Suspicious LD_PRELOAD Userland Rootkit Loading via Command Line (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
- T1014Rootkit
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects use of the LD_PRELOAD environment variable to preload the libload.so shared object that the vSphere cryptomining campaign uses as a userland rootkit to hide its crosbow miner process. It is associated with the cryptomining campaign targeting VMware vSphere reported by Uptycs. LD_PRELOAD based hooking is a stealth technique used to conceal malicious files and processes, so this specific library reference indicates rootkit deployment.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1014 — drag to rearrange

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Malicious ld.so.preload Hijack Loading libcext by Auto-Color (via process_creation)

Suspicious Loading of Malicious Netfilter Kernel Module for Traffic Signaling

Malicious Kernel Driver Load from User AppData Directory

Malicious Kernel Driver Service Registration for ProjectConfiguration Rootkit

Malicious Vulnerable Driver Mapping via KDU

Suspicious Kernel Module Load From World Writable Directory on Linux

Suspicious Kernel Module Load Or Unload For Rootkit Deployment via PUMAKIT

Suspicious LD_PRELOAD Userland Rootkit Loading via Command Line (via process_creation)

Pivot detection · T1014 · 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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