Standard attack pattern
Draft
CAPEC-636: Hiding Malicious Data or Code within Files
Files on various operating systems can have a complex format which allows for the storage of other data, in addition to its contents. Often this is metadata about the file, such as a cached thumbnail for an image file. Unless utilities are invoked in a particular way, this data is not visible during the normal use of the file. It is possible for an attacker to store malicious data or code using these facilities, which would be difficult to discover.
High
Typical severity
Per MITRE
Not rated
Likelihood of attack
Per MITRE
1
Related weaknesses
CWEs this targets
Standard
Abstraction
MITRE classification
Overview
CAPEC-636 (Hiding Malicious Data or Code within Files) is a standard-level attack pattern catalogued by MITRE in the Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC). It describes a recurring method attackers use to exploit software weaknesses.