Palo Alto Networks, Inc.

ChienHua Lu

Bo Qu

Cong Zheng

Zihang Xiao

Jiangxia Liu

Kyle Sanders

Tao Yan

Wenjun Hu

Techniques for automatically detecting unknown packers are disclosed. In some embodiments, a system/process/computer program product for automatically detecting unknown packers includes receiving a plurality of samples for malware packer detection analysis; performing a packer filter to determine whether each of the plurality of samples is packed; emulating each of the packed samples to extract a plurality of features; and clustering the packed samples based on the extracted features.

Automatically detecting unknown packers

A sample is received for analysis. A determination is made that the sample was compiled for a CPU architecture that is different from a host CPU architecture. The sample is executed in an emulated user space corresponding to the CPU architecture for which the sample was compiled. The emulated user space is provided by executing a user space emulation utility in a virtual machine that shares the host CPU architecture.

Analyzing multiple CPU architecture malware samples

A sample is received for analysis by a virtualized environment. A determination is made that the sample was compiled for a CPU architecture that is different from a host CPU architecture. The sample is executed in an emulated user space corresponding to the CPU architecture for which the sample was compiled. The emulated user space is provided by executing a user space emulation utility in a virtual machine that shares the host CPU architecture.

A sample is received for analysis by a virtualized environment. A determination is made that the sample was compiled for a CPU architecture that is different from a host CPU architecture. The sample is executed in an emulated user space corresponding to the CPU architecture for which the sample was compiled.

Various techniques for detection of malware using an instrumented virtual machine environment are disclosed. In some embodiments, detection of malware using an instrumented virtual machine environment includes instantiating a first virtual machine in the instrumented virtual machine environment, in which the first virtual machine is configured to support installation of two or more versions of a resource; installing a first version of the resource on the first virtual machine and monitoring the instrumented virtual machine environment while executing the first version of the resource with a malware sample opened using the first version of the resource; and installing a second version of the resource on the first virtual machine and monitoring the instrumented virtual machine environment while executing the second version of the resource with the malware sample opened using the second version of the resource.

Detection of malware using an instrumented virtual machine environment

Various techniques for detection of malware that attempt to exploit a memory allocation vulnerability are disclosed. In some embodiments, a system, process, and/or computer program product for detecting an attempt to exploit a memory allocation vulnerability includes receiving a malware sample; monitoring an array operation performed by the malware sample using a memory monitoring component; and determining whether the array operation performed by the malware sample is suspicious. For example, an array operation, such as a vector operation performed by an application that is executed using an ActionScript virtual machine, can be monitored to detect any suspicious vector operations.

Detecting an attempt to exploit a memory allocation vulnerability

Various techniques for exploit detection based on heap spray detection are disclosed. In some embodiments, exploit detection based on heap spray detection includes executing a program in a virtual environment, monitoring a heap of a memory while executing the program in the virtual environment, and detecting a potential heap spray attack based on detecting a burst allocation of a first plurality of blocks in the heap of the memory, in which each of the first plurality of blocks is stored in the predefined address range of the memory.

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Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

ChienHua Lu