Adversaries may inject malicious code into processes via VDSO hijacking in order to evade process-based defenses as well as possibly elevate privileges. Virtual dynamic shared object (vdso) hijacking is a method of executing arbitrary code in the address space of a separate live process.

VDSO hijacking involves redirecting calls to dynamically linked shared libraries. Memory protections may prevent writing executable code to a process via Ptrace System Calls. However, an adversary may hijack the syscall interface code stubs mapped into a process from the vdso shared object to execute syscalls to open and map a malicious shared object. This code can then be invoked by redirecting the execution flow of the process via patched memory address references stored in a process' global offset table (which store absolute addresses of mapped library functions).^{[1],[2],[3],[4]}

Running code in the context of another process may allow access to the process's memory, system/network resources, and possibly elevated privileges. Execution via VDSO hijacking may also evade detection from security products since the execution is masked under a legitimate process.

References

1. O'Neill, R. (2009, May). Modern Day ELF Runtime infection via GOT poisoning. Retrieved March 15, 2020.
2. backtrace. (2016, April 22). ELF SHARED LIBRARY INJECTION FORENSICS. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
3. Petersson, J. (2005, August 14). What is linux-gate.so.1?. Retrieved June 16, 2020.
4. Drysdale, D. (2014, July 16). Anatomy of a system call, part 2. Retrieved June 16, 2020.

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