Adversaries may inject malicious code into hijacked processes in order to evade process-based defenses as well as possibly elevate privileges. Thread Execution Hijacking is a method of executing arbitrary code in the address space of a separate live process.
Thread Execution Hijacking is commonly performed by suspending an existing process then unmapping/hollowing its memory, which can then be replaced with malicious code or the path to a DLL. A handle to an existing victim process is first created with native Windows API calls such as <code>OpenThread</code>. At this point the process can be suspended then written to, realigned to the injected code, and resumed via <code>SuspendThread </code>, <code>VirtualAllocEx</code>, <code>WriteProcessMemory</code>, <code>SetThreadContext</code>, then <code>ResumeThread</code> respectively.(Citation: Endgame Process Injection July 2017)
This is very similar to Process Hollowing but targets an existing process rather than creating a process in a suspended state.
Running code in the context of another process may allow access to the process's memory, system/network resources, and possibly elevated privileges. Execution via Thread Execution Hijacking may also evade detection from security products since the execution is masked under a legitimate process.
View in MITRE ATT&CK®Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
AC-6 | Least Privilege | Protects | T1055.003 | Thread Execution Hijacking | |
SC-18 | Mobile Code | Protects | T1055.003 | Thread Execution Hijacking | |
SC-7 | Boundary Protection | Protects | T1055.003 | Thread Execution Hijacking | |
SI-2 | Flaw Remediation | Protects | T1055.003 | Thread Execution Hijacking | |
SI-3 | Malicious Code Protection | Protects | T1055.003 | Thread Execution Hijacking | |
SI-4 | System Monitoring | Protects | T1055.003 | Thread Execution Hijacking |
Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
alerts_for_windows_machines | Alerts for Windows Machines | technique_scores | T1055.003 | Thread Execution Hijacking |
Comments
Injection attacks are specifically cited as a detection focus for Fileless Attack Detection, which is part of this control, with even more specific references to Process Hollowing, executable image injection, and threads started in a dynamically allocated code segment. Detection is periodic at an unknown rate. The following alerts may be generated: "Fileless attack technique detected", "Fileless attack behavior detected", "Fileless attack toolkit detected", "Suspicious SVCHOST process executed".
References
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azure_defender_for_app_service | Azure Defender for App Service | technique_scores | T1055.003 | Thread Execution Hijacking |
Comments
Injection attacks are specifically cited as a detection focus for Fileless Attack Detection, which is part of this control, with even more specific references to Process Hollowing, executable image injection, and threads started in a dynamically allocated code segment. Detection is periodic at an unknown rate.
References
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