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Practical Malware Analysis
Ch 1: Malware Analysis Primer

The Goals of Malware Analysis
Incident Response
• Case history
– A medical clinic with 10 offices found malware on
one of their workstations
– Hired a consultant to clean & re-image that
machine
• All done—case closed?
Incident Response
• After malware is found, you need to know
– Did an attacker implant a rootkit or trojan on your
systems?
– Is the attacker really gone?
– What did the attacker steal or add?
– How did the attack get in
• Root-cause analysis
• Link Ch 1a
Malware Analysis
• Dissecting malware to understand
– How it works
– How to identify it
– How to defeat or eliminate it
• A critical part of incident response
The Goals of Malware Analysis
• Information required to respond to a network
intrusion
– Exactly what happened
– Ensure you’ve located all infected machines and
files
– How to measure and contain the damage
– Find signatures for intrusion detection systems
Signatures
• Host-based signatures
– Identify files or registry keys on a victim computer
that indicate an infection
– Focus on what the malware did to the system, not
the malware itself
• Different from antivirus signature
• Network signatures
– Detect malware by analyzing network traffic
– More effective when made using malware analysis
False Positives
Malware Analysis Techniques
Static v. Dynamic Analysis
• Static Analysis
– Examines malware without running it
– Tools: VirusTotal, strings, a disassembler like IDA Pro
• Dynamic Analysis
– Run the malware and monitor its effect
– Use a virtual machine and take snapshots
– Tools: RegShot, Process Monitor, Process Hacker,
CaptureBAT
– RAM Analysis: Mandant Redline and Volatility
Basic Analysis
• Basic static analysis
– View malware without looking at instructions
– Tools: VirusTotal, strings
– Quick and easy but fails for advanced malware and
can miss important behavior
• Basic dynamic analysis
– Easy but requires a safe test environment
– Not effective on all malware
Advanced Analysis
• Advanced static analysis
– Reverse-engineering with a disassembler
– Complex, requires understanding of assembly
code
• Advanced Dynamic Analysis
– Run code in a debugger
– Examines internal state of a running malicious
executable
Types of Malware
Types of Malware
• Backdoor
– Allows attacker to control the system
• Botnet
– All infected computers receive instructions from
the same Command-and-Control (C&C) server
• Downloader
– Malicious code that exists only to download other
malicious code
– Used when attacker first gains access
Types of Malware
• Information-stealing malware
– Sniffers, keyloggers, password hash grabbers
• Launcher
– Malicious program used to launch other malicious
programs
– Often uses nontraditional techniques to ensure stealth or
greater access to a system
• Rootkit
– Malware that conceals the existence of other code
– Usually paired with a backdoor
Types of Malware
• Scareware
– Frightens user into buying something
– Link Ch 1b
Types of Malware
• Spam-sending malware
– Attacker rents machine to spammers
• Worms or viruses
– Malicious code that can copy itself and infect
additional computers
Mass v. Targeted Malware
• Mass malware
– Intended to infect as many machines as possible
– Most common type
• Targeted malware
– Tailored to a specific target
– Very difficult to detect, prevent, and remove
– Requires advanced analysis
– Ex: Stuxnet
General Rules for Malware
Analysis
General Rules for Malware Analysis
• Don’t Get Caught in Details
– You don’t need to understand 100% of the code
– Focus on key features
• Try Several Tools
– If one tool fails, try another
– Don’t get stuck on a hard issue, move along
• Malware authors are constantly raising the bar
Ch 2: Basic Static Analysis
Techniques
• Antivirus scanning
• Hashes
• A file’s strings, functions, and headers
Antivirus Scanning
Only a First Step
• Malware can easily change its signature and
fool the antivirus
• VirusTotal is convenient, but using it may alert
attackers that they’ve been caught
– Link Ch 2a
Hashing
A fingerprint for malware

Hashes
• MD5 or SHA-1
• Condenses a file of any size down to a fixed-
length fingerprint
• Uniquely identifies a file well in practice
– There are MD5 collisions but they are not
common
– Collision: two different files with the same hash
HashCalc
Hash Uses
• Label a malware file
• Share the hash with other analysts to identify
malware
• Search the hash online to see if someone else
has already identified the file
Finding Strings
Strings
• Any sequence of printable characters is a
string
• Strings are terminated by a null (0x00)
• ASCII characters are 8 bits long
– Now called ANSI
• Unicode characters are 16 bits long
– Microsoft calls them "wide characters"
The strings Command
• Native in Linux, also available for Windows
• Finds all strings in a file 3 or more characters
long
The strings Command
• Bold items can be ignored
• GetLayout and SetLayout are Windows
functions
• GDI32.DLL
is a
Dynamic
Link
Library
Packed and Obfuscated Malware
Packing Files
• The code is compressed, like a Zip file
• This makes the strings and instructions unreadable
• All you'll see is the wrapper – small code that
unpacks the file when it is run
Detecting Packers with PEiD
Demo: UPX
Packing Obfuscates Strings
Portable Executable File Format
EXE Files
PE Files
• Used by Windows executable files, object
code, and DLLs
• A data structure that contains the information
necessary for Windows to load the file
• Almost every file executed on Windows is in
PE format
PE Header
• Information about the code
• Type of application
• Required library functions
• Space requirements
LordPE Demo
Main Sections
There are
a lot more
sections
• But the
main ones
are enough
for now
• Link Ch 2c
Linked Libraries and Functions
Imports
• Functions used by a program that are stored in
a different program, such as library
• Connected to the main EXE by Linking
• Can be linked three ways
– Statically
– At Runtime
– Dynamically
Static Linking
• Rarely used for Windows executables
• Common in Unix and Linux
• All code from the library is copied into the
executable
• Makes executable large in size
Runtime Linking
• Unpopular in friendly programs
• Common in malware, especially packed or
obfuscated malware
• Connect to libraries only when needed, not
when the program starts
• Most commonly done with the LoadLibrary
and GetProcAddress functions
Dynamic Linking
• Most common method
• Host OS searches for necessary libraries when
the program is loaded
Clues in Libraries
• The PE header lists every library and function
that will be loaded
• Their names can reveal what the program
does
• URLDownloadToFile indicates that the
program downloads something
Dependency Walker
Shows Dynamically Linked Functions
• Normal programs have a lot of DLLs

• Malware often has very few DLLs
Services.exe
Services.ex_ (malware)
Imports
&
Exports
in
Dependency
Walker
Exports
• DLLs export functions
• EXEs import functions
• Both exports and imports are listed in the PE
header
• The book says exports are rare in EXEs, but I
see a ton of exports in innocent EXEs
Example: Keylogger
• Imports User32.dll and uses the function
SetWindowsHookEx which is a popular way
keyloggers receive keyboard inputs
• It exports LowLevelKeyboardProc and
LowLevelMouseProc to send the data
elsewhere
• It uses RegisterHotKey to define a special
keystroke like Ctrl+Shift+P to harvest the
collected data
Ex: A Packed Program
• Very few
functions
• All you
see is the
unpacker
The PE File Headers and Sections
Important PE Sections
• .text -- instructions for the CPU to execute
• .rdata -- imports & exports
• .data – global data
• .rsrc – strings, icons, images, menus
PEView (Link Ch 2e)
Time Date Stamp
• Shows when this executable was compiled
• Older programs are more likely to be known to
antivirus software
• But sometimes the date is wrong
– All Delphi programs show June 19, 1992
– Date can also be faked
IMAGE_SECTION_HEADER
• Virtual Size – RAM
• Size of Raw Data – DISK
• For .text section, normally equal, or nearly
equal
• Packed executables show Virtual Size much
larger than Size of Raw Data for .text section
Not Packed
Resource Hacker
• Lets you browse the .rsrc section
• Strings, icons, and menus
• Link Ch 2f
Resource Hacker in Windows XP
Resource Hacker in Windows 7

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Practical Malware Analysis

Ch 1: Malware Analysis Primer

A fingerprint for malware

• Normal programs have a lot of DLLs

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