Suspicious Application Config File Dropped Beside Trusted .NET Binary for App Domain Manager Injection

ATT&CK techniques

Execution → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
- T1574.001DLL
Persistence
- T1574.001DLL
Priv Esc
- T1574.001DLL
Defense Evasion
- T1574.001DLL
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects creation of an application configuration file with the .exe.config extension in a user-writable location, the delivery step for App Domain Manager injection where the config redirects a trusted signed .NET binary to load an attacker assembly. The config declares an appDomainManagerAssembly that the runtime honors on startup, executing attacker code under the trusted process. A dropped .exe.config in a temporary or user directory beside a signed binary is a strong hijack indicator.

Reporting behind it

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Suspicious Application Config File Dropped Beside Trusted .NET Binary for App Domain Manager Injection

Pivot detection · T1574.001 · 9 related

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.

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