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MITRE ATT&CK® Technique

T1540: Code Injection

Adversaries may use code injection attacks to implant arbitrary code into the address space of a running application. Code is then executed or interpreted by that application. Adversaries utilizing this technique may exploit capabilities to load code in at runtime through dynamic libraries.

With root access, `ptrace` can be used to target specific applications and load shared libraries into its process memory.[1][2] By injecting code, an adversary may be able to gain access to higher permissions held by the targeted application by executing as the targeted application. In addition, the adversary may be able to evade detection or enable persistent access to a system under the guise of the application’s process.[3]

MobileT1540TechniqueObject v1.0 Modified
Historical object

This ATT&CK object is revoked or deprecated in the current MITRE ATT&CK release.

It remains available for historical context and inbound links. Use current ATT&CK relationships and replacement guidance before basing detection or reporting work on this page.

Glexia's Take

Analyst summary pending validation

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Official MITRE ATT&CK definition

Code Injection

Adversaries may use code injection attacks to implant arbitrary code into the address space of a running application. Code is then executed or interpreted by that application. Adversaries utilizing this technique may exploit capabilities to load code in at runtime through dynamic libraries.

With root access, `ptrace` can be used to target specific applications and load shared libraries into its process memory.[1][2] By injecting code, an adversary may be able to gain access to higher permissions held by the targeted application by executing as the targeted application. In addition, the adversary may be able to evade detection or enable persistent access to a system under the guise of the application’s process.[3]

View the same entry on attack.mitre.org (MITRE-hosted reference; in-page links above use the Glexia ATT&CK library.)

Glexia analysis

How security teams should use this page

Treat this object as behavior context, not an attribution claim. Validate the related groups, software, data sources, and mitigations against official ATT&CK relationships and your own telemetry before making control-coverage decisions.

ATT&CK relationship table

Related techniques

This mirrors the MITRE pattern of making group, software, campaign, and technique relationships scannable. Relationship notes come from mirrored ATT&CK relationship text when available.

1 rows
Domain ID Name Relationship / procedure
Mobile T1631.001 Ptrace System Calls Sub-technique This object revoked by Ptrace System Calls.
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Change history

Object version and sync metadata

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ATT&CK release
19.1
Object version
1.0
Created
Modified
Raw hash
6d26b1360d1c3bc7...
Imported snapshots across ATT&CK releases (1)
Release Bundle imported Object version Modified Status Raw hash
19.1 1.0 Current bundle Revoked 6d26b1360d1c…
Raw source

Mirrored ATT&CK source object

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Source references

External references and citations

MITRE external references are preserved separately from Glexia analysis so citations remain traceable to their original source records.

  1. [1]
    Shunix Code Injection Mar 2016

    Shunix . (2016, March 22). Shared Library Injection in Android. Retrieved October 30, 2019.

    Open source URL
  2. [2]
    Fadeev Code Injection Aug 2018

    Alexandr Fadeev. (2018, August 26). Shared Library Injection on Android 8.0. Retrieved October 30, 2019.

    Open source URL
  3. [3]
    Google Triada June 2019

    Lukasz Siewierski. (2019, June 6). PHA Family Highlights: Triada. Retrieved July 16, 2019.

    Open source URL
  4. [4]
    mitre-attack T1540
    Open source URL
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