Mutual Exclusion - T1480.002 (49fca0d2-685d-41eb-8bd4-05451cc3a742)

Adversaries may constrain execution or actions based on the presence of a mutex associated with malware. A mutex is a locking mechanism used to synchronize access to a resource. Only one thread or process can acquire a mutex at a given time.(Citation: Microsoft Mutexes)

While local mutexes only exist within a given process, allowing multiple threads to synchronize access to a resource, system mutexes can be used to synchronize the activities of multiple processes.(Citation: Microsoft Mutexes) By creating a unique system mutex associated with a particular malware, adversaries can verify whether or not a system has already been compromised.(Citation: Sans Mutexes 2012)

In Linux environments, malware may instead attempt to acquire a lock on a mutex file. If the malware is able to acquire the lock, it continues to execute; if it fails, it exits to avoid creating a second instance of itself.(Citation: Intezer RedXOR 2021)(Citation: Deep Instinct BPFDoor 2023)

Mutex names may be hard-coded or dynamically generated using a predictable algorithm.(Citation: ICS Mutexes 2015)

Cluster A	Galaxy A	Cluster B	Galaxy B	Level
Mutual Exclusion - T1480.002 (49fca0d2-685d-41eb-8bd4-05451cc3a742)	Attack Pattern	Execution Guardrails - T1480 (853c4192-4311-43e1-bfbb-b11b14911852)	Attack Pattern	1