Adversaries may execute their own malicious payloads by hijacking the way an operating system runs applications. Hijacking execution flow can be for the purposes of persistence since this hijacked execution may reoccur at later points in time.
On Android, adversaries may overwrite the standard OS API library with a malicious alternative to hook into core functions to achieve persistence. By doing this, the adversary’s code will be executed every time the overwritten API function is called by an app on the infected device.
| ID | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| S0420 | Dvmap |
Dvmap replaces |
| S0408 | FlexiSpy | |
| S0494 | Zen |
Zen can install itself on the system partition to achieve persistence. Zen can also replace |
| ID | Mitigation | Description |
|---|---|---|
| M1002 | Attestation |
Device attestation could detect unauthorized operating system modifications. |
| M1004 | System Partition Integrity |
Android Verified Boot can detect unauthorized modifications made to the system partition, which could lead to execution flow hijacking.[4] |
| ID | Data Source | Data Component | Detects |
|---|---|---|---|
| DS0013 | Sensor Health | Host Status |
Mobile threat defense agents could detect unauthorized operating system modifications by using attestation. |