Sub-technique of T1003 OS Credential Dumping.View on attack.mitre.org
Adversaries may gather credentials from the proc filesystem or `/proc`. The proc filesystem is a pseudo-filesystem used as an interface to kernel data structures for Linux based systems managing virtual memory. For each process, the `/proc/<PID>/maps` file shows how memory is mapped within the process’s virtual address space. And `/proc/<PID>/mem`, exposed for debugging purposes, provides access to the process’s virtual address space.
When executing with root privileges, adversaries can search these memory locations for all processes on a system that contain patterns indicative of credentials. Adversaries may use regex patterns, such as grep -E "^[0-9a-f-]* r" /proc/"$pid"/maps | cut -d' ' -f 1, to look for fixed strings in memory structures or cached hashes. When running without privileged access, processes can still view their own virtual memory locations. Some services or programs may save credentials in clear text inside the process’s memory.
If running as or with the permissions of a web browser, a process can search the `/maps` & `/mem` locations for common website credential patterns (that can also be used to find adjacent memory within the same structure) in which hashes or cleartext credentials may be located.
Rules on DetectionCode tagged with T1003.007.
None recorded.
None recorded.
| Used by | Procedure example |
|---|---|
| ToolLaZagne | LaZagne can use the `<PID>/maps` and `<PID>/mem` files to identify regex patterns to dump cleartext passwords from the browser's process memory. |
| ToolMimiPenguin | MimiPenguin can use the `<PID>/maps` and `<PID>/mem` file to search for regex patterns and dump the process memory. |
| MalwareMini Shai-Hulud | Mini Shai-Hulud has scraped runner process memory to extract short-lived identity tokens, which it then exchanged for per-package npm trusted-publisher tokens. |
| MalwarePACEMAKER | PACEMAKER has the ability to extract credentials from OS memory. |
| MalwareTeamPCP Cloud Stealer | TeamPCP Cloud Stealer can scrape memory from the Runner.Worker process by reading `/proc/<pid>/mem` to extract secrets including plaintext tokens. |
Data from MITRE ATT&CK® (Enterprise). ATT&CK® is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation.
