MITRE ATT&CK / Techniques / T1565.003

Data Manipulation: Runtime Data Manipulation

ID
T1565.003
Tactics
TA0040 Impact
Sub-technique of
T1565 Data Manipulation
Platforms
Linux, macOS, Windows
Data sources
File Creation, File Metadata, Windows Registry Key Modification, File Modification, OS API Execution
Source
attack.mitre.org
MITRE last modified
14 Nov 2025

Adversaries may modify systems in order to manipulate the data as it is accessed and displayed to an end user, thus threatening the integrity of the data.[1][2] By manipulating runtime data, adversaries may attempt to affect a business process, organizational understanding, and decision making.

Adversaries may alter application binaries used to display data in order to cause runtime manipulations. Adversaries may also conduct Change Default File Association and Masquerading to cause a similar effect. The type of modification and the impact it will have depends on the target application and process as well as the goals and objectives of the adversary. For complex systems, an adversary would likely need special expertise and possibly access to specialized software related to the system that would typically be gained through a prolonged information gathering campaign in order to have the desired impact.

Detection

Mitigations (2)

M1022 Restrict File and Directory Permissions

Prevent critical business and system processes from being replaced, overwritten, or reconfigured to load potentially malicious code.

M1030 Network Segmentation

Identify critical business and system processes that may be targeted by adversaries and work to isolate and secure those systems against unauthorized access and tampering.

Groups (1)

References

  1. FireEye APT38 Oct 2018
  2. DOJ Lazarus Sony 2018