Currently viewing ATT&CK v8.2 which was live between October 27, 2020 and April 28, 2021. Learn more about the versioning system or see the live site.
TECHNIQUES
Enterprise
Reconnaissance
Active Scanning
Gather Victim Host Information
Gather Victim Identity Information
Gather Victim Network Information
Gather Victim Org Information
Phishing for Information
Search Closed Sources
Search Open Technical Databases
Search Open Websites/Domains
Resource Development
Acquire Infrastructure
Compromise Accounts
Compromise Infrastructure
Develop Capabilities
Establish Accounts
Obtain Capabilities
Initial Access
Phishing
Supply Chain Compromise
Valid Accounts
Execution
Command and Scripting Interpreter
Inter-Process Communication
Scheduled Task/Job
System Services
User Execution
Persistence
Account Manipulation
Boot or Logon Autostart Execution
Boot or Logon Initialization Scripts
Create Account
Create or Modify System Process
Event Triggered Execution
Hijack Execution Flow
Office Application Startup
Pre-OS Boot
Scheduled Task/Job
Server Software Component
Traffic Signaling
Valid Accounts
Privilege Escalation
Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism
Access Token Manipulation
Boot or Logon Autostart Execution
Boot or Logon Initialization Scripts
Create or Modify System Process
Domain Policy Modification
Event Triggered Execution
Hijack Execution Flow
Process Injection
Scheduled Task/Job
Valid Accounts
Defense Evasion
Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism
Access Token Manipulation
Domain Policy Modification
Execution Guardrails
File and Directory Permissions Modification
Hide Artifacts
Hijack Execution Flow
Impair Defenses
Indicator Removal on Host
Masquerading
Modify Authentication Process
Modify Cloud Compute Infrastructure
Modify System Image
Network Boundary Bridging
Obfuscated Files or Information
Pre-OS Boot
Process Injection
Signed Binary Proxy Execution
Signed Script Proxy Execution
Subvert Trust Controls
Traffic Signaling
Trusted Developer Utilities Proxy Execution
Use Alternate Authentication Material
Valid Accounts
Virtualization/Sandbox Evasion
Weaken Encryption
Credential Access
Brute Force
Credentials from Password Stores
Forge Web Credentials
Input Capture
Man-in-the-Middle
Modify Authentication Process
OS Credential Dumping
Steal or Forge Kerberos Tickets
Unsecured Credentials
Discovery
Account Discovery
Permission Groups Discovery
Software Discovery
Virtualization/Sandbox Evasion
Lateral Movement
Remote Service Session Hijacking
Remote Services
Use Alternate Authentication Material
Collection
Archive Collected Data
Data from Configuration Repository
Data from Information Repositories
Data Staged
Email Collection
Input Capture
Man-in-the-Middle
Command and Control
Application Layer Protocol
Data Encoding
Data Obfuscation
Dynamic Resolution
Encrypted Channel
Proxy
Traffic Signaling
Web Service
Exfiltration
Automated Exfiltration
Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol
Exfiltration Over Other Network Medium
Exfiltration Over Physical Medium
Exfiltration Over Web Service
Impact
Data Manipulation
Defacement
Disk Wipe
Endpoint Denial of Service
Network Denial of Service
Mobile
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Privilege Escalation
Defense Evasion
Credential Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
Command and Control
Exfiltration
Impact
Network Effects
Remote Service Effects
  1. Home
  2. Techniques
  3. Enterprise
  4. Hijack Execution Flow
  5. LD_PRELOAD

Hijack Execution Flow: LD_PRELOAD

ID Name
T1574.001 DLL Search Order Hijacking
T1574.002 DLL Side-Loading
T1574.004 Dylib Hijacking
T1574.005 Executable Installer File Permissions Weakness
T1574.006 LD_PRELOAD
T1574.007 Path Interception by PATH Environment Variable
T1574.008 Path Interception by Search Order Hijacking
T1574.009 Path Interception by Unquoted Path
T1574.010 Services File Permissions Weakness
T1574.011 Services Registry Permissions Weakness
T1574.012 COR_PROFILER

Adversaries may execute their own malicious payloads by hijacking the dynamic linker used to load libraries. The dynamic linker is used to load shared library dependencies needed by an executing program. The dynamic linker will typically check provided absolute paths and common directories for these dependencies, but can be overridden by shared objects specified by LD_PRELOAD to be loaded before all others.[1][2]

Adversaries may set LD_PRELOAD to point to malicious libraries that match the name of legitimate libraries which are requested by a victim program, causing the operating system to load the adversary's malicious code upon execution of the victim program. LD_PRELOAD can be set via the environment variable or /etc/ld.so.preload file.[1][2] Libraries specified by LD_PRELOAD with be loaded and mapped into memory by dlopen() and mmap() respectively.[3] [4] [5]

LD_PRELOAD hijacking may grant access to the victim process's memory, system/network resources, and possibly elevated privileges. Execution via LD_PRELOAD hijacking may also evade detection from security products since the execution is masked under a legitimate process.

ID: T1574.006
Sub-technique of:  T1574
Tactics: Persistence, Privilege Escalation, Defense Evasion
Platforms: Linux
Data Sources: Environment variable, File monitoring, Process monitoring
CAPEC ID: CAPEC-13, CAPEC-640
Version: 1.1
Created: 13 March 2020
Last Modified: 16 September 2020

Procedure Examples

Name Description
HiddenWasp

HiddenWasp adds itself as a shared object to the LD_PRELOAD environment variable.[6]
Rocke

Rocke has modified /etc/ld.so.preload to hook libc functions in order to hide the installed dropper and mining software in process lists.[7]

Mitigations

Mitigation Description
Execution Prevention

Adversaries may use new payloads to execute this technique. Identify and block potentially malicious software executed through hijacking by using application control solutions also capable of blocking libraries loaded by legitimate software.

Detection

Monitor for changes to environment variables and files associated with loading shared libraries such as LD_PRELOAD, as well as the commands to implement these changes.

Monitor processes for unusual activity (e.g., a process that does not use the network begins to do so). Track library metadata, such as a hash, and compare libraries that are loaded at process execution time against previous executions to detect differences that do not correlate with patching or updates.

References

  1. Kerrisk, M. (2020, June 13). Linux Programmer's Manual. Retrieved June 15, 2020.
  2. The Linux Documentation Project. (n.d.). Shared Libraries. Retrieved January 31, 2020.
  3. Itamar Turner-Trauring. (2017, April 18). “This will only hurt for a moment”: code injection on Linux and macOS with LD_PRELOAD. Retrieved December 20, 2017.
  4. skape. (2003, January 19). Linux x86 run-time process manipulation. Retrieved December 20, 2017.
  1. halflife. (1997, September 1). Shared Library Redirection Techniques. Retrieved December 20, 2017.
  2. Sanmillan, I. (2019, May 29). HiddenWasp Malware Stings Targeted Linux Systems. Retrieved June 24, 2019.
  3. Anomali Labs. (2019, March 15). Rocke Evolves Its Arsenal With a New Malware Family Written in Golang. Retrieved April 24, 2019.