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T1055.014 VDSO Hijacking

Adversaries may inject malicious code into processes via VDSO hijacking in order to evade process-based defenses as well as possibly elevate privileges. Virtual dynamic shared object (vdso) hijacking is a method of executing arbitrary code in the address space of a separate live process.

VDSO hijacking involves redirecting calls to dynamically linked shared libraries. Memory protections may prevent writing executable code to a process via Ptrace System Calls. However, an adversary may hijack the syscall interface code stubs mapped into a process from the vdso shared object to execute syscalls to open and map a malicious shared object. This code can then be invoked by redirecting the execution flow of the process via patched memory address references stored in a process’ global offset table (which store absolute addresses of mapped library functions).6172

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 VDSO hijacking may also evade detection from security products since the execution is masked under a legitimate process.

Item Value
ID T1055.014
Sub-techniques T1055.001, T1055.002, T1055.003, T1055.004, T1055.005, T1055.008, T1055.009, T1055.011, T1055.012, T1055.013, T1055.014, T1055.015
Tactics TA0005, TA0004
Platforms Linux
Version 1.1
Created 14 January 2020
Last Modified 07 July 2022

Mitigations

ID Mitigation Description
M1040 Behavior Prevention on Endpoint Some endpoint security solutions can be configured to block some types of process injection based on common sequences of behavior that occur during the injection process.

Detection

ID Data Source Data Component
DS0011 Module Module Load
DS0009 Process OS API Execution

References

  1. backtrace. (2016, April 22). ELF SHARED LIBRARY INJECTION FORENSICS. Retrieved June 15, 2020. ↩

  2. Drysdale, D. (2014, July 16). Anatomy of a system call, part 2. Retrieved June 16, 2020. ↩

  3. GNU. (2010, February 5). The GNU Accounting Utilities. Retrieved December 20, 2017. ↩

  4. Jahoda, M. et al.. (2017, March 14). redhat Security Guide - Chapter 7 - System Auditing. Retrieved December 20, 2017. ↩

  5. Ligh, M.H. et al.. (2014, July). The Art of Memory Forensics: Detecting Malware and Threats in Windows, Linux, and Mac Memory. Retrieved December 20, 2017. ↩

  6. O’Neill, R. (2009, May). Modern Day ELF Runtime infection via GOT poisoning. Retrieved March 15, 2020. ↩

  7. Petersson, J. (2005, August 14). What is linux-gate.so.1?. Retrieved June 16, 2020. ↩

  8. stderr. (2014, February 14). Detecting Userland Preload Rootkits. Retrieved December 20, 2017. ↩