Hijack Execution Flow: AppDomainManager T1574.014

Tactics: Stealth, Execution

Adversaries may execute their own malicious payloads by hijacking how the .NET `AppDomainManager` loads assemblies. The .NET framework uses the `AppDomainManager` class to create and manage one or more isolated runtime environments (called application domains) inside a process to host the execution of .NET applications. Assemblies (`.exe` or `.dll` binaries compiled to run as .NET code) may be loaded into an application domain as executable code.

Events covered

1 catalog event is tagged with this technique by at least one rule.

ProviderEventTitle
SysmonEvent ID 11FileCreate

Authoring guide

Patterns shared across the 1 rule 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 (8 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
TargetFilename1in 1*\\perflogs\\*, *\\temp\\*, *\\users\\administrator\\music\\*
config_present1eq 11
dll_present1eq 11
event_action1eq 1created
exe_base_names1eq 1
exe_present1eq 11
file_count1ge 13
file_name1in 1*.dll, *.exe, *.exe.config

Top indicator values (19 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
TargetFilenamein
*\\perflogs\\*
1
TargetFilenamein
*\\temp\\*
12
TargetFilenamein
*\\users\\administrator\\music\\*
1
TargetFilenamein
*\\users\\default\\*
1
TargetFilenamein
*\\users\\public\\*
1
TargetFilenamein
*\\windows\\debug\\*
1
TargetFilenamein
*\\windows\\fonts\\*
1
TargetFilenamein
*\\windows\\media\\*
1
TargetFilenamein
*\\windows\\repair\\*
1
TargetFilenamein
*\\windows\\servicing\\*
12
TargetFilenamein
*recycle.bin*
12
config_presenteq
1
1
dll_presenteq
1
1
event_actioneq
created
110
exe_presenteq
1
1
file_countge
3
1
file_namein
*.dll
16
file_namein
*.exe
17
file_namein
*.exe.config
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)

Splunk 1 rule