Content Injection

Info

Content Injection

Adversaries may intercept or modify data in transit to insert malicious payloads into application traffic flows. This can include man‑in‑the‑middle attacks, rogue proxies, or protocol exploitation. By interfering at the network layer, attackers avoid needing direct access to servers or build systems.

In some cases, traffic injection leverages insecure transport protocols or partial encryption coverage. Attackers can forcibly rewrite HTTP responses, embed malicious JavaScript into legitimate pages, or hijack request headers to reconfigure application behavior. These injection paths often exploit trust between microservices or user devices, tricking the application into accepting foreign payloads that appear to originate from authorized components.

Examples in the Wild

Notable Content Injection Attacks:

Log4Shell The Log4Shell vulnerability demonstrated how content injection through specially crafted strings could achieve remote code execution. Attackers injected malicious JNDI LDAP/RMI lookup strings that, when logged by vulnerable applications, would trigger the execution of attacker-controlled Java code. This injection technique affected millions of Java applications worldwide.

WannaCry Ransomware The WannaCry ransomware leveraged content injection through specially crafted network packets sent to vulnerable SMB services. By injecting malformed content that triggered buffer overflows, attackers could achieve remote code execution and spread the ransomware autonomously across networks, ultimately infecting over 300,000 computers globally.

ShellTorch The ShellTorch attack utilized content injection through server-side request forgery (SSRF) and unsafe YAML deserialization to compromise PyTorch's TorchServe framework. By injecting malicious content into legitimate requests, attackers could execute arbitrary code within AI model serving infrastructure, highlighting how content injection can affect specialized application environments.