Hijack Execution Flow: KernelCallbackTable T1574.013

Tactics: Stealth, Execution

Adversaries may abuse the KernelCallbackTable of a process to hijack its execution flow in order to run their own payloads. The KernelCallbackTable can be found in the Process Environment Block (PEB) and is initialized to an array of graphic functions available to a GUI process once user32.dll is loaded.

Authoring guide

Patterns shared across the 2 rules above: which fields they filter on, what specific values they look for, and what they exclude. The catalog normalizes field names across vendors so Sigma's Image, Elastic's process.name, and Splunk's process_name collapse into one row. Each rule contributes at most once per row.

Fields filtered most (7 distinct)

The fields most rules look at when detecting this technique. The How column shows the operators authors use (eq, wildcard, regex_match, match) and how often each appears. Sample values are concrete examples to start from, not an exhaustive list.

FieldRulesHowSample values
EventType2eq 2session_id_change, uid_change
host.os.type2eq 2
user.id2eq 20
event.category1eq 1process
event.type1eq 1change
parent_process_name1in 1bash, csh, dash
process_name1starts_with 1kworker

Top indicator values (14 distinct)

Specific (field, operator, value) combinations the rules check for, ranked by how many rules under this technique use each one. The Corpus reach column counts how many rules across the entire catalog (any technique) check the same combination. High numbers point to widely-used indicators that are likely noisy on their own; combine them with another condition for useful signal. Blank means the combination is specific to rules under this technique. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that use it.

FieldKindValueRules (here)Corpus reach
user.ideq
0
212
EventTypeeq
session_id_change
12
EventTypeeq
uid_change
15
event.categoryeq
process
1128
event.typeeq
change
177
parent_process_namein
bash
130
parent_process_namein
csh
126
parent_process_namein
dash
127
parent_process_namein
fish
126
parent_process_namein
ksh
126
parent_process_namein
sh
130
parent_process_namein
tcsh
126
parent_process_namein
zsh
129
process_namestarts_with
kworker
14

Exclusions (53 distinct)

Field/operator/value combinations excluded by rules under this technique (top-level not() clauses), sorted by how many rules exclude each. These are the false-positive paths the community has learned to filter out. A new rule that ignores the high-count entries here will likely fire on the same noisy paths. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that exclude it.

FieldKindValueRules excluding
Imageeq
/opt/gitlab/embedded/sbin/logrotate
1
Imageeq
/opt/puppetlabs/puppet/bin/puppet
1
Imageeq
/opt/puppetlabs/puppet/bin/ruby
1
Imageeq
/usr/lib/postfix/sbin/master
1
Imageeq
/usr/lib/snapd/snap-confine
1
Imageeq
/usr/libexec/postfix/local
1
Imageeq
/var/lib/snapd/snap/bin/node
1
Imagestarts_with
/bin/
1
Imagestarts_with
/etc/apt/universal-hooks/
1
Imagestarts_with
/opt/cisco/
1
Imagestarts_with
/opt/dynatrace/
1
Imagestarts_with
/opt/microsoft/
1
Imagestarts_with
/opt/psa/admin/
1
Imagestarts_with
/run/k3s/containerd/
1
Imagestarts_with
/sbin/
1

Rules under this technique

Every rule in the catalog tagged with this technique, grouped by vendor. Click a rule title for its full predicates, exclusions, and indicators.

Platform (all)
Domain (all)

Elastic 2 rules