What is Atom Bombing?
Atom Bombing is a form of cyber attack that targets a vulnerability with Window’s Atom Tables to inject and execute malicious code. While code injection is a well-known technique, Atom Bombing provides the potential for an attacker to create a breach and set up a persistent presence in a network. Atom tables are used by Windows applications to store integers and data strings that are shared between programs. This type of attack demonstrates how threat actors take advantage of operating systems to use legitimate pieces of those systems maliciously.
How to Recognize This Threat: As atom bombing hides malicious code in a legitimate part of the operating system, it is difficult to specifically detect, but antivirus and antimalware software is always updating to recognize the latest threats.
How to Prevent This Threat: This attack does not target an actual vulnerability, so there is no Windows patch, however it is always a good idea to keep your operating system updated i
n case a fix is added. To guard against attacks, ensure your systems all have robust endpoint security.