Process Injection

Category: Privilege & Access Control
Severity: Critical
MITRE ATT&CK Mapping: T1055 (Process Injection)

Description

Injecting malicious code into legitimate MCP processes to execute with the privileges of the target process, enabling privilege escalation and system compromise.

Technical Details

Attack Vector

  • Process memory manipulation
  • Code injection techniques
  • Dynamic library injection
  • Process hollowing attacks

Common Techniques

  • DLL injection
  • Process hollowing
  • Thread execution hijacking
  • Memory patching

Impact

  • Privilege Escalation: Executing with target process privileges
  • System Compromise: Complete system takeover
  • Stealth Execution: Hidden malicious code execution
  • Security Bypass: Bypassing security controls

Detection Methods

Process Monitoring

  • Monitor process behavior
  • Track process injection attempts
  • Detect unusual process activities
  • Analyze process integrity

Memory Monitoring

  • Monitor memory modifications
  • Track code injection
  • Detect memory manipulation
  • Analyze memory integrity

Mitigation Strategies

Process Protection

  • Implement process isolation
  • Use code signing
  • Deploy process monitoring
  • Regular integrity checks

Memory Protection

  • Implement memory protection
  • Use address space layout randomization
  • Deploy memory monitoring
  • Monitor code execution

Real-World Examples

Example 1: DLL Injection Attack

# Vulnerable process allowing DLL injection
import ctypes
import os

def load_plugin(plugin_path):
    # Insufficient validation of plugin path
    if os.path.exists(plugin_path):
        # Loads arbitrary DLL
        library = ctypes.CDLL(plugin_path)
        return library.initialize()
    
    # Attacker injects malicious DLL
    # plugin_path = "C:\\malicious.dll"

Example 2: Process Memory Manipulation

# Vulnerable process memory handling
import mmap
import struct

class MCPProcessManager:
    def __init__(self):
        self.processes = {}
    
    def inject_code(self, process_id, code):
        # Insufficient validation
        if process_id in self.processes:
            process = self.processes[process_id]
            
            # Directly writes to process memory
            process.memory.write(code)
            process.memory.flush()
        
        # Attacker injects malicious code
        # code = shellcode_payload

Example 3: Thread Hijacking

# Vulnerable thread management
import threading

class MCPThreadManager:
    def __init__(self):
        self.threads = {}
    
    def create_thread(self, thread_id, target_function):
        # Insufficient validation of target function
        thread = threading.Thread(target=target_function)
        self.threads[thread_id] = thread
        thread.start()
    
    def hijack_thread(self, thread_id, new_function):
        # Vulnerable: allows thread hijacking
        if thread_id in self.threads:
            thread = self.threads[thread_id]
            # Modifies thread execution
            thread._target = new_function
        
        # Attacker hijacks legitimate thread
        # new_function = malicious_payload

References & Sources

  • Academic Paper - “Model Context Protocol (MCP): Landscape, Security Threats, and Future Research Directions”
  • Strobes Security - “MCP and Its Critical Vulnerabilities”

Process injection represents a critical attack technique that can completely compromise system security by executing malicious code with legitimate process privileges.