Book Image

Learning Malware Analysis

By : Monnappa K A
5 (1)
Book Image

Learning Malware Analysis

5 (1)
By: Monnappa K A

Overview of this book

Malware analysis and memory forensics are powerful analysis and investigation techniques used in reverse engineering, digital forensics, and incident response. With adversaries becoming sophisticated and carrying out advanced malware attacks on critical infrastructures, data centers, and private and public organizations, detecting, responding to, and investigating such intrusions is critical to information security professionals. Malware analysis and memory forensics have become must-have skills to fight advanced malware, targeted attacks, and security breaches. This book teaches you the concepts, techniques, and tools to understand the behavior and characteristics of malware through malware analysis. It also teaches you techniques to investigate and hunt malware using memory forensics. This book introduces you to the basics of malware analysis, and then gradually progresses into the more advanced concepts of code analysis and memory forensics. It uses real-world malware samples, infected memory images, and visual diagrams to help you gain a better understanding of the subject and to equip you with the skills required to analyze, investigate, and respond to malware-related incidents.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Dedication
Packt Upsell
Contributors
Preface
Index

4. Patching Binary Using IDA


When performing malware analysis, you may want to modify the binary to change its inner workings or reverse its logic to suit your needs. Using IDA, it is possible to modify the data or instructions of a program. You can perform patching by selecting Edit| Patch program menu, as shown in the following screenshot. Using the submenu items, you can modify a byte, word, or assembly instructions. A point to remember is that when you are using these menu options on the binary, you are not really modifying the binary; the modification is made to the IDA database. To apply the modification to the original binary, you need to use the Apply patches to input file submenu item:

4.1 Patching Program Bytes

Consider the code excerpt from the 32-bit malware DLL (TDSS rootkit), which is performing a check to make sure that it is running under spoolsv.exe. This check is performed using string comparison at ➊; if the string comparison fails, then the code jumps to end of the function...