Reverse-Engineering Malware: Malware Analysis Tools and Techniques

The course begins by covering fundamental aspects of malware analysis. You'll learn how to set up an inexpensive and flexible laboratory for understanding the inner-workings of malicious software and will understand how to use the lab for exploring characteristics of real-world malware. Then you'll learn to examine the program's behavioral patterns and code. Afterwards, you'll experiment with reverse-engineering compiled Windows executables and browser-based malware.

The course continues by discussing essential x86 assembly language concepts. You'll examine malicious code to understand the program's key components and execution flow. Additionally, you'll learn to identify common malware characteristics by looking at Windows API patterns and will examine excerpts from bots, rootkits, keyloggers, and downloaders. You'll understand how to work with PE headers and handle DLL interactions. Furthermore, you'll learn tools and techniques for bypassing anti-analysis capabilities of armored malware, experimenting with packed executables and obfuscated browser scripts.

Toward end of the course, you'll learn to analyze malicious document files that take the form of Microsoft Office and Adobe PDF documents. Such documents act as a common infection vector and need to be understood by enterprises concerned about both large-scale and targeted attacks. The course also explores memory forensics approaches to examining rootkits. Memory-based analysis techniques also help understand the context of an incident involving malicious software.

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