Early Bird Code Injection Technique

Early Bird is a new code injection technique that enables malicious users to effectively avoid anti-malware detection.

Threat ID:: CC-2282
Category:
Threat Severity:: Medium
Threat Vector:
Published:: 19 April 2018 12:00 AM

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Summary

Early Bird is a new code injection technique that enables malicious users to effectively avoid anti-malware detection.

Affected platforms

The following platforms are known to be affected:

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows - All versions

Threat details

The technique is known to be part of malware which is used by the Iranian group advanced persistent threat (APT) 33.

The technique uses legitimate Windows functions such as svhost.exe to inject the code into an application before the actual process starts and the anti-malware product has started to monitor it. Anti-malware products have a process called hooking which is designed to detect this type of technique, however Early Bird loads the malicious code in a very early stage of the start process, this is before many anti-malware’s have placed their hooks so it can go undetected.

Remediation steps

Type	Step
	Ensure that your anti-malware provider can detect this injection technique. To prevent and detect a trojan infection, ensure that: A robust program of education and awareness training is delivered to users to ensure they don’t open attachments or follow links within unsolicited emails. All operating systems, antivirus and other security products are kept up to date. All day to day computer activities such as email and internet are performed using non-administrative accounts. Strong password policies are in place and password reuse is discouraged. Network, proxy and firewall logs should be monitored for suspicious activity.

Type

Step

Ensure that your anti-malware provider can detect this injection technique.

To prevent and detect a trojan infection, ensure that:

A robust program of education and awareness training is delivered to users to ensure they don’t open attachments or follow links within unsolicited emails.
All operating systems, antivirus and other security products are kept up to date.
All day to day computer activities such as email and internet are performed using non-administrative accounts.
Strong password policies are in place and password reuse is discouraged.
Network, proxy and firewall logs should be monitored for suspicious activity.

Last edited: 17 February 2020 12:42 pm