Malware Analysis

When to Activate

• Triaging an unknown binary/script: identity, packing verdict, capability map, IOCs, go/no-go for detonation.
• Recovering the real payload from a packed/crypted/obfuscated loader (commodity loaders, RAT chains, .NET).
• Detonating safely and recovering fileless / in-memory artifacts (injection, AMSI/ETW patching, WMI persistence).
• Extracting malware configuration (C2, keys, sleep/jitter, campaign IDs) for threat intel and detection.
• Detecting/characterizing C2 on the wire (beacon cadence, JA4+ fingerprints, tunneled/DoH channels).
• Writing durable, low-FP YARA-X detection from analysis findings; incident-response scoping.

Technique Map

Quick Start

# 1. Static triage: hashes + PE anomalies + capability combos + FLOSS/capa/YARA-X
python3 scripts/triage.py sample.exe --floss --capa --yara rules/family.yar --json out/triage.json
capa -j sample.exe > out/capa.json                       # capabilities -> ATT&CK

# 2. Unpack (try emulation first; DBI fallback in isolated VM)
python3 scripts/auto_unpack.py sample.exe -o out/dumps/  # static emulation, no detonation
frida -f C:\sample.exe -l scripts/frida_unpack.js --no-pause   # DBI, isolated VM only
de4dot sample.exe -o cleaned.exe                         # .NET layer

# 3. Dynamic + memory (capture mem BEFORE remediation)
python3 scripts/mem_triage.py -f mem.raw --vol vol --patch-hunt --json out/mem.json

# 4. Config + C2 extraction
python3 scripts/cs_config_extract.py beacon.bin --json    # Cobalt Strike
python3 1768.py -S beacon.bin                             # full CS incl. runtime/heap config
configextractor sample.bin                               # MACO/MWCP/CAPE at scale

# 5. Network C2 detection
python3 scripts/beacon_profiler.py capture.pcap --min-beacons 6     # cadence/jitter
zeek -r capture.pcap LOCAL ja4 && zeek-cut ja4 ja4s ja4x < ja4.log  # JA4+ pivots

# 6. Detection engineering
python3 scripts/yara_gen.py --family samples/fam/ --name Fam --goodware /usr/bin --out rules/fam.yar
yara-x fmt rules/fam.yar && yara-x scan rules/fam.yar /corpus/

OPSEC & Detection (summary)

Deep Dives

• references/static-triage-capa.md — Identity/code hashes, Rich header, entropy/packer heuristics, FLOSS, capa (PE/ELF/.NET/shellcode + dynamic capa over CAPE, Android rules, capa Explorer Web), FLARE-VM 2025.
• references/unpacking-deobfuscation.md — Self-modifying-stub oracle, emulation (auto_unpack/unipacker/Speakeasy/Qiling), Frida DBI hooks, x64dbg→OEP→Scylla, .NET (de4dot/dnSpyEx), Latrodectus 1.4 AES strings, AsyncRAT fileless loaders, garble/pyc.
• references/dynamic-fileless-memory.md — Sandbox build, Volatility 3 injection playbook + 2025 contest plugins (PEScan/Fileless Hunter), AMSI/ETW patch IOCs + patchless VEH bypass, WMI/registry/PS fileless persistence.
• references/config-c2-extraction.md — Cobalt Strike (1768.py runtime config, CobaltStrikeParser XOR 0x69/0x2e), AdaptixC2 (Unit 42, 2025), MACO/configextractor-py/CAPEv2 at scale, generic unknown-C2 decoder methodology.
• references/network-c2-detection.md — Beacon cadence/CV scoring, JA4+ suite (JA4X for randomized-cert Sliver/Havoc, Zeek/TheHive 2025-26), tunneled/DoH C2 (cloudflared/TryCloudflare/chisel), Suricata/Sigma + ransomware 2025 tradecraft.
• references/yara-detection-engineering.md — YARA-X 1.0 (Rust, 99% compat, fmt/WASM, perf caveats), code/byte > string rules, pe/math modules, threshold logic, goodware FP validation, memory+disk scanning, capa pairing.