Process Injection

ABK has the ability to inject shellcode into svchost.exe.^[1]

Agent Tesla can inject into known, vulnerable binaries on targeted hosts.^[2]

APT32 malware has injected a Cobalt Strike beacon into Rundll32.exe.^[3]

APT37 injects its malware variant, ROKRAT, into the cmd.exe process.^[4]

APT41 malware TIDYELF loaded the main WINTERLOVE component by injecting it into the iexplore.exe process.^[5]

Attor's dispatcher can inject itself into running processes to gain higher privileges and to evade detection.^[6]

AuditCred can inject code from files to other running processes.^[7]

Avenger has the ability to inject shellcode into svchost.exe.^[1]

Backdoor.Oldrea injects itself into explorer.exe.^[8][9]

Bazar can inject code through calling VirtualAllocExNuma.^[10]

BBK has the ability to inject shellcode into svchost.exe.^[1]

Cardinal RAT injects into a newly spawned process created from a native Windows executable.^[11]

Clambling can inject into the svchost.exe process for execution.^[12]

Cobalt Group has injected code into trusted processes.^[13]

Cobalt Strike can inject a variety of payloads into processes dynamically chosen by the adversary.^[14][15]

Donut includes a subproject DonutTest to inject shellcode into a target process.^[16]

Dyre has the ability to directly inject its code into the web browser process.^[17]

Egregor can inject its payload into iexplore.exe process.^[18]

Empire contains multiple modules for injecting into processes, such as Invoke-PSInject.^[19]

Gazer injects its communication module into an Internet accessible process through which it performs C2.^[20][21]

gh0st RAT can inject malicious code into process created by the "Command_Create&Inject" function.^[22]

GuLoader has the ability to inject shellcode into a donor processes that is started in a suspended state. GuLoader has previously used RegAsm as a donor process.^[23]

Honeybee uses a batch file to load a DLL into the svchost.exe process.^[24]

HOPLIGHT has injected into running processes.^[25]

HTRAN can inject into into running processes.^[26]

HyperBro can run shellcode it injects into a newly created process.^[27]

InvisiMole can inject itself into another process to avoid detection including use of a technique called ListPlanting that customizes the sorting algorithm in a ListView structure.^[28]

IronNetInjector can use an IronPython scripts to load a .NET injector to inject a payload into its own or a remote process.^[29]

JHUHUGIT performs code injection injecting its own functions to browser processes.^[30][31]

JPIN can inject content into lsass.exe to load a module.^[32]

Kimsuky has used Win7Elevate to inject malicious code into explorer.exe.^[33]

Lizar can migrate the loader into another process.^[34]

NavRAT copies itself into a running Internet Explorer process to evade detection.^[35]

NETWIRE can inject code into system processes including notepad.exe, svchost.exe, and vbc.exe.^[36]

Operation Wocao has injected code into a selected process, which in turn launches a command as a child process of the original.^[37]

Pandora can start and inject code into a new svchost process.^[38]

PLATINUM has used various methods of process injection including hot patching.^[32]

PoshC2 contains multiple modules for injecting into processes, such as Invoke-PSInject.^[39]

QakBot can inject itself into processes including explore.exe, Iexplore.exe, and Mobsync.exe.^{[40][41][42][43]}

Remcos has a command to hide itself through injecting into another process.^[44]

REvil can inject itself into running processes on a compromised host.^[45]

ROKRAT can use VirtualAlloc, WriteProcessMemory, and then CreateRemoteThread to execute shellcode within the address space of Notepad.exe.^[46]

Ryuk has injected itself into remote processes to encrypt files using a combination of VirtualAlloc, WriteProcessMemory, and CreateRemoteThread.^[47]

ShadowPad has injected an install module into a newly created process.^[48]

Sharpshooter has leveraged embedded shellcode to inject a downloader into the memory of Word.^[49]

Silence has injected a DLL library containing a Trojan into the fwmain32.exe process.^[50]

SILENTTRINITY can inject shellcode directly into Excel.exe or a specific process.^[51]

Sliver can inject code into local and remote processes.^[52][53]

SLOTHFULMEDIA can inject into running processes on a compromised host.^[54]

Smoke Loader injects into the Internet Explorer process.^[55]

StoneDrill has relied on injecting its payload directly into the process memory of the victim's preferred browser.^[56]

TrickBot has used Nt* Native API functions to inject code into legitimate processes such as wermgr.exe.^[57]

TSCookie has the ability to inject code into the svchost.exe, iexplorer.exe, explorer.exe, and default browser processes.^[58]

Turla has also used PowerSploit's Invoke-ReflectivePEInjection.ps1 to reflectively load a PowerShell payload into a random process on the victim system.^[59]

WarzoneRAT has the ability to inject malicious DLLs into a specific process for privilege escalation.^[60]

Waterbear can inject decrypted shellcode into the LanmanServer service.^[61]

WhisperGate has the ability to inject its fourth stage into a suspended process created by the legitimate Windows utility InstallUtil.exe.^[62]

Wiarp creates a backdoor through which remote attackers can inject files into running processes.^[63]

Wingbird performs multiple process injections to hijack system processes and execute malicious code.^[64]

Some endpoint security solutions can be configured to block some types of process injection based on common sequences of behavior that occur during the injection process. For example, on Windows 10, Attack Surface Reduction (ASR) rules may prevent Office applications from code injection. ^[65]

Utilize Yama (ex: /proc/sys/kernel/yama/ptrace_scope) to mitigate ptrace based process injection by restricting the use of ptrace to privileged users only. Other mitigation controls involve the deployment of security kernel modules that provide advanced access control and process restrictions such as SELinux, grsecurity, and AppArmor.