Search icon CANCEL
Arrow left icon
Explore Products
Best Sellers
New Releases
Books
Videos
Audiobooks
Learning Hub
Conferences
Free Learning
Arrow right icon
Arrow up icon
GO TO TOP
Learning Linux Binary Analysis

You're reading from   Learning Linux Binary Analysis Learning Linux Binary Analysis

Arrow left icon
Product type Paperback
Published in Feb 2016
Publisher Packt
ISBN-13 9781782167105
Length 282 pages
Edition 1st Edition
Languages
Tools
Arrow right icon
Author (1):
Arrow left icon
Ryan "elfmaster" O'Neill Ryan "elfmaster" O'Neill
Author Profile Icon Ryan "elfmaster" O'Neill
Ryan "elfmaster" O'Neill
Arrow right icon
View More author details
Toc

Table of Contents (11) Chapters Close

Preface 1. The Linux Environment and Its Tools FREE CHAPTER 2. The ELF Binary Format 3. Linux Process Tracing 4. ELF Virus Technology – Linux/Unix Viruses 5. Linux Binary Protection 6. ELF Binary Forensics in Linux 7. Process Memory Forensics 8. ECFS – Extended Core File Snapshot Technology 9. Linux /proc/kcore Analysis Index

ptrace and forensic analysis


The ptrace() command is the system call that is most commonly used for memory analysis of a userland. In fact, if you are designing forensics software that runs in userland, the only way it can access other processes memory is through the ptrace system call, or by reading the proc filesystem (unless, of course, the program has some type of explicit shared memory IPC setup).

Note

One may attach to a process and then open/lseek/read/write /proc/<pid>/mem as an alternative to ptrace read/write semantics.

In 2011, I was awarded a contract by the DARPA CFT (Cyber Fast Track) program to design something called Linux VMA Monitor. The purpose of this software is to detect a wide range of known and unknown process memory infections, such as rootkits and memory-resident viruses.

It essentially performs automated intelligent memory forensic analysis on every single process address space using special heuristics that understands ELF execution. It can spot anomalies or...

lock icon The rest of the chapter is locked
Register for a free Packt account to unlock a world of extra content!
A free Packt account unlocks extra newsletters, articles, discounted offers, and much more. Start advancing your knowledge today.
Unlock this book and the full library FREE for 7 days
Get unlimited access to 7000+ expert-authored eBooks and videos courses covering every tech area you can think of
Renews at $19.99/month. Cancel anytime