Get up to speed on state-of-the-art malware with this first-ever guide to analyzing malicious Windows software designed to actively avoid detection and forensic tools. Dive into the fascinating and terrifying world of evasive malware--malicious software designed to avoid detection. The first of its kind, this thorough introduction is full of practical information, real-world examples, and cutting-edge techniques for discovering, reverse-engineering, and analyzing state-of-the-art malware. Beginning with foundational knowledge about malware analysis in the context of the Windows OS, you'll learn about the evasive maneuvers that malware programs use to determine whether they're being analyzed and the tricks they employ to avoid detection. You'll explore the ways malware circumvents security controls, such as network or endpoint defense bypasses, anti-forensics techniques, and malware that deploys data and code obfuscation. At the end of the book, you'll build your very own anti-evasion analysis lab. You'll learn:
Modern evasive malware threats
Anti-analysis techniques used in malware
How malware bypasses and circumvents security controls
How malware uses victim targeting and profiling techniques
How malware uses anti-forensics and file-less techniques
How to perform malware analysis and reverse engineering on evasive programs

Get up to speed on state-of-the-art malware with this first-ever guide to analyzing malicious Windows software designed to actively avoid detection and forensic tools. We're all aware of Stuxnet, ShadowHammer, Sunburst, and similar attacks that use evasion to remain hidden while defending themselves from detection and analysis. Because advanced threats like these can adapt and, in some cases, self-destruct to evade detection, even the most seasoned investigators can use a little help with analysis now and then. Evasive Malware will introduce you to the evasion techniques used by today's malicious software and show you how to defeat them. Following a crash course on using static and dynamic code analysis to uncover malware's true intentions, you'll learn how malware weaponizes context awareness to detect and skirt virtual machines and sandboxes, plus the various tricks it uses to thwart analysis tools. You'll explore the world of anti-reversing, from anti-disassembly methods and debugging interference to covert code execution and misdirection tactics. You'll also delve into defense evasion, from process in