Cybersecurity firm Checkpoint has created an encyclopedia of the various techniques used by malware to evade analysis.
The encyclopedia covers evasion techniques related to the file system, registry, generic OS queries, global OS objects, user interface artifacts, OS features, processes, network, CPU, firmware tables, hooks, hardware, and macOS-specific sandboxes.
Checkpoint also plans on adding evasion techniques related to timing, Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), and human-like behavior. The company has also created a GitHub page where experts can contribute to the encyclopedia.
Each evasion category includes a description of the technique, code samples, signature recommendations for tracking attempts to use the technique, a table showing the type of environments that can be detected, and countermeasures.
Several tools that demonstrate these evasion techniques are already publicly available as open source. However, Checkpoint has also released its own open source tool, named InviZzzible.
Cybersecurity companies often use automated solutions to analyze malware samples and their behavior, and malware developers have become increasingly good at identifying these types of virtual environments.
Many pieces of malware are designed to either completely stop working or behave differently when an analysis environment is encountered. Defenders, on the other hand, have to work on improving their analysis systems to trick malware into believing that it’s running on a regular device.
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