MITRE ATT&CK / T1218.015
T1218.015
Electron Applications
Description
Adversaries may abuse components of the Electron framework to execute malicious code. The Electron framework hosts many common applications such as Signal, Slack, and Microsoft Teams.(Citation: Electron 2) Originally developed by GitHub, Electron is a cross-platform desktop application development framework that employs web technologies like JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.(Citation: Electron 3) The Chromium engine is used to display web content and Node.js runs the backend code.(Citation: Electron 1)Due to the functional mechanics of Electron (such as allowing apps to run arbitrary commands), adversaries may also be able to perform malicious functions in the background potentially disguised as legitimate tools within the framework.(Citation: Electron 1) For example, the abuse of `teams.exe` and `chrome.exe` may allow adversaries to execute malicious commands as child processes of the legitimate application (e.g., `chrome.exe --disable-gpu-sandbox --gpu-launcher="C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe /c calc.exe`).(Citation: Electron 6-8)Adversaries may also execute malicious content by planting malicious [JavaScript](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1059/007) within Electron applications.(Citation: Electron Security)
Platforms
Mitigations
- M1050 — Exploit Protection
- M1042 — Disable or Remove Feature or Program
- M1038 — Execution Prevention
Use our free MITRE ATT&CK lookup tool, or browse the full ATT&CK matrix.
Our coverage
Source: MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise matrix. View on attack.mitre.org →