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

1. Determining the File Type


During your analysis, determining the file type of a suspect binary will help you identify the malware's target operating system (Windows, Linux, and so on) and architecture (32-bit or 64-bit platforms). For example, if the suspect binary has a file type of Portable Executable (PE), which is the file format for Windows executable files (.exe, .dll, .sys, .drv, .com, .ocx, and so on), then you can deduce that the file is designed to target the Windows operating system.

Most Windows-based malware are executable files ending with extensions such as .exe, .dll, .sys, and so on. But relying on file extensions alone is not recommended. File extension is not the sole indicator of file type. Attackers use different tricks to hide their file by modifying the file extension and changing its appearance to trick users into executing it. Instead of relying on file extension, File signature can be used to determine the file type.

file signature is a unique sequence of bytes...