Last revision (mm/dd/yy): 01/30/2013
Binary planting is a general term for an attack where the attacker places (i.e., plants) a binary file containing malicious code to a local or remote file system in order for a vulnerable application to load and execute it.
There are various ways this attack can occur:
- Insecure access permissions on a local directory allow a local attacker to plant the malicious binary in a trusted location. (A typical example is an application installer not properly configuring permissions on directories used to store application files.)
- One application may be used for planting a malicious binary in another application's trusted location. (An example is the Internet Explorer - Safari blended threat vulnerability )
- The application searches for a binary in untrusted locations, possibly on remote file systems. (A typical example is a Windows application loading a dynamic link library from the current working directory after the latter has been set to a network shared folder.)
Insecure Access Permissions-based Attack
- A Windows application installer creates a root directory (C:\Application) and installs the application in it, but fails to limit write access to the directory for non-privileged users.
- Suppose the application (C:\Application\App.exe) loads the WININET.DLL library by calling LoadLibrary("WININET.DLL"). This library is expected to be found in the Windows System32 folder.
- Local user A plants a malicious WININET.DLL library in C:\Application
- Local user B launches the application, which loads and executes the malicious WININET.DLL instead of the legitimate one.
Current Working Directroy-based Attack
- Suppose a Windows application loads the DWMAPI.DLL library by calling LoadLibrary("DWMAPI.DLL"). This library is expected to be found in the Windows System32 folder, but only exists on Windows Vista and Windows 7.
- Suppose the application is associated with the ".bp" file extension.
- The attacker sets up a network shared folder and places files honeypot.bp and DWMAPI.DLL in this folder (possibly marking the latter as hidden).
- The attacker invites a Windows XP user to visit the shared folder with Windows Explorer.
- When the user double-clicks on honeypot.bp, user's Windows Explorer sets the current working directory to the remote share and launches the application for opening the file.
- The application tries to load DWMAPI.DLL, but failing to find it in the Windows system directories, it loads and executes it from the attacker's network share.
Related Threat Agents
- Access Controls
- File Integrity Checking
- CWE-114: Process Control
- Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability in iTunes for Windows - example of Insecure Access Permissions-based Attack
- Remote Binary Planting in Apple iTunes for Windows - example of Current Working Directroy-based Attack