Studying memory with the Volatility memory dump analyzer
Volatile Traces
© Lead Image © spleen87, photocase.com
The Volatility forensic tool helps admins analyze what went wrong on a system. When you need to draw conclusions about malware, or even compromised services, peer into memory with Volatility.
The fact that information remains in the memory of a computer for some time, even after disconnecting the power supply, is an open secret [1]. This is especially true if you press the reset button, because that does not even interrupt the power supply. If you then reboot from a minimal operating system – using a USB stick, for example – you can dump large parts of the memory without any changes, almost as if you had full access to the previously running system.
You could dig a few things out of this memory dump with on-board Linux tools like strings and grep, but a full-blown memory dump analyzer such as Volatility [2] gives you much more – and the open source project is still expanding.
When we first looked at the Volatility memory analyzer in 2008, the framework could only analyze RAM images from Windows machines [3]. Now, version 2.2 or later is also available for Linux, and the upcoming 2.3 will handle Mac OS computers and Android devices. Linux admins can look forward to a large number of new tools and programs that can extract much information from a supposedly dead machine.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Linux Mint 20 Reaches EOL
With Linux Mint 20 at its end of life, the time has arrived to upgrade to Linux Mint 22.
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.
-
Go-Based Botnet Attacking IoT Devices
Using an SSH credential brute-force attack, the Go-based PumaBot is exploiting IoT devices everywhere.
-
Plasma 6.5 Promises Better Memory Optimization
With the stable Plasma 6.4 on the horizon, KDE has a few new tricks up its sleeve for Plasma 6.5.
-
KaOS 2025.05 Officially Qt5 Free
If you're a fan of independent Linux distributions, the team behind KaOS is proud to announce the latest iteration that includes kernel 6.14 and KDE's Plasma 6.3.5.
-
Linux Kernel 6.15 Now Available
The latest Linux kernel is now available with several new features/improvements and the usual bug fixes.
-
Microsoft Makes Surprising WSL Announcement
In a move that might surprise some users, Microsoft has made Windows Subsystem for Linux open source.
-
Red Hat Releases RHEL 10 Early
Red Hat quietly rolled out the official release of RHEL 10.0 a bit early.
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.