CAPEC-641
DLL Side-Loading
An adversary places a malicious version of a Dynamic-Link Library (DLL) in the Windows Side-by-Side (WinSxS) directory to trick the operating system into loading this malicious DLL instead of a legitimate DLL. Programs specify the location of the DLLs to load via the use of WinSxS manifests or DLL redirection and if they aren't used then Windows searches in a predefined set of directories to locate the file. If the applications improperly specify a required DLL or WinSxS manifests aren't explicit about the characteristics of the DLL to be loaded, they can be vulnerable to side-loading.
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Explain the attack pattern CAPEC-641: DLL Side-Loading: how it unfolds, what it needs and how to prevent and detect it in my systems. Use https://capec.mitre.org/data/definitions/641.html and https://cve.bz/cve/capec/641?via=ask-ai-copy, which lists recent CVEs with the weaknesses it exploits. Cite the sources.Opens a third-party assistant; its answer is its own, not cve.bz's. The prompt holds only this attack pattern's id and public links.
Prerequisites
The target must fail to verify the integrity of the DLL before using them.
Skills required
- High skill
Trick the operating system in loading a malicious DLL instead of a legitimate DLL.
Consequences
| Impact | Affects | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Execute Unauthorized Commands, Bypass Protection Mechanism | Integrity |
Mitigations
Prevent unknown DLLs from loading through using an allowlist policy.
Patch installed applications as soon as new updates become available.
Properly restrict the location of the software being used.
Use of sxstrace.exe on Windows as well as manual inspection of the manifests.
Require code signing and avoid using relative paths for resources.
Weaknesses it exploits
- CWE-706 Use of Incorrectly-Resolved Name or Reference
Recent CVEs with these weaknesses
- 6.5CVE-2026-18484
IBM ContextForge MCP Gateway 1.0.0 through 1.0.11 could allow a remote authenticated attacker to cause a denial of service due to improper slug normalization causing tool name collisions.
- 9.6CVE-2026-121200
Incorrect reference resolution in DevTools in Google Chrome prior to 157.0.8103.38 allowed a remote attacker leveraging social engineering to potentially execute arbitrary code outside the sandbox via a crafted HTML page. (Chromium securit…
- 8.1CVE-2026-121133
Incorrect reference resolution in Images in Google Chrome on on Mac prior to 157.0.8103.38 allowed a remote attacker who had compromised the renderer process to execute arbitrary code outside the sandbox via crafted network traffic. (Chrom…
- 5.2CVE-2026-119675
MongoDB Database Tools mongorestore inconsistently handles the system.buckets. prefix when validating collection names in an untrusted dump. A specially crafted collection name can bypass special-collection guards and operator namespace fi…
- 8.8CVE-2026-118938
In Trail of Bits fickling through 0.1.12, a pickle STACK_GLOBAL operand carrying a dotted __qualname__ (for example "Values.read_file") is resolved by pickle's find_class through _getattribute to an arbitrary attribute path rather than to …
- 8.8CVE-2026-119270
Incorrect reference resolution in CacheStorage in Google Chrome prior to 156.0.8078.79 allowed a remote attacker who had compromised the renderer process to obtain sensitive information via a crafted HTML page. (Chromium security severity:…
- 8.8CVE-2026-119266
Incorrect reference resolution in Quota in Google Chrome prior to 156.0.8078.79 allowed a remote attacker who had compromised the renderer process to potentially execute arbitrary code outside the sandbox via a crafted HTML page. (Chromium…
- 8.8CVE-2026-119265
Incorrect reference resolution in Quota in Google Chrome prior to 156.0.8078.79 allowed a remote attacker who had compromised the renderer process to execute arbitrary code outside the sandbox via crafted network traffic. (Chromium securit…
The newest records naming one of them. Each weakness's page lists them all.
Related attack patterns
- Part of
- CAPEC-159 Redirect Access to Libraries
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