SANS Digital Forensics and Incident Response Blog: Category - Malware Analysis

Microsoft Office Macros have been the bane of security analysts' lives since the late 1990s. Their flexibility and functionality make them ideal for malware authors to use as a primary stage payload delivery mechanism, and to datethe challenge they pose remains unsolved. Many organisations refrain from blocking them completely due to the impact it … Continue reading Inhibiting Malicious Macros by Blocking Risky API Calls

The SANSDFIR Summit and Training 2018is turning 11!The 2018 event marks 11 years since SANS started what is todaythedigital forensics and incident response event of the year, attended by forensicators time after time. Join us and enjoy the latest in-depth presentations from influential DFIR experts and the opportunity to take an array of hands-on SANS … Continue reading Top 11 Reasons Why You Should NOT Miss the SANS DFIR Summit and Training this Year

Software that automatically updates itself presents an attack surface, which can be leveraged en masse through the compromise of the vendor's infrastructure. This has been seen multiple times during 2017, with high profile examples includingNotPetya and CCleaner. Most large organisations have built robust perimeter defences for incoming and outgoing traffic, but this threat vector … Continue reading Automated Hunting of Software Update Supply Chain Attacks

Introduction The acquisition of process memory during behavioural analysis of malware can provide quick and detailed insight. Examples of where it can be really useful include packed malware, which may be in a more accessible state while running, and malware, which receives live configuration updates from the internet and stores them in memory. Unfortunately the … Continue reading Acquiring a Memory Dump from Fleeting Malware

Targeted Web-Based Malware? Malware authors are frequently observed leveraging server side scripting on their infrastructure to evade detection and better target their attacks. This includes both exploit kits and servers hosting secondary stage payloads, all of which can easily be set up to alter their responses based on the footprint of the visitor. This could … Continue reading Uncovering Targeted Web-Based Malware Through Shapeshifting