Practical Malware Analysis

Malware analysis is big business, and attacks can cost a company dearly. When malware breaches your defenses, you need to act quickly to cure current infections and prevent future ones from occurring. For those who want to stay ahead of the latest malware, Practical Malware Analysis will teach you the tools and techniques used by professional analysts. With this book as your guide, you'll be able to safely analyze, debug, and disassemble any malicious software that comes your way. You'll learn how to: –Set up a safe virtual environment to analyze malware –Quickly extract network signatures and host-based indicators –Use key analysis tools like IDA Pro, OllyDbg, and WinDbg –Overcome malware tricks like obfuscation, anti-disassembly, anti-debugging, and anti-virtual machine techniques –Use your newfound knowledge of Windows internals for malware analysis –Develop a methodology for unpacking malware and get practical experience with five of the most popular packers –Analyze special cases of malware with shellcode, C++, and 64-bit code Hands-on labs throughout the book challenge you to practice and synthesize your skills as you dissect real malware samples, and pages of detailed dissections offer an over-the-shoulder look at how the pros do it. You'll learn how to crack open malware to see how it really works, determine what damage it has done, thoroughly clean your network, and ensure that the malware never comes back. Malware analysis is a cat-and-mouse game with rules that are constantly changing, so make sure you have the fundamentals. Whether you're tasked with securing one network or a thousand networks, or you're making a living as a malware analyst, you'll find what you need to succeed in Practical Malware Analysis.

Analyze malicious samples, write reports, and use industry-standard methodologies to confidently triage and analyze adversarial software and malware Key FeaturesInvestigate, detect, and respond to various types of malware threatUnderstand how to use what you've learned as an analyst to produce actionable IOCs and reportingExplore complete solutions, detailed walkthroughs, and case studies of real-world malware samplesBook Description Malicious software poses a threat to every enterprise globally. Its growth is costing businesses millions of dollars due to currency theft as a result of ransomware and lost productivity. With this book, you'll learn how to quickly triage, identify, attribute, and remediate threats using proven analysis techniques. Malware Analysis Techniques begins with an overview of the nature of malware, the current threat landscape, and its impact on businesses. Once you've covered the basics of malware, you'll move on to discover more about the technical nature of malicious software, including static characteristics and dynamic attack methods within the MITRE ATT&CK framework. You'll also find out how to perform practical malware analysis by applying all that you've learned to attribute the malware to a specific threat and weaponize the adversary's indicators of compromise (IOCs) and methodology against them to prevent them from attacking. Finally, you'll get to grips with common tooling utilized by professional malware analysts and understand the basics of reverse engineering with the NSA's Ghidra platform. By the end of this malware analysis book, you'll be able to perform in-depth static and dynamic analysis and automate key tasks for improved defense against attacks. What you will learnDiscover how to maintain a safe analysis environment for malware samplesGet to grips with static and dynamic analysis techniques for collecting IOCsReverse-engineer and debug malware to understand its purposeDevelop a well-polished workflow for malware analysisUnderstand when and where to implement automation to react quickly to threatsPerform malware analysis tasks such as code analysis and API inspectionWho this book is for This book is for incident response professionals, malware analysts, and researchers who want to sharpen their skillset or are looking for a reference for common static and dynamic analysis techniques. Beginners will also find this book useful to get started with learning about malware analysis. Basic knowledge of command-line interfaces, familiarity with Windows and Unix-like filesystems and registries, and experience in scripting languages such as PowerShell, Python, or Ruby will assist with understanding the concepts covered.

Master malware analysis to protect your systems from getting infected Key FeaturesSet up and model solutions, investigate malware, and prevent it from occurring in futureLearn core concepts of dynamic malware analysis, memory forensics, decryption, and much moreA practical guide to developing innovative solutions to numerous malware incidentsBook Description With the ever-growing proliferation of technology, the risk of encountering malicious code or malware has also increased. Malware analysis has become one of the most trending topics in businesses in recent years due to multiple prominent ransomware attacks. Mastering Malware Analysis explains the universal patterns behind different malicious software types and how to analyze them using a variety of approaches. You will learn how to examine malware code and determine the damage it can possibly cause to your systems to ensure that it won't propagate any further. Moving forward, you will cover all aspects of malware analysis for the Windows platform in detail. Next, you will get to grips with obfuscation and anti-disassembly, anti-debugging, as well as anti-virtual machine techniques. This book will help you deal with modern cross-platform malware. Throughout the course of this book, you will explore real-world examples of static and dynamic malware analysis, unpacking and decrypting, and rootkit detection. Finally, this book will help you strengthen your defenses and prevent malware breaches for IoT devices and mobile platforms. By the end of this book, you will have learned to effectively analyze, investigate, and build innovative solutions to handle any malware incidents. What you will learnExplore widely used assembly languages to strengthen your reverse-engineering skillsMaster different executable file formats, programming languages, and relevant APIs used by attackersPerform static and dynamic analysis for multiple platforms and file typesGet to grips with handling sophisticated malware casesUnderstand real advanced attacks, covering all stages from infiltration to hacking the systemLearn to bypass anti-reverse engineering techniquesWho this book is for If you are an IT security administrator, forensic analyst, or malware researcher looking to secure against malicious software or investigate malicious code, this book is for you. Prior programming experience and a fair understanding of malware attacks and investigation is expected.

Understand malware analysis and its practical implementation Key Features Explore the key concepts of malware analysis and memory forensics using real-world examples Learn the art of detecting, analyzing, and investigating malware threats Understand adversary tactics and techniques Book Description 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. What you will learn Create a safe and isolated lab environment for malware analysis Extract the metadata associated with malware Determine malware's interaction with the system Perform code analysis using IDA Pro and x64dbg Reverse-engineer various malware functionalities Reverse engineer and decode common encoding/encryption algorithms Reverse-engineer malware code injection and hooking techniques Investigate and hunt malware using memory forensics Who this book is for This book is for incident responders, cyber-security investigators, system administrators, malware analyst, forensic practitioners, student, or curious security professionals interested in learning malware analysis and memory forensics. Knowledge of programming languages such as C and Python is helpful but is not mandatory. If you have written few lines of code and have a basic understanding of programming concepts, you’ll be able to get most out of this book.

Learn effective malware analysis tactics to prevent your systems from getting infected Key FeaturesInvestigate cyberattacks and prevent malware-related incidents from occurring in the futureLearn core concepts of static and dynamic malware analysis, memory forensics, decryption, and much moreGet practical guidance in developing efficient solutions to handle malware incidentsBook Description New and developing technologies inevitably bring new types of malware with them, creating a huge demand for IT professionals that can keep malware at bay. With the help of this updated second edition of Mastering Malware Analysis, you'll be able to add valuable reverse-engineering skills to your CV and learn how to protect organizations in the most efficient way. This book will familiarize you with multiple universal patterns behind different malicious software types and teach you how to analyze them using a variety of approaches. You'll learn how to examine malware code and determine the damage it can possibly cause to systems, along with ensuring that the right prevention or remediation steps are followed. As you cover all aspects of malware analysis for Windows, Linux, macOS, and mobile platforms in detail, you'll also get to grips with obfuscation, anti-debugging, and other advanced anti-reverse-engineering techniques. The skills you acquire in this cybersecurity book will help you deal with all types of modern malware, strengthen your defenses, and prevent or promptly mitigate breaches regardless of the platforms involved. By the end of this book, you will have learned how to efficiently analyze samples, investigate suspicious activity, and build innovative solutions to handle malware incidents. What you will learnExplore assembly languages to strengthen your reverse-engineering skillsMaster various file formats and relevant APIs used by attackersDiscover attack vectors and start handling IT, OT, and IoT malwareUnderstand how to analyze samples for x86 and various RISC architecturesPerform static and dynamic analysis of files of various typesGet to grips with handling sophisticated malware casesUnderstand real advanced attacks, covering all their stagesFocus on how to bypass anti-reverse-engineering techniquesWho this book is for If you are a malware researcher, forensic analyst, IT security administrator, or anyone looking to secure against malicious software or investigate malicious code, this book is for you. This new edition is suited to all levels of knowledge, including complete beginners. Any prior exposure to programming or cybersecurity will further help to speed up your learning process.

A computer forensics "how-to" for fighting malicious code andanalyzing incidents With our ever-increasing reliance on computers comes anever-growing risk of malware. Security professionals will findplenty of solutions in this book to the problems posed by viruses,Trojan horses, worms, spyware, rootkits, adware, and other invasivesoftware. Written by well-known malware experts, this guide revealssolutions to numerous problems and includes a DVD of customprograms and tools that illustrate the concepts, enhancing yourskills. Security professionals face a constant battle against malicioussoftware; this practical manual will improve your analyticalcapabilities and provide dozens of valuable and innovativesolutions Covers classifying malware, packing and unpacking, dynamicmalware analysis, decoding and decrypting, rootkit detection,memory forensics, open source malware research, and much more Includes generous amounts of source code in C, Python, and Perlto extend your favorite tools or build new ones, and customprograms on the DVD to demonstrate the solutions Malware Analyst's Cookbook is indispensible to ITsecurity administrators, incident responders, forensic analysts,and malware researchers.

​This book is focused on the use of deep learning (DL) and artificial intelligence (AI) as tools to advance the fields of malware detection and analysis. The individual chapters of the book deal with a wide variety of state-of-the-art AI and DL techniques, which are applied to a number of challenging malware-related problems. DL and AI based approaches to malware detection and analysis are largely data driven and hence minimal expert domain knowledge of malware is needed. This book fills a gap between the emerging fields of DL/AI and malware analysis. It covers a broad range of modern and practical DL and AI techniques, including frameworks and development tools enabling the audience to innovate with cutting-edge research advancements in a multitude of malware (and closely related) use cases.

Malware Data Science explains how to identify, analyze, and classify large-scale malware using machine learning and data visualization. Security has become a "big data" problem. The growth rate of malware has accelerated to tens of millions of new files per year while our networks generate an ever-larger flood of security-relevant data each day. In order to defend against these advanced attacks, you'll need to know how to think like a data scientist. In Malware Data Science, security data scientist Joshua Saxe introduces machine learning, statistics, social network analysis, and data visualization, and shows you how to apply these methods to malware detection and analysis. You'll learn how to: - Analyze malware using static analysis - Observe malware behavior using dynamic analysis - Identify adversary groups through shared code analysis - Catch 0-day vulnerabilities by building your own machine learning detector - Measure malware detector accuracy - Identify malware campaigns, trends, and relationships through data visualization Whether you're a malware analyst looking to add skills to your existing arsenal, or a data scientist interested in attack detection and threat intelligence, Malware Data Science will help you stay ahead of the curve.

Many static and behavior-based malware detection methods have been developed to address malware and other cyber threats. Even though these cybersecurity systems offer good outcomes in a large dataset, they lack reliability and robustness in terms of detection. There is a critical need for relevant research on enhancing AI-based cybersecurity solutions such as malware detection and malicious behavior identification. Malware Analysis and Intrusion Detection in Cyber-Physical Systems focuses on dynamic malware analysis and its time sequence output of observed activity, including advanced machine learning and AI-based malware detection and categorization tasks in real time. Covering topics such as intrusion detection systems, low-cost manufacturing, and surveillance robots, this premier reference source is essential for cyber security professionals, computer scientists, students and educators of higher education, researchers, and academicians.

Cyber-Security Threats, Actors, and Dynamic Mitigation provides both a technical and state-of-the-art perspective as well as a systematic overview of the recent advances in different facets of cyber-security. It covers the methodologies for modeling attack strategies used by threat actors targeting devices, systems, and networks such as smart homes, critical infrastructures, and industrial IoT. With a comprehensive review of the threat landscape, the book explores both common and sophisticated threats to systems and networks. Tools and methodologies are presented for precise modeling of attack strategies, which can be used both proactively in risk management and reactively in intrusion prevention and response systems. Several contemporary techniques are offered ranging from reconnaissance and penetration testing to malware detection, analysis, and mitigation. Advanced machine learning-based approaches are also included in the area of anomaly-based detection, that are capable of detecting attacks relying on zero-day vulnerabilities and exploits. Academics, researchers, and professionals in cyber-security who want an in-depth look at the contemporary aspects of the field will find this book of interest. Those wanting a unique reference for various cyber-security threats and how they are detected, analyzed, and mitigated will reach for this book often.

Using a well-conceived incident response plan in the aftermath of an online security breach enables your team to identify attackers and learn how they operate. But only when you approach incident response with a cyber threat intelligence mindset will you truly understand the value of that information. In this updated second edition, you'll learn the fundamentals of intelligence analysis as well as the best ways to incorporate these techniques into your incident response process. Each method reinforces the other: threat intelligence supports and augments incident response, while incident response generates useful threat intelligence. This practical guide helps incident managers, malware analysts, reverse engineers, digital forensics specialists, and intelligence analysts understand, implement, and benefit from this relationship. In three parts, this in-depth book includes: The fundamentals: Get an introduction to cyberthreat intelligence, the intelligence process, the incident response process, and how they all work together Practical application: Walk through the intelligence-driven incident response (IDIR) process using the F3EAD process: Find, Fix, Finish, Exploit, Analyze, and Disseminate The way forward: Explore big-picture aspects of IDIR that go beyond individual incident response investigations, including intelligence team building

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Detection of Intrusions and Malware, and Vulnerability Assessment, DIMVA 2022, held in Cagliari, Italy, in June – July 2021. The 10 full papers and 1 short paper presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 39 submissions.

This volume presents the 17th International Conference on Information Technology—New Generations (ITNG), and chronicles an annual event on state of the art technologies for digital information and communications. The application of advanced information technology to such domains as astronomy, biology, education, geosciences, security, and healthcare are among the themes explored by the ITNG proceedings. Visionary ideas, theoretical and experimental results, as well as prototypes, designs, and tools that help information flow to end users are of special interest. Specific topics include Machine Learning, Robotics, High Performance Computing, and Innovative Methods of Computing. The conference features keynote speakers; a best student contribution award, poster award, and service award; a technical open panel, and workshops/exhibits from industry, government, and academia.

If you’re involved in cybersecurity as a software developer, forensic investigator, or network administrator, this practical guide shows you how to apply the scientific method when assessing techniques for protecting your information systems. You’ll learn how to conduct scientific experiments on everyday tools and procedures, whether you’re evaluating corporate security systems, testing your own security product, or looking for bugs in a mobile game. Once author Josiah Dykstra gets you up to speed on the scientific method, he helps you focus on standalone, domain-specific topics, such as cryptography, malware analysis, and system security engineering. The latter chapters include practical case studies that demonstrate how to use available tools to conduct domain-specific scientific experiments. Learn the steps necessary to conduct scientific experiments in cybersecurity Explore fuzzing to test how your software handles various inputs Measure the performance of the Snort intrusion detection system Locate malicious “needles in a haystack” in your network and IT environment Evaluate cryptography design and application in IoT products Conduct an experiment to identify relationships between similar malware binaries Understand system-level security requirements for enterprise networks and web services

A comprehensive guide to the threats facing Apple computers and the foundational knowledge needed to become a proficient Mac malware analyst. Defenders must fully understand how malicious software works if they hope to stay ahead of the increasingly sophisticated threats facing Apple products today. The Art of Mac Malware: The Guide to Analyzing Malicious Software is a comprehensive handbook to cracking open these malicious programs and seeing what’s inside. Discover the secrets of nation state backdoors, destructive ransomware, and subversive cryptocurrency miners as you uncover their infection methods, persistence strategies, and insidious capabilities. Then work with and extend foundational reverse-engineering tools to extract and decrypt embedded strings, unpack protected Mach-O malware, and even reconstruct binary code. Next, using a debugger, you’ll execute the malware, instruction by instruction, to discover exactly how it operates. In the book’s final section, you’ll put these lessons into practice by analyzing a complex Mac malware specimen on your own. You’ll learn to: • Recognize common infections vectors, persistence mechanisms, and payloads leveraged by Mac malware • Triage unknown samples in order to quickly classify them as benign or malicious • Work with static analysis tools, including disassemblers, in order to study malicious scripts and compiled binaries • Leverage dynamical analysis tools, such as monitoring tools and debuggers, to gain further insight into sophisticated threats • Quickly identify and bypass anti-analysis techniques aimed at thwarting your analysis attempts A former NSA hacker and current leader in the field of macOS threat analysis, Patrick Wardle uses real-world examples pulled from his original research. The Art of Mac Malware: The Guide to Analyzing Malicious Software is the definitive resource to battling these ever more prevalent and insidious Apple-focused threats.

Learn how people break websites and how you can, too. Real-World Bug Hunting is the premier field guide to finding software bugs. Whether you're a cyber-security beginner who wants to make the internet safer or a seasoned developer who wants to write secure code, ethical hacker Peter Yaworski will show you how it's done. You'll learn about the most common types of bugs like cross-site scripting, insecure direct object references, and server-side request forgery. Using real-life case studies of rewarded vulnerabilities from applications like Twitter, Facebook, Google, and Uber, you'll see how hackers manage to invoke race conditions while transferring money, use URL parameter to cause users to like unintended tweets, and more. Each chapter introduces a vulnerability type accompanied by a series of actual reported bug bounties. The book's collection of tales from the field will teach you how attackers trick users into giving away their sensitive information and how sites may reveal their vulnerabilities to savvy users. You'll even learn how you could turn your challenging new hobby into a successful career. You'll learn: How the internet works and basic web hacking concepts How attackers compromise websites How to identify functionality commonly associated with vulnerabilities How to find bug bounty programs and submit effective vulnerability reports Real-World Bug Hunting is a fascinating soup-to-nuts primer on web security vulnerabilities, filled with stories from the trenches and practical wisdom. With your new understanding of site security and weaknesses, you can help make the web a safer place--and profit while you're at it.

Like Sun Tzu's Art of War for Modern Business, this book uses ancient ninja scrolls as the foundation for teaching readers about cyber-warfare, espionage and security. Cyberjutsu is a practical cybersecurity field guide based on the techniques, tactics, and procedures of the ancient ninja. Cyber warfare specialist Ben McCarty’s analysis of declassified Japanese scrolls will show how you can apply ninja methods to combat today’s security challenges like information warfare, deceptive infiltration, espionage, and zero-day attacks. Learn how to use key ninja techniques to find gaps in a target’s defense, strike where the enemy is negligent, master the art of invisibility, and more. McCarty outlines specific, in-depth security mitigations such as fending off social engineering attacks by being present with “the correct mind,” mapping your network like an adversary to prevent breaches, and leveraging ninja-like traps to protect your systems. You’ll also learn how to: Use threat modeling to reveal network vulnerabilities Identify insider threats in your organization Deploy countermeasures like network sensors, time-based controls, air gaps, and authentication protocols Guard against malware command and-control servers Detect attackers, prevent supply-chain attacks, and counter zero-day exploits Cyberjutsu is the playbook that every modern cybersecurity professional needs to channel their inner ninja. Turn to the old ways to combat the latest cyber threats and stay one step ahead of your adversaries.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the IFIP WG 11.4 International Workshop on Open Problems in Network Security, iNetSec 2011, held in Lucerne, Switzerland, in June 2011, co-located and under the auspices of IFIP SEC 2011, the 26th IFIP TC-11 International Information Security Conference. The 12 revised full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 28 initial submissions; they are fully revised to incorporate reviewers' comments and discussions at the workshop. The volume is organized in topical sections on assisting users, malware detection, saving energy, policies, and problems in the cloud.

High-level overview of the information security field. Covers key concepts like confidentiality, integrity, and availability, then dives into practical applications of these ideas in the areas of operational, physical, network, application, and operating system security. In this high-level survey of the information security field, best-selling author Jason Andress covers the basics of a wide variety of topics, from authentication and authorization to maintaining confidentiality and performing penetration testing. Using real-world security breaches as examples, Foundations of Information Security explores common applications of these concepts, such as operations security, network design, hardening and patching operating systems, securing mobile devices, as well as tools for assessing the security of hosts and applications. You'll also learn the basics of topics like: Multifactor authentication and how biometrics and hardware tokens can be used to harden the authentication process The principles behind modern cryptography, including symmetric and asymmetric algorithms, hashes, and certificates The laws and regulations that protect systems and data Anti-malware tools, firewalls, and intrusion detection systems Vulnerabilities such as buffer overflows and race conditions A valuable resource for beginning security professionals, network systems administrators, or anyone new to the field, Foundations of Information Security is a great place to start your journey into the dynamic and rewarding field of information security.