T1574.007sub-technique of T1574 Hijack Execution Flow

Path Interception by PATH Environment Variable

Linux · macOS · Windowsnothing on this site yetT1574.007 on attack.mitre.org

Adversaries may execute their own malicious payloads by hijacking environment variables used to load libraries. The PATH environment variable contains a list of directories (User and System) that the OS searches sequentially through in search of the binary that was called from a script or the command line.
MITRE ATT&CK 19.2, retrieved 2026-09-12

If this is happening now

Checklists and playbooks to open while the alert is still live.

Playbook for this stage

Suspicious execution on an endpoint

An EDR alert, an unexplained process, or a user reporting something odd.

how MITRE says to see it

Detection Strategy for Hijack Execution Flow using Path Interception by PATH Environment Variable.

Abnormal modification of the PATH environment variable or registry keys controlling system paths, combined with execution of binaries named after legitimate system tools from user-writable directories.
User modification of the $PATH environment variable in shell configuration files or direct runtime PATH changes, followed by execution of binaries from user-controlled directories. Defender observes file edits to ~/.bashrc, ~/.profile, or /etc/paths.d and process execution resolving to unexpected binary locations.
Modification of PATH or HOME environment variables through shell config files, launchctl, or /etc/paths.d entries, combined with process execution from attacker-controlled directories. Defender correlates file changes in /etc/paths.d with process execution resolving to malicious binaries.

what reduces it

M1038 Execution Prevention. Adversaries will likely need to place new binaries in locations to be executed through this weakness. Identify and block potentially malicious software executed path interception by using application control tools, like Windows Defender Application Control, AppLocker, or Software Restriction Policies where appropriate.
M1022 Restrict File and Directory Permissions. Ensure that proper permissions and directory access control are set to deny users the ability to write files to the top-level directory `C:` and system directories, such as `C:\Windows\`, to reduce places where malicious files could be placed for execution. Require that all executables be placed in write-protected directories.
M1047 Audit. Find and eliminate path interception weaknesses in program configuration files, scripts, the PATH environment variable, services, and in shortcuts by surrounding PATH variables with quotation marks when functions allow for them. Be aware of the search order Windows uses for executing or loading binaries and use fully qualified paths wherever appropriate.

the rest of T1574

T1574.001 DLL · 1 on this site
T1574.004 Dylib Hijacking · not covered yet
T1574.005 Executable Installer File Permissions Weakness · not covered yet
T1574.006 Dynamic Linker Hijacking · 1 on this site
T1574.008 Path Interception by Search Order Hijacking · not covered yet
T1574.009 Path Interception by Unquoted Path · not covered yet
T1574.010 Services File Permissions Weakness · not covered yet
T1574.011 Services Registry Permissions Weakness · not covered yet
T1574.012 COR_PROFILER · not covered yet
T1574.013 KernelCallbackTable · not covered yet
T1574.014 AppDomainManager · not covered yet

The description, detection analytics and mitigations are reproduced from MITRE ATT&CK, version 19.2, under its terms of use. The checklists, hunts, labs and everything else linked here are this site’s.