CAPEC-234

Hijacking a privileged process
Medium
Draft
2014-06-23
00h00 +00:00
2021-10-21
00h00 +00:00
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Descriptions CAPEC

An adversary gains control of a process that is assigned elevated privileges in order to execute arbitrary code with those privileges. Some processes are assigned elevated privileges on an operating system, usually through association with a particular user, group, or role. If an attacker can hijack this process, they will be able to assume its level of privilege in order to execute their own code.

Informations CAPEC

Execution Flow

1) Explore

[Find process with elevated priveleges] The adversary probes for processes running with elevated privileges.

Technique
  • On Windows, use the process explorer's security tab to see if a process is running with administror privileges.
  • On Linux, use the ps command to view running processes and pipe the output to a search for a particular user, or the root user.
2) Experiment

[Find vulnerability in running process] The adversary looks for a vulnerability in the running process that would allow for arbitrary code execution with the privilege of the running process.

Technique
  • Look for improper input validation
  • Look for a buffer overflow which may be exploited if an adversary can inject unvalidated data.
  • Utilize system utilities that support process control that have been inadequately secured
3) Exploit

[Execute arbitrary code] The adversary exploits the vulnerability that they have found and hijacks the running process.

Prerequisites

The targeted process or operating system must contain a bug that allows attackers to hijack the targeted process.

Resources Required

None: No specialized resources are required to execute this type of attack.

Related Weaknesses

CWE-ID Weakness Name

CWE-732

 Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource
The product specifies permissions for a security-critical resource in a way that allows that resource to be read or modified by unintended actors.

CWE-648

 Incorrect Use of Privileged APIs
The product does not conform to the API requirements for a function call that requires extra privileges. This could allow attackers to gain privileges by causing the function to be called incorrectly.

Submission

Name Organization Date Date release
CAPEC Content Team The MITRE Corporation 2014-06-23 +00:00

Modifications

Name Organization Date Comment
CAPEC Content Team The MITRE Corporation 2017-01-09 +00:00 Updated Related_Attack_Patterns
CAPEC Content Team The MITRE Corporation 2017-08-04 +00:00 Updated Resources_Required
CAPEC Content Team The MITRE Corporation 2020-07-30 +00:00 Updated Related_Attack_Patterns, Taxonomy_Mappings
CAPEC Content Team The MITRE Corporation 2021-06-24 +00:00 Updated Taxonomy_Mappings
CAPEC Content Team The MITRE Corporation 2021-10-21 +00:00 Updated Description, Execution_Flow, Related_Attack_Patterns