Adversaries may execute their own malicious payloads by hijacking how the .NET AppDomainManager loads assemblies. The .NET framework uses the AppDomainManager class to create and manage one or more isolated runtime environments (called application domains) inside a process to host the execution of .NET applications. Assemblies (.exe or .dll binaries compiled to run as .NET code) may be loaded into an application domain as executable code.[1]
Known as "AppDomainManager injection," adversaries may execute arbitrary code by hijacking how .NET applications load assemblies. For example, malware may create a custom application domain inside a target process to load and execute an arbitrary assembly. Alternatively, configuration files (.config) or process environment variables that define .NET runtime settings may be tampered with to instruct otherwise benign .NET applications to load a malicious assembly (identified by name) into the target process.[2][3][4]
| ID | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| S1152 | IMAPLoader |
IMAPLoader is executed via the AppDomainManager injection technique.[5] |
| ID | Mitigation | Description |
|---|---|---|
| M1022 | Restrict File and Directory Permissions |
Install .NET applications and related software in write-protected locations. Set directory access controls to prevent file writes to the search paths for .NET applications, both in the folders where applications are run from and the standard resources folders. |
| ID | Name | Analytic ID | Analytic Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| DET0517 | Detection Strategy for Hijack Execution Flow through the AppDomainManager on Windows. | AN1433 |
Detection focuses on unauthorized manipulation of .NET AppDomainManager behavior. Defenders may observe suspicious creation of new AppDomains within trusted processes, anomalous loading of assemblies via non-standard configuration files, or registry/environment variable changes redirecting AppDomainManager to malicious assemblies. Correlated events include config file tampering, new process creation of .NET host processes (e.g., w3wp.exe, powershell.exe) with modified runtime parameters, and module loads of unusual or unsigned .NET DLLs. |