Basic static analysis Course

Learn how to conduct basic static analysis on a malicious file to gather information about the malware prior to conducting any dynamic analysis.

1 hour, 3 minutes

Course description

This course is an exploration of conducting basic static analysis on malware. Use tools to dissect a PE file and identify suspected malicious activity. Using various tools and techniques, you can learn a lot about a malware sample prior to executing the sample in a virtual environment. Basic static analysis provides a solid start to malware analysis.

Syllabus

Unpacking

Video - 00:07:00
Demonstrate unpacking through the use of unpacking tools such as UPX.
Analyzing imports and exports

Video - 00:10:00
Analyzing a malware file's imports and exports to identify possible malicious activity.
Using PEView

Video - 00:05:00
Using PEView to gather malware file metadata.
Demonstrate analyzing strings

Video - 00:20:00
Demonstrate searching through malware strings for suspicious information.
Malware strings

Video - 00:09:00
Identify common types of data to search for in a malware file's strings.
Retrieving malware file metadata

Video - 00:07:00
Demonstrate retrieving malware file metadata, such as hashes and file types.
What is basic static analysis

Video - 00:05:00
Discuss procedures and tools classified as basic static malware analysis.

Meet the author

Carolyn Ahlers

Carolyn has been a malware reverse engineer for over nine years. She initially gained her reverse-engineering skill set in the US Navy, conducting malware analysis for defensive purposes, incident response and enabling exploitation operations. She is proficient at analyzing various types of binaries and working with many malware analysis tools and programming languages such as x86 assembly, C, C++ and Python. She also has three years’ experience as a computer forensic analyst conducting analysis on various media devices in search of malicious intrusions.

Carolyn has taken numerous malware reverse-engineering courses, at levels from beginner to advanced. She has also created numerous malware analysis training pipelines. She has her Bachelor of Science degree in computer networks and cybersecurity from the University of Maryland Global Campus, and has been SANS GIAC Reverse Engineering Malware (GREM)-certified since 2015.

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All Infosec training maps directly to the NICE Workforce Framework for Cybersecurity to guide you from beginner to expert across 52 Work Roles.

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  • Target Developer

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