Book Image

Binary Analysis Cookbook

By : Michael Born
Book Image

Binary Analysis Cookbook

By: Michael Born

Overview of this book

Binary analysis is the process of examining a binary program to determine information security actions. It is a complex, constantly evolving, and challenging topic that crosses over into several domains of information technology and security. This binary analysis book is designed to help you get started with the basics, before gradually advancing to challenging topics. Using a recipe-based approach, this book guides you through building a lab of virtual machines and installing tools to analyze binaries effectively. You'll begin by learning about the IA32 and ELF32 as well as IA64 and ELF64 specifications. The book will then guide you in developing a methodology and exploring a variety of tools for Linux binary analysis. As you advance, you'll learn how to analyze malicious 32-bit and 64-bit binaries and identify vulnerabilities. You'll even examine obfuscation and anti-analysis techniques, analyze polymorphed malicious binaries, and get a high-level overview of dynamic taint analysis and binary instrumentation concepts. By the end of the book, you'll have gained comprehensive insights into binary analysis concepts and have developed the foundational skills to confidently delve into the realm of binary analysis.
Table of Contents (12 chapters)

Analyzing a Simple Bind Shell

At this point, we should have a lab set up, a good grasp of IA32 and IA64, and a methodology we can use, and we should be familiar with some of the tools we can use for analysis. It's time we put all of that introductory knowledge to good use and analyze our first binary. We'll keep this one simply because I really want us to focus on recognizing and reading the disassembled binary. Without giving too much away, we will see right away where some of our tools will fall short in their output and how to recognize their shortcomings. From this point on, we will use our methodology and associated tools to accomplish each phase of analysis. If there is something that isn't clear in the writing or your output, use that as an opportunity to really learn by doing extra research on your own until you understand whatever was unclear.

I realize...