hunting-for-process-injection-techniques

name	hunting-for-process-injection-techniques
description	Detects process injection techniques (MITRE T1055) — including CreateRemoteThread injection, process hollowing, and DLL injection — by analyzing Sysmon Event IDs 8 (CreateRemoteThread) and 10 (ProcessAccess) alongside EDR process telemetry. Use when hunting for in-memory code injection or defense evasion via legitimate process abuse on Windows endpoints.
domain	cybersecurity
subdomain	threat-hunting
tags	["process-injection","t1055","sysmon","createremotethread","dll-injection","edr","threat-hunting"]
version	1.0
author	mahipal
license	Apache-2.0
d3fend_techniques	["Executable Denylisting","Execution Isolation","File Metadata Consistency Validation","Content Format Conversion","File Content Analysis"]
nist_csf	["DE.CM-01","DE.AE-02","DE.AE-07","ID.RA-05"]
mitre_attack	["T1046","T1057","T1082","T1083","T1055"]

Hunting for Process Injection Techniques

Overview

Process injection (MITRE ATT&CK T1055) allows adversaries to execute code in the address space of another process, enabling defense evasion and privilege escalation. This skill detects injection techniques via Sysmon Event ID 8 (CreateRemoteThread), Event ID 10 (ProcessAccess with suspicious access rights), and analysis of source-target process relationships to distinguish legitimate from malicious injection.

When to Use

• When investigating security incidents that require hunting for process injection techniques
• When building detection rules or threat hunting queries for this domain
• When SOC analysts need structured procedures for this analysis type
• When validating security monitoring coverage for related attack techniques

Prerequisites

• Sysmon installed with Event IDs 8 and 10 enabled
• Process creation logs (Sysmon Event ID 1 or Windows 4688)
• Python 3.8+ with standard library
• JSON-formatted Sysmon event logs

Steps

1. Parse Sysmon Events — Ingest Event IDs 1, 8, and 10 from JSON log files
2. Detect CreateRemoteThread — Flag Event ID 8 with suspicious source-target process pairs
3. Analyze ProcessAccess Rights — Identify Event ID 10 with dangerous access masks (PROCESS_VM_WRITE, PROCESS_CREATE_THREAD)
4. Build Process Relationship Graph — Map source-to-target injection relationships
5. Filter Known Legitimate Pairs — Exclude known benign injection patterns (AV, debuggers, system processes)
6. Score Injection Severity — Apply risk scoring based on source process, target process, and access rights
7. Generate Hunt Report — Produce structured report with MITRE sub-technique mapping

Expected Output

• JSON report of detected injection events with severity scores
• Process injection relationship graph
• MITRE ATT&CK sub-technique mapping (T1055.001-T1055.012)
• False positive exclusion recommendations