Quick malware analysis with Linux tools
Peek Inside
© Lead Image © Marina Andrienko, 123RF.com
Forensic experts can't just delete a sketchy file – sometimes the challenge is to see what is in it without triggering an attack. Learn about some of the tools investigators use for analyzing suspicious files.
The number of online threats increases every year. Phishing attacks, for example, are growing more sophisticated and are often prepared in such a way that it is very difficult to distinguish a malicious message from a legitimate one. Analysts are often challenged with determining whether a file, such as a file sent to an email address, is malicious or not. If the file does turn out to be malicious, the next questions are what are the contents and what task is it supposed to perform?
When it comes to analyzing potentially malicious files, distributions that are adapted to malware analysis come in handy. The REMnux forensic toolkit and SIFT Workstation, for instance, are examples of toolkits designed for digital forensics tasks.
What Is It?
I'll show you an example of how an investigator might analyze a potential malware file. The Qbot malware is often used to attack user mailboxes. Qbot, which is also known as Qakbot, is a banking Trojan that has been around for over a decade. The first version was found in 2007. Since then, it has been constantly maintained and developed.
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