T1631.001: Ptrace System Calls
Essential information
- MITRE technique ID
T1631.001- Confidence
- 100/100
- Revoked
- No
- Published
- 30/03/2022 21:05
- Modified
- 27/03/2026 01:41
- Author / Source
- The MITRE Corporation
Platforms
android iOS
Description
Adversaries may inject malicious code into processes via ptrace (process trace) system calls in order to evade process-based defenses as well as possibly elevate privileges. Ptrace system call injection is a method of executing arbitrary code in the address space of a separate live process.
Ptrace system call injection involves attaching to and modifying a running process. The ptrace system call enables a debugging process to observe and control another process (and each individual thread), including changing memory and register values.(Citation: PTRACE man) Ptrace system call injection is commonly performed by writing arbitrary code into a running process (e.g., by using `malloc`) then invoking that memory with `PTRACE_SETREGS` to set the register containing the next instruction to execute. Ptrace system call injection can also be done with `PTRACE_POKETEXT`/`PTRACE_POKEDATA`, which copy data to a specific address in the target process's memory (e.g., the current address of the next instruction).(Citation: PTRACE man)(Citation: Medium Ptrace JUL 2018)
Ptrace system call injection may not be possible when targeting processes with high-privileges, and on some systems those that are non-child processes.(Citation: BH Linux Inject)
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 ptrace system call injection may also evade detection from security products since the execution is masked under a legitimate process.
Kill chain phases
| Kill chain | Phase |
|---|---|
| mitre-mobile-attack | defense-evasion |
| mitre-mobile-attack | privilege-escalation |
Marking (TLP)
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