Detecting Process Hollowing Technique

Detecting Process Hollowing Technique

Overview

Cybersecurity skill for detecting process hollowing technique. Follows industry best practices and security standards.

When to Use

Trigger phrases:

• "detecting process hollowing technique"

• "Detect process hollowing (T1055"

• When investigating suspected fileless malware or in-memory threats

• After EDR alerts on process injection or suspicious memory operations

• When hunting for defense evasion techniques in a compromised environment

• When threat intel reports indicate process hollowing in active campaigns

• During purple team exercises validating T1055.012 detection coverage

When NOT to Use

• When you lack proper authorization for testing
• For production systems without change management
• When the task requires legal or compliance expertise beyond technical scope

Prerequisites

• EDR with memory protection monitoring (CrowdStrike, MDE, SentinelOne)
• Sysmon with Event IDs 1 (Process Create), 8 (CreateRemoteThread), 25 (ProcessTampering)
• Windows ETW providers for process hollowing (Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Process)
• Memory forensics capabilities (Volatility, WinDbg)
• Process integrity monitoring tools

Workflow

# Example: IOC detection
import re

IOC_PATTERNS = {
    "ip": r"\b(?:\d{1,3}\.){3}\d{1,3}\b",
    "domain": r"\b[a-z0-9-]+\.[a-z]{2,}\b",
    "hash_md5": r"\b[a-f0-9]{32}\b",
    "hash_sha256": r"\b[a-f0-9]{64}\b",
}

def extract_iocs(text: str) -> dict:
    return {k: re.findall(v, text) for k, v in IOC_PATTERNS.items()}

1. Define Detection Scope — Identify the specific process hollowing technique techniques or indicators to hunt. Map to MITRE ATT&CK tactics/techniques where applicable.
2. Collect Baseline Data — Gather historical logs and establish normal behavior patterns for process hollowing technique.
3. Build Detection Queries — Write detection rules, Sigma rules, or SIEM queries targeting process hollowing technique indicators.
4. Execute Hunts — Run queries against the collected data, starting with broad filters and narrowing down.
5. Triage Results — Investigate alerts, filter false positives, and validate findings against known-good behavior.
6. Document Findings — Record confirmed detections, IOCs, and affected systems. Update detection rules based on findings.

Tools

• SIEM Platform — Central log aggregation and query execution
• Sigma Rules — Vendor-agnostic detection rule format
• MITRE ATT&CK Navigator — Technique mapping and coverage analysis

Process

1. Reconnaissance — Gather target information, identify attack surface, enumerate services
2. Analysis/Exploitation — Execute the technique, analyze results, document findings
3. Reporting — Document IOCs, write findings, provide remediation recommendations

Verification

• All process hollowing technique procedures executed completely and documented
• Findings validated against multiple data sources
• False positives identified and filtered
• Results documented with evidence and timestamps
• Recommendations provided with risk-based prioritization

Anti-Rationalization Table