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T1574.009sub-technique of T1574 Hijack Execution Flow

Path Interception by Unquoted Path

Windowsnothing on this site yetT1574.009 on attack.mitre.org

Adversaries may execute their own malicious payloads by hijacking vulnerable file path references. Adversaries can take advantage of paths that lack surrounding quotations by placing an executable in a higher level directory within the path, so that Windows will choose the adversary's executable to launch.

MITRE ATT&CK 19.2, retrieved 2026-09-12

If this is happening now

1

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

how MITRE says to see it

Detection Strategy for Hijack Execution Flow through Path Interception by Unquoted Path

  • Unquoted service or shortcut paths that contain spaces and allow path interception by higher-level executables. Defender observes registry service configurations with unquoted paths, file creation of executables in parent directories of unquoted paths, and subsequent process execution from unexpected locations.

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

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.