Malware Analysis and Reverse Engineering
The malicious code in malware is a piece of code intended to damage or disrupt the computer operation of the victim.
Malware analysis is about understanding the behavior and purpose of a suspicious file or URL. This analysis refers to the process by which the purpose and functionality of a given malware sample are analyzed and determined. Filtering information out of malware analysis provides us with the information needed to develop effective detection techniques against the malicious code. It provides a solution for high loyalty warnings earlier in the attack life cycle and provides an understanding of malware types and the type of attack methods.
Manual malware analysis can be tedious because it often involves bypassing obstacles that confuse researchers or obscure the function and origin of the malware. The manual malware analysis process typically involves reconstructing a set of steps that are necessary to assess how a particular malware is operating.
Behavioural analysis is considered an important step in the process of malware analysis. Behavioral analysis tools identify the nature of the tool and the behavior of malware and alert the user about it. The malware will change the functioning of a program and harm the system as well as the users.
Through in-depth behavioral analysis, a threat can be identified by identifying shared code and malicious functionality.
Dynamic malware analysis tools observe the behavior of the malware while it is running as a host program. Reverse engineering is also a method to analyze the presence of malware on a system. This analysis can be performed in a production system that is not affected by malware, such as an enterprise or test system, but not in the production systems. Undoubtedly, it is an effective method to detect the presence of malware on a system, for example in the form of a malicious executable file.
But using this type of tool and performing dynamic analysis and behavioral techniques is a way of circumventing malware. It has only one execution path to analyze, so the relevant behavior of the malware could be ignored. The actions taken by malware during the analysis are automatically recorded, but we have no way to analyze them all.
This means that, in order to prevent malware analysis, we can detect instrumented environmental analyses that force the malware to hide or inhibit its malicious behavior. We are able to identify the different types of tools for different types of ransomware and malware analysis.
Some malware analysis tools provide users with information about how malware behaves in a sandbox, including access to files, task creation, and various other behavioral features that are useful in determining the scope and intent of the malware. In a sandbox, it is also possible to run a URL file through a number of different tools to analyze its behavior and provide a detailed technical analysis. Sandboxing enables cybersecurity teams of all skill levels to improve their understanding of the threats they face and use this knowledge to defend against future attacks.
Modern malware may have evasive techniques designed to prevent dynamic analysis, including delaying the execution of the malicious payload and requiring some form of interactive user input. Malware can also be debugged while running by using debuggers such as GDB or WinDbg to observe the behavior and effects on the host system of malware while its instructions are being processed.
Static analysis refers to techniques that analyze the contents of a malicious file before it is executed, while dynamic analysis considers the behavioral aspects of malicious files while running the code in a controlled environment. Unlike static analysis, dynamic analysis is immune to code obfuscation.
Olevba, PeStudio, dnspy and Suricata can be used to perform in-depth technical analysis of the malware and to focus on developing effective strategies to maximize time. Malware authors go to great lengths to bypass corporate security in order to spread malware — avoiding detection after the first intrusion and maintaining persistence in the face of compromising organizations. During this attack phase, malware authors use a variety of tactics to achieve their goal of full control over an organization’s network and access control systems.
When the user is active, malicious code can hide in areas where it is not recognized, or it can delay its malicious activity. Advanced malware programs have more advanced tools to outwit and bypass sandboxes, and they can even hide their malicious codes in an area where they are not detected. Security researchers can mitigate advanced malware by using the dynamic analysis to automate as many malware analyses as possible, gain time to understand reverse communication protocols, and work toward mapping. The more advanced the automated solutions, the faster the inverter passes through the initial, time-consuming phase of the process, which consists of uncovering and understanding the main behavior of the malware.
More advanced malware analysis is a manual process in which malware samples are used in reverse engineering, often using a range of different tools. Through reverse engineering, researchers are able to detect hidden functions of a particular malware, even those that are only performed under certain conditions. Simply put, manual analysis shows what happens when a sample is run, but automated analysis services will tell you how it happens.
In addition, researchers use manual analysis to determine the presence of other types of malware as well as the type of malware itself. Malware analysis and threat Hunting is a very popular concept, a very popular tactic and technique that can be used to ensure the security of your network.
Cited Sources
- https://www.cisecurity.org/spotlight/cybersecurity-spotlight-malware-analysis/
- https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/4/1360/htm
- https://www.crowdstrike.com/epp-101/malware-analysis/
- https://blog.comodo.com/malware/different-techniques-for-malware-analysis/
- https://www.anlyz.co/best-malware-analysis-tools
- https://www.lastline.com/blog/reverse-engineering-malware/
- https://www.hindawi.com/journals/scn/si/945306/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malware_analysis
