Practical Memory Forensics

A practical guide to enhancing your digital investigations with cutting-edge memory forensics techniques Key FeaturesExplore memory forensics, one of the vital branches of digital investigationLearn the art of user activities reconstruction and malware detection using volatile memoryGet acquainted with a range of open-source tools and techniques for memory forensicsBook Description Memory Forensics is a powerful analysis technique that can be used in different areas, from incident response to malware analysis. With memory forensics, you can not only gain key insights into the user's context but also look for unique traces of malware, in some cases, to piece together the puzzle of a sophisticated targeted attack. Starting with an introduction to memory forensics, this book will gradually take you through more modern concepts of hunting and investigating advanced malware using free tools and memory analysis frameworks. This book takes a practical approach and uses memory images from real incidents to help you gain a better understanding of the subject and develop the skills required to investigate and respond to malware-related incidents and complex targeted attacks. You'll cover Windows, Linux, and macOS internals and explore techniques and tools to detect, investigate, and hunt threats using memory forensics. Equipped with this knowledge, you'll be able to create and analyze memory dumps on your own, examine user activity, detect traces of fileless and memory-based malware, and reconstruct the actions taken by threat actors. By the end of this book, you'll be well-versed in memory forensics and have gained hands-on experience of using various tools associated with it. What you will learnUnderstand the fundamental concepts of memory organizationDiscover how to perform a forensic investigation of random access memoryCreate full memory dumps as well as dumps of individual processes in Windows, Linux, and macOSAnalyze hibernation files, swap files, and crash dumpsApply various methods to analyze user activitiesUse multiple approaches to search for traces of malicious activityReconstruct threat actor tactics and techniques using random access memory analysisWho this book is for This book is for incident responders, digital forensic specialists, cybersecurity analysts, system administrators, malware analysts, students, and curious security professionals new to this field and interested in learning memory forensics. A basic understanding of malware and its working is expected. Although not mandatory, knowledge of operating systems internals will be helpful. For those new to this field, the book covers all the necessary concepts.

Memory forensics provides cutting edge technology to help investigate digital attacks Memory forensics is the art of analyzing computer memory (RAM) to solve digital crimes. As a follow-up to the best seller Malware Analyst's Cookbook, experts in the fields of malware, security, and digital forensics bring you a step-by-step guide to memory forensics—now the most sought after skill in the digital forensics and incident response fields. Beginning with introductory concepts and moving toward the advanced, The Art of Memory Forensics: Detecting Malware and Threats in Windows, Linux, and Mac Memory is based on a five day training course that the authors have presented to hundreds of students. It is the only book on the market that focuses exclusively on memory forensics and how to deploy such techniques properly. Discover memory forensics techniques: How volatile memory analysis improves digital investigations Proper investigative steps for detecting stealth malware and advanced threats How to use free, open source tools for conducting thorough memory forensics Ways to acquire memory from suspect systems in a forensically sound manner The next era of malware and security breaches are more sophisticated and targeted, and the volatile memory of a computer is often overlooked or destroyed as part of the incident response process. The Art of Memory Forensics explains the latest technological innovations in digital forensics to help bridge this gap. It covers the most popular and recently released versions of Windows, Linux, and Mac, including both the 32 and 64-bit editions.

A resource to help forensic investigators locate, analyze, and understand digital evidence found on modern Linux systems after a crime, security incident or cyber attack. Practical Linux Forensics dives into the technical details of analyzing postmortem forensic images of Linux systems which have been misused, abused, or the target of malicious attacks. It helps forensic investigators locate and analyze digital evidence found on Linux desktops, servers, and IoT devices. Throughout the book, you learn how to identify digital artifacts which may be of interest to an investigation, draw logical conclusions, and reconstruct past activity from incidents. You’ll learn how Linux works from a digital forensics and investigation perspective, and how to interpret evidence from Linux environments. The techniques shown are intended to be independent of the forensic analysis platforms and tools used. Learn how to: Extract evidence from storage devices and analyze partition tables, volume managers, popular Linux filesystems (Ext4, Btrfs, and Xfs), and encryption Investigate evidence from Linux logs, including traditional syslog, the systemd journal, kernel and audit logs, and logs from daemons and applications Reconstruct the Linux startup process, from boot loaders (UEFI and Grub) and kernel initialization, to systemd unit files and targets leading up to a graphical login Perform analysis of power, temperature, and the physical environment of a Linux machine, and find evidence of sleep, hibernation, shutdowns, reboots, and crashes Examine installed software, including distro installers, package formats, and package management systems from Debian, Fedora, SUSE, Arch, and other distros Perform analysis of time and Locale settings, internationalization including language and keyboard settings, and geolocation on a Linux system Reconstruct user login sessions (shell, X11 and Wayland), desktops (Gnome, KDE, and others) and analyze keyrings, wallets, trash cans, clipboards, thumbnails, recent files and other desktop artifacts Analyze network configuration, including interfaces, addresses, network managers, DNS, wireless artifacts (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, WWAN), VPNs (including WireGuard), firewalls, and proxy settings Identify traces of attached peripheral devices (PCI, USB, Thunderbolt, Bluetooth) including external storage, cameras, and mobiles, and reconstruct printing and scanning activity

Leverage the power of digital forensics for Windows systems About This Book Build your own lab environment to analyze forensic data and practice techniques. This book offers meticulous coverage with an example-driven approach and helps you build the key skills of performing forensics on Windows-based systems using digital artifacts. It uses specific open source and Linux-based tools so you can become proficient at analyzing forensic data and upgrade your existing knowledge. Who This Book Is For This book targets forensic analysts and professionals who would like to develop skills in digital forensic analysis for the Windows platform. You will acquire proficiency, knowledge, and core skills to undertake forensic analysis of digital data. Prior experience of information security and forensic analysis would be helpful. You will gain knowledge and an understanding of performing forensic analysis with tools especially built for the Windows platform. What You Will Learn Perform live analysis on victim or suspect Windows systems locally or remotely Understand the different natures and acquisition techniques of volatile and non-volatile data. Create a timeline of all the system actions to restore the history of an incident. Recover and analyze data from FAT and NTFS file systems. Make use of various tools to perform registry analysis. Track a system user's browser and e-mail activities to prove or refute some hypotheses. Get to know how to dump and analyze computer memory. In Detail Over the last few years, the wave of the cybercrime has risen rapidly. We have witnessed many major attacks on the governmental, military, financial, and media sectors. Tracking all these attacks and crimes requires a deep understanding of operating system operations, how to extract evident data from digital evidence, and the best usage of the digital forensic tools and techniques. Regardless of your level of experience in the field of information security in general, this book will fully introduce you to digital forensics. It will provide you with the knowledge needed to assemble different types of evidence effectively, and walk you through the various stages of the analysis process. We start by discussing the principles of the digital forensics process and move on to show you the approaches that are used to conduct analysis. We will then study various tools to perform live analysis, and go through different techniques to analyze volatile and non-volatile data. Style and approach This is a step-by-step guide that delivers knowledge about different Windows artifacts. Each topic is explained sequentially, including artifact analysis using different tools and techniques. These techniques make use of the evidence extracted from infected machines, and are accompanied by real-life examples.

The book is an easy-to-follow guide with clear instructions on various mobile forensic techniques. The chapters and the topics within are structured for a smooth learning curve, which will swiftly empower you to master mobile forensics. If you are a budding forensic analyst, consultant, engineer, or a forensic professional wanting to expand your skillset, this is the book for you. The book will also be beneficial to those with an interest in mobile forensics or wanting to find data lost on mobile devices. It will be helpful to be familiar with forensics in general but no prior experience is required to follow this book.

A practical guide to deploying digital forensic techniques in response to cyber security incidents About This Book Learn incident response fundamentals and create an effective incident response framework Master forensics investigation utilizing digital investigative techniques Contains real-life scenarios that effectively use threat intelligence and modeling techniques Who This Book Is For This book is targeted at Information Security professionals, forensics practitioners, and students with knowledge and experience in the use of software applications and basic command-line experience. It will also help professionals who are new to the incident response/digital forensics role within their organization. What You Will Learn Create and deploy incident response capabilities within your organization Build a solid foundation for acquiring and handling suitable evidence for later analysis Analyze collected evidence and determine the root cause of a security incident Learn to integrate digital forensic techniques and procedures into the overall incident response process Integrate threat intelligence in digital evidence analysis Prepare written documentation for use internally or with external parties such as regulators or law enforcement agencies In Detail Digital Forensics and Incident Response will guide you through the entire spectrum of tasks associated with incident response, starting with preparatory activities associated with creating an incident response plan and creating a digital forensics capability within your own organization. You will then begin a detailed examination of digital forensic techniques including acquiring evidence, examining volatile memory, hard drive assessment, and network-based evidence. You will also explore the role that threat intelligence plays in the incident response process. Finally, a detailed section on preparing reports will help you prepare a written report for use either internally or in a courtroom. By the end of the book, you will have mastered forensic techniques and incident response and you will have a solid foundation on which to increase your ability to investigate such incidents in your organization. Style and approach The book covers practical scenarios and examples in an enterprise setting to give you an understanding of how digital forensics integrates with the overall response to cyber security incidents. You will also learn the proper use of tools and techniques to investigate common cyber security incidents such as malware infestation, memory analysis, disk analysis, and network analysis.

This textbook provides an introduction to digital forensics, a rapidly evolving field for solving crimes. Beginning with the basic concepts of computer forensics, each of the book’s 21 chapters focuses on a particular forensic topic composed of two parts: background knowledge and hands-on experience through practice exercises. Each theoretical or background section concludes with a series of review questions, which are prepared to test students’ understanding of the materials, while the practice exercises are intended to afford students the opportunity to apply the concepts introduced in the section on background knowledge. This experience-oriented textbook is meant to assist students in gaining a better understanding of digital forensics through hands-on practice in collecting and preserving digital evidence by completing various exercises. With 20 student-directed, inquiry-based practice exercises, students will better understand digital forensic concepts and learn digital forensic investigation techniques. This textbook is intended for upper undergraduate and graduate-level students who are taking digital-forensic related courses or working in digital forensics research. It can also be used by digital forensics practitioners, IT security analysts, and security engineers working in the IT security industry, particular IT professionals responsible for digital investigation and incident handling or researchers working in these related fields as a reference book.

Understand malware analysis and its practical implementation Key Features Explore the key concepts of malware analysis and memory forensics using real-world examples Learn the art of detecting, analyzing, and investigating malware threats Understand adversary tactics and techniques Book Description Malware analysis and memory forensics are powerful analysis and investigation techniques used in reverse engineering, digital forensics, and incident response. With adversaries becoming sophisticated and carrying out advanced malware attacks on critical infrastructures, data centers, and private and public organizations, detecting, responding to, and investigating such intrusions is critical to information security professionals. Malware analysis and memory forensics have become must-have skills to fight advanced malware, targeted attacks, and security breaches. This book teaches you the concepts, techniques, and tools to understand the behavior and characteristics of malware through malware analysis. It also teaches you techniques to investigate and hunt malware using memory forensics. This book introduces you to the basics of malware analysis, and then gradually progresses into the more advanced concepts of code analysis and memory forensics. It uses real-world malware samples, infected memory images, and visual diagrams to help you gain a better understanding of the subject and to equip you with the skills required to analyze, investigate, and respond to malware-related incidents. What you will learn Create a safe and isolated lab environment for malware analysis Extract the metadata associated with malware Determine malware's interaction with the system Perform code analysis using IDA Pro and x64dbg Reverse-engineer various malware functionalities Reverse engineer and decode common encoding/encryption algorithms Reverse-engineer malware code injection and hooking techniques Investigate and hunt malware using memory forensics Who this book is for This book is for incident responders, cyber-security investigators, system administrators, malware analyst, forensic practitioners, student, or curious security professionals interested in learning malware analysis and memory forensics. Knowledge of programming languages such as C and Python is helpful but is not mandatory. If you have written few lines of code and have a basic understanding of programming concepts, you’ll be able to get most out of this book.