Cracking nuts & malware analysis

Deciphering the inner workings of compiled languages in detail. Disassembling binaries to solve crackmes at the assembly level, using as basic tools as possible.

And inspecting several malware samples in the wild, a typical pattern arises, making analysing other samples easier with experience. Knowing these common behaviours gives an idea of what to look for on the defensive side.

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Testlab

• Static analysis
• Disassemblers
• Debuggers
• Decompilers
• Program editing tools
• Analysis automation programming
• Software forensic tools
• Malware analysis tools
• Binary analysis VM

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Notes on techniques

Binary formats

• Introduction
• Anatomy of binaries
• Executable and Linkable Format (ELF)
• Portable Executable (PE) format

Cracking

• Introduction
• Assessment and static analysis
• Reverse engineering in Linux
• Reverse engineering in Windows
• WebAssembly (WASM)

Malware analysis

• Introduction
• History of malware
• Typical behaviours
• Purpose of a malware attack
• Malware signatures
• Static and dynamic analysis
• Packers

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Coding for better understanding of concepts, and for some hands-on.

Useful snippets

• Using Windows APIs
• Code snippets for using WASM
• Binary loader using libbfd

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Root-me cracking challenges

• Introduction
• ELF x86 0 protection
• ELF x86 basic
• PE x86 0 protection
• ELF C++ 0 protection
• Godot 0 protection
• PE x86 0 protection
• ELF MIPS basic crackme
• ELF x64 golang basic
• ELF x86 fake instructions
• ELF x86 ptrace
• Godot bytecode
• WASM introduction
• ELF ARM basic crackme
• Godot mono
• PYC bytecode
• ELF x86 no software breakpoints
• ELF ARM crackme 1337
• ELF x86 crackpass
• ELF x86 exploitme
• ELF x86 random crackme
• GB basic Game Boy crackme
• APK anti-debug

TryHackMe rooms

• Introduction
• Analysing malicious pdfs
• Analysing malicious Microsoft Office macros
• I hope you packed your bags
• THM Dunkle Materie

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More practice

• Malware traffic analysis exercises
• theZoo - A Live Malware Repository
• crackmes.one

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Books