por Do you know what KVM is and what this tool is used for in cybersecurity? The malware or current malicious programs can be highly dangerous. That’s why, To execute them, it is necessary to have a virtual environment adequately prepared to do so. These virtual machines are known as sandboxes or sandboxes and are used to perform dynamic analysis of malware.
Difference between a virtual machine and a sandbox
If you are interested in knowing what KVM is, then you have probably already heard about it. dynamic analysis of malware and sandboxes or sandboxes. However, it is necessary to clarify that not all virtual machines are sandboxes.
A virtual machine is simulated by means of a specialized program and, therefore, allows sandboxes to be executed. However, a sandbox is a virtual environment that is used specifically to run malware and evaluate their behavior. Next, we’ll look at why KVM can be the ideal sandbox for a researcher.
What is KVM?
KVM or Kernel-based Virtual Machine is a Linux program that was incorporated into the operating system since 2007. All current versions of this operating system, As of Kernel 2.6.20, they have KVM built-in.
KVM is a virtual machine that allows us to simulate different computers and run processes on them without affecting our real machines. Besides, It has the advantage that it works with QEMU, the system processor emulator necessary to translate the commands from the executable to the operating system. This translates into high efficiency and, therefore, good processing and operating speeds.
The speeds offered by working with KVM are a great attraction of this software. However, there is one additional feature that, for the moment, makes this program ideal for running sandboxes or sandbox. One of the most positive attributes of KVM when doing data analysis malware the thing is It is less used by researchers and, therefore, malware they do not tend to identify that they are being executed there.
Anti-sandbox methods
Resistance to antisandbox methods (or rather the lack thereof) is one of the most attractive features of what KVM is like. sandbox. However, now We will define what these techniques are about and why they affect other virtual environments.
Simple antisandbox methods
When talking about what KVM is, we have mentioned that it is not so easy for malware detect it, since it is not usually used as much as other programs to run malware. Some of the most used programs, such as VirtualBox or VMware, can be detected by malware more advanced (if not configured correctly).
The simplest antisandbox methods consist of detect typical specifications of a virtual machine for example:
Number of system cores: 2.Hard drive size: 65 GB.RAM size: 4GB.User name of the system.Name of the starting screen.Characteristic directories of virtual machines.
Complex antisandbox methods
On the other hand, there are more complex antisandbox methods, such as:
Timing of the CPU.Sleep.Delay.Timing attack.
These consist of misleading the virtual machine to make the analyst believe that the program executes benign or neutral tasks.
How to learn more?
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