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)

Extended static analysis

Unlike the previous programs we've analyzed, we need to extend the output of objdump to include more than just the .text section in its output. Additionally, in this scenario, because we're analyzing a binary for vulnerabilities, and we're imagining this is a program that was developed within our organization, we may have access to the source code. This means we can extend our static analysis phase to include more disassembly and a source code review.

In this recipe, we will examine the objdump output, and we will review the C source code behind this binary. As we work through this recipe together, pay careful attention to the tool output and see whether you notice anything odd about the disassembled instructions. During our static analysis phase, we should really ask ourselves several questions:

  • Are there instructions present within the...