Rootkits and bootkits: reversing modern malware and next generation threats

✍ Scribed by Matrosov, Alex;Rodionov, Eugene;Bratus, Sergey

• Publisher: No Starch Press, Inc
• Year: 2019
• Tongue: English
• Edition: First edition
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Rootkits and Bootkitsdelivers a master class in malware evolution that will give you the techniques and tools necessary to counter sophisticated, advanced threats. We're talking hard stuff - attacks buried deep in a machine's boot process or UEFI firmware that keep malware analysts up late at night.

Security experts Alex Matrosov, Eugene Rodionov, and Sergey Bratus share the knowledge they've gained over years of professional research. With these field notes, you'll trace malware evolution from rootkits like TDL3 to present day UEFI implants and examine how these malware infect the system, persist through reboot, and evade security software. While you inspect real malware under the microscope, you'll learn:

-The details of the Windows boot process, from 32-bit to 64-bit and UEFI, and where it's vulnerable.
-Boot process security mechanisms like Secure Boot, the kernel-mode signing policy include some details about recent technologies like Virtual Secure Mode (VSM) and Device Guard.
-The reverse engineering and forensic approaches for real malware discovered in the wild, including bootkits like Rovnix/Carberp, Gapz, TDL4 and the infamous rootkits TDL3 and Festi.
-How to perform boot process dynamic analysis using emulation and virtualization
-Modern BIOS-based rootkits and implants with directions for forensic analysis

Cybercrime syndicates and malicious actors keep pushing the envelope, writing ever more persistent and covert attacks. But the game is not lost. Explore the cutting edge of malware analysis withRootkits and Bootkits.

Covers boot processes for Windows 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems.

✦ Table of Contents

What's in a rootkit: the TDL3 case study --
Festi rootkit: the most advanced spam and DDoS bot --
Observing rootkit infections --
Evolution of the bootkit --
Operating system boot process essentials --
Boot process security --
Bootkit infection techniques --
Static analysis of a bootkit using IDA pro --
Bootkit dynamic analysis: emulation and virtualization --
An evolution of MBR and VBR infection techniques: olmasco --
IPL bootkits: rovnix and carberp --
Gapz: advanced VBR infection --
The rise of MBR ransomware --
UEFI boot vs the MBR/VBR boot process --
Contemporary UEFI bootkits --
UEFI firmware vulnerabilities --
How UEFI secure boot works --
Approaches to analyzing hidden filesystems --
BIOS/UEFI forensics: acquisition and analysis approaches.

✦ Subjects

Nonfiction