Hijacking

DLL hijacking, a sophisticated defense evasion technique within the Deepening Control phase, involves exploiting the Windows dynamic-link library loading mechanism to execute malicious code. Attackers leverage predictable DLL search order behaviors by placing malicious DLLs with names matching legitimate libraries in locations that are searched before the authentic DLL's location. When an application attempts to load the legitimate DLL without specifying an absolute path, the operating system loads the malicious version first, executing unauthorized code with the privileges of the calling process. This technique is particularly effective because it leverages trusted processes to execute malicious code, bypassing application control mechanisms and appearing legitimate to security monitoring tools. Attackers commonly target application directories, the current working directory, or system directories to achieve persistence and privilege escalation while evading detection.