DLL Hijacking Exploit

by Jago Maniscalchi // October 30, 2010 // Exploits and Malware // No comments

The DLL hijack vulnerability is triggered when a vulnerable file type is opened from within a directory controlled by the attacker. This directory can be a USB drive, an extracted archive, or a remote network share. In most cases, the user will have to browse to the directory and then open the target file type for this exploit to work. The file opened by the user can be completely harmless, the flaw is that the application launched to handle the file type will inadvertently load a DLL from the working directory. Read more on the vulnerability at the Metasploit Blog.

DllHijackAuditor is a tool released last week to detect the presence of the DLL Hijacking Vulnerability in a Windows application.

About the Author

Jago Maniscalchi is a Cyber security consultant, though he tries to avoid the word "Cyber" at all costs. He has spent 15 years working with Information Systems and has experience in website hosting, software engineering, infrastructure management, data analysis and security assessment. Jago lives in London with his family, enough pets to start a small zooalogical society, and a Samsung NaviBot Robotic Vacuum Cleaner. Despite an aptitude for learning computer languages, his repeated attempts to learn Italian have resulted in spectacular failure.