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Detection Strategies DET0435 — Detection Strategy for Hijack Execution Flow: Dynamic Linker Hijacking
DET0435

Detection Strategy for Hijack Execution Flow: Dynamic Linker Hijacking

2 analytic(s) · 1 technique(s) detected

Analytics

2
AN1209 Analytic 1209
Linux

Detection focuses on identifying abuse of LD_PRELOAD and related linker variables. Defender perspective: monitor unexpected setting or modification of LD_PRELOAD in shell initialization scripts or environment exports, file creation of suspicious shared libraries, and correlation of these modifications with anomalous process execution. Key signals include execve events with LD_PRELOAD defined, newly created .so files in user directories, and processes hooking libc functions exhibiting abnormal behavior.

auditd:SYSCALL execve with LD_PRELOAD or linker-related environment variables set auditd:PATH creation of .so files in non-standard directories (e.g., /tmp, /home/*) linux:osquery process environment variables containing LD_PRELOAD
[WatchedEnvVars] Environment variables like LD_PRELOAD, LD_LIBRARY_PATH. Defenders can tune based on development vs. production systems.
[MonitoredDirectories] Non-standard library paths (e.g., /tmp, user home dirs). May be tuned to reduce false positives from benign development activity.
[CorrelationWindow] Timeframe to correlate suspicious library creation with process execution that loads it.
AN1210 Analytic 1210
macOS

Detection centers on DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES and DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH abuse. Defender perspective: monitor for modification of these environment variables in shell or plist files, file creation of dylibs in user-controlled paths, and correlation of environment variable usage with unexpected module loads by user applications. Suspicious indicators include processes with DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES set, execution of applications loading untrusted dylibs, and anomalies in module load history.

macos:unifiedlog execution of process with DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES set macos:unifiedlog create/modify dylib in monitored directories macos:unifiedlog loading of unexpected dylibs compared to historical baselines
[WatchedEnvVars] macOS linker variables like DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES. Tunable to development environments where use may be expected.
[BaselineDylibs] Known dylibs typically loaded by apps. Deviations highlight potential hijacking.
[MonitoredDirectories] Locations where dylibs are monitored for tampering (e.g., /Applications, /System/Library, /tmp).

Detected Techniques

1

Details

MITRE ID
DET0435
STIX ID
x-mitre-detection-strategy--da2107bd-4733-4d0b-a35c-33f7883e9ae9
Analytics
2
Techniques Detected
1
By Tactic
Stealth
1
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