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

8. Functions


A function is a block of code that performs specific tasks; normally, a program contains many functions. When a function is called, the control is transferred to a different memory address. The CPU then executes the code at that memory address, and it comes back (control is transferred back) after it finishes running the code. The function contains multiple components: a function can take data as input via parameters, it has a body that contains the code it executes, it contains local variables that are used to temporarily store values, and it can output data.

The parameters, local variables, and function flow controls are all stored in an important area of the memory called the stack.

8.1 Stack

The stack is an area of the memory that gets allocated by the operating system when the thread is created. The stack is organized in a Last-In-First-Out (LIFO) structure, which means that the most recent data that you put in the stack will be the first one to be removed from the stack....