DLL side-loading example
DLL side-loading or DLL hijacking is a classic hacking technique that is documented in MITRE ATT&CK® as the attack technique Hijack Execution Flow: DLL Side-Loading, Sub-technique T1574.002 (attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1574/002/).
The core principle is to replace the loaded system DLL with one designed by the hacker to take control of the execution of a process. This means that by precisely placing the right malicious DLL module, the hacker can run it as any EXE process, for example, by pretending to be a system service process with a digital signature.
Many antivirus software rules treat programs with digital signatures as benignware in their detection engines. This is why APT groups use this technique extensively to avoid static antivirus scanning, active defensive monitoring, or UAC prompting for privilege escalation. For more details on this, you can refer to the arms vendor FireEye’s public disclosure report, DLL Side-Loading: Another...
