Hijack Execution Flow: DLL Search Order Hijacking

Adversaries may execute their own malicious payloads by hijacking the search order used to load DLLs. Windows systems use a common method to look for required DLLs to load into a program. [1][2] Hijacking DLL loads may be for the purpose of establishing persistence as well as elevating privileges and/or evading restrictions on file execution.

There are many ways an adversary can hijack DLL loads. Adversaries may plant trojan dynamic-link library files (DLLs) in a directory that will be searched before the location of a legitimate library that will be requested by a program, causing Windows to load their malicious library when it is called for by the victim program. Adversaries may also perform DLL preloading, also called binary planting attacks, [3] by placing a malicious DLL with the same name as an ambiguously specified DLL in a location that Windows searches before the legitimate DLL. Often this location is the current working directory of the program.[4] Remote DLL preloading attacks occur when a program sets its current directory to a remote location such as a Web share before loading a DLL. [5]

Adversaries may also directly modify the search order via DLL redirection, which after being enabled (in the Registry and creation of a redirection file) may cause a program to load a different DLL.[6][7][8]

If a search order-vulnerable program is configured to run at a higher privilege level, then the adversary-controlled DLL that is loaded will also be executed at the higher level. In this case, the technique could be used for privilege escalation from user to administrator or SYSTEM or from administrator to SYSTEM, depending on the program. Programs that fall victim to path hijacking may appear to behave normally because malicious DLLs may be configured to also load the legitimate DLLs they were meant to replace.

ID: T1574.001
Sub-technique of:  T1574
Platforms: Windows
Contributors: Stefan Kanthak; Travis Smith, Tripwire
Version: 1.1
Created: 13 March 2020
Last Modified: 30 March 2023

Procedure Examples

ID Name Description
G0096 APT41

APT41 has used search order hijacking to execute malicious payloads, such as Winnti RAT.[9]

G0143 Aquatic Panda

Aquatic Panda has used DLL search-order hijacking to load exe, dll, and dat files into memory.[10]

S0373 Astaroth

Astaroth can launch itself via DLL Search Order Hijacking.[11]

G0135 BackdoorDiplomacy

BackdoorDiplomacy has executed DLL search order hijacking.[12]

S0415 BOOSTWRITE

BOOSTWRITE has exploited the loading of the legitimate Dwrite.dll file by actually loading the gdi library, which then loads the gdiplus library and ultimately loads the local Dwrite dll.[13]

S1063 Brute Ratel C4

Brute Ratel C4 has used search order hijacking to load a malicious payload DLL as a dependency to a benign application packaged in the same ISO.[14]

S0631 Chaes

Chaes has used search order hijacking to load a malicious DLL.[15]

S0538 Crutch

Crutch can persist via DLL search order hijacking on Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Microsoft OneDrive.[16]

S0134 Downdelph

Downdelph uses search order hijacking of the Windows executable sysprep.exe to escalate privileges.[17]

S0363 Empire

Empire contains modules that can discover and exploit various DLL hijacking opportunities.[18]

G0120 Evilnum

Evilnum has used the malware variant, TerraTV, to load a malicious DLL placed in the TeamViewer directory, instead of the original Windows DLL located in a system folder.[19]

S0182 FinFisher

A FinFisher variant uses DLL search order hijacking.[20][21]

S0661 FoggyWeb

FoggyWeb's loader has used DLL Search Order Hijacking to load malicious code instead of the legitimate version.dll during the Microsoft.IdentityServer.ServiceHost.exe execution process.[22]

S0009 Hikit

Hikit has used DLL Search Order Hijacking to load oci.dll as a persistence mechanism.[23]

S0070 HTTPBrowser

HTTPBrowser abuses the Windows DLL load order by using a legitimate Symantec anti-virus binary, VPDN_LU.exe, to load a malicious DLL that mimics a legitimate Symantec DLL, navlu.dll.[24]

S0260 InvisiMole

InvisiMole can be launched by using DLL search order hijacking in which the wrapper DLL is placed in the same folder as explorer.exe and loaded during startup into the Windows Explorer process instead of the legitimate library.[25]

S0530 Melcoz

Melcoz can use DLL hijacking to bypass security controls.[11]

G0045 menuPass

menuPass has used DLL search order hijacking.[26]

S0280 MirageFox

MirageFox is likely loaded via DLL hijacking into a legitimate McAfee binary.[27]

S0013 PlugX

PlugX has the ability to use DLL search order hijacking for installation on targeted systems.[28]

S0194 PowerSploit

PowerSploit contains a collection of Privesc-PowerUp modules that can discover and exploit DLL hijacking opportunities in services and processes.[29][30]

S0113 Prikormka

Prikormka uses DLL search order hijacking for persistence by saving itself as ntshrui.dll to the Windows directory so it will load before the legitimate ntshrui.dll saved in the System32 subdirectory.[31]

S0458 Ramsay

Ramsay can hijack outdated Windows application dependencies with malicious versions of its own DLL payload.[32]

S0153 RedLeaves

RedLeaves is launched through use of DLL search order hijacking to load a malicious dll.[33]

G0048 RTM

RTM has used search order hijacking to force TeamViewer to load a malicious DLL.[34]

G0027 Threat Group-3390

Threat Group-3390 has performed DLL search order hijacking to execute their payload.[35]

G0131 Tonto Team

Tonto Team abuses a legitimate and signed Microsoft executable to launch a malicious DLL.[36]

S0612 WastedLocker

WastedLocker has performed DLL hijacking before execution.[37]

S0109 WEBC2

Variants of WEBC2 achieve persistence by using DLL search order hijacking, usually by copying the DLL file to %SYSTEMROOT% (C:\WINDOWS\ntshrui.dll).[38]

G0107 Whitefly

Whitefly has used search order hijacking to run the loader Vcrodat.[39]

Mitigations

ID Mitigation Description
M1047 Audit

Use auditing tools capable of detecting DLL search order hijacking opportunities on systems within an enterprise and correct them. Toolkits like the PowerSploit framework contain PowerUp modules that can be used to explore systems for DLL hijacking weaknesses.[40]

Use the program sxstrace.exe that is included with Windows along with manual inspection to check manifest files for side-by-side problems in software.[41]

M1038 Execution Prevention

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

M1044 Restrict Library Loading

Disallow loading of remote DLLs. This is included by default in Windows Server 2012+ and is available by patch for XP+ and Server 2003+.

Enable Safe DLL Search Mode to force search for system DLLs in directories with greater restrictions (e.g. %SYSTEMROOT%)to be used before local directory DLLs (e.g. a user's home directory)

The Safe DLL Search Mode can be enabled via Group Policy at Computer Configuration > [Policies] > Administrative Templates > MSS (Legacy): MSS: (SafeDllSearchMode) Enable Safe DLL search mode. The associated Windows Registry key for this is located at HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\SafeDLLSearchMode[42][1]

Detection

ID Data Source Data Component Detects
DS0022 File File Creation

Monitor newly constructed .manifest and .local redirection files that do not correlate with software updates.

File Modification

Monitor for changed made to .manifest/.local redirection files, or file systems for moving, renaming, replacing, or modifying DLLs. Changes in the set of DLLs that are loaded by a process (compared with past behavior) that do not correlate with known software, patches, etc., are suspicious.

DS0011 Module Module Load

Monitor DLLs loaded into a process and detect DLLs that have the same file name but abnormal paths.

References

  1. Microsoft. (2018, May 31). Dynamic-Link Library Search Order. Retrieved November 30, 2014.
  2. Harbour, N. (2010, July 15). Malware Persistence without the Windows Registry. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
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  10. Wiley, B. et al. (2021, December 29). OverWatch Exposes AQUATIC PANDA in Possession of Log4Shell Exploit Tools During Hands-on Intrusion Attempt. Retrieved January 18, 2022.
  11. GReAT. (2020, July 14). The Tetrade: Brazilian banking malware goes global. Retrieved November 9, 2020.
  12. Adam Burgher. (2021, June 10). BackdoorDiplomacy: Upgrading from Quarian to Turian. Retrieved September 1, 2021
  13. Carr, N, et all. (2019, October 10). Mahalo FIN7: Responding to the Criminal Operators’ New Tools and Techniques. Retrieved October 11, 2019.
  14. Harbison, M. and Renals, P. (2022, July 5). When Pentest Tools Go Brutal: Red-Teaming Tool Being Abused by Malicious Actors. Retrieved February 1, 2023.
  15. Salem, E. (2020, November 17). CHAES: Novel Malware Targeting Latin American E-Commerce. Retrieved June 30, 2021.
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  1. Ramin Nafisi. (2021, September 27). FoggyWeb: Targeted NOBELIUM malware leads to persistent backdoor. Retrieved October 4, 2021.
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