_name: S1 macOs Persistence  description: Stokes, P. (2019, July 17). How Malware Persists on macOS. Retrieved March 27, 2020.  url: https://www.sentinelone.com/blog/how-malware-persists-on-macos/     