MITRE ATT&CKsub-technique

T1055.002 Portable Executable Injection

Published 2020-01-14 Modified 2026-05-12 Official page ↗
Domain
enterprise
Tactics
Stealth, Privilege Escalation
Platforms
Windows
Version
2.0
Created
2020-01-14

Description

Adversaries may inject portable executables (PE) into processes in order to evade process-based defenses as well as possibly elevate privileges. PE injection is a method of executing arbitrary code in the address space of a separate live process. PE injection is commonly performed by copying code (perhaps without a file on disk) into the virtual address space of the target process before invoking it via a new thread. The write can be performed with native Windows API calls such as VirtualAllocEx and WriteProcessMemory, then invoked with CreateRemoteThread or additional code (ex: shellcode). The displacement of the injected code does introduce the additional requirement for functionality to remap memory references. 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 PE injection may also evade detection from security products since the execution is masked under a legitimate process.

Related

Subtechnique of · MITRE ATT&CK (1)

  • T1055 Process Injection technique

Tactic · MITRE ATT&CK (2)

Referenced by MITRE ATT&CK · mitigates (1)

  • M1040 Behavior Prevention on Endpoint mitigation

Referenced by MITRE ATT&CK · uses (15)

  • S9037 RustyWater software (malware)
  • S9024 SPAWNCHIMERA software (malware)
  • C0057 3CX Supply Chain Attack campaign
  • S1229 Havoc software (malware)
  • S1158 DUSTPAN software (malware)
  • S1145 Pikabot software (malware)
  • S1138 Gootloader software (malware)
  • S1063 Brute Ratel C4 software (tool)
  • S0681 Lizar software (malware)
  • G0106 Rocke group
  • S0342 GreyEnergy software (malware)
  • S0330 Zeus Panda software (malware)
  • G0078 Gorgon Group group
  • S0260 InvisiMole software (malware)
  • S0030 Carbanak software (malware)

Referenced by Compliance · mitigates (7)

  • CIS-13.7 Deploy a Host-Based Intrusion Prevention Solution CIS Safeguard v8.1
  • NIST-AC-6 Least Privilege NIST 800-53 control
  • NIST-SC-18 Mobile Code NIST 800-53 control
  • NIST-SC-7 Boundary Protection NIST 800-53 control
  • NIST-SI-2 Flaw Remediation NIST 800-53 control
  • NIST-SI-3 Malicious Code Protection NIST 800-53 control
  • NIST-SI-4 System Monitoring NIST 800-53 control

References