REMnux v6 – A Linux Toolkit for Reverse-Engineering and Analyzing Malware
REMnux is a free Linux toolkit for assisting malware analysts with reverse-engineering malicious software. It strives to make it easier for forensic investigators and incident responders to start using the variety of freely-available tools that can examine malware, yet might be difficult to locate or set up.
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The heart of the project is the REMnux Linux distribution based on Ubuntu. This lightweight distro incorporates many tools for analyzing Windows and Linux malware, examining browser-based threats such as obfuscated JavaScript, exploring suspicious document files and taking apart other malicious artifacts. Investigators can also use the distro to intercept suspicious network traffic in an isolated lab when performing behavioral malware analysis.
Malware Analyis Tools Installed on REMnux
The REMnux distribution includes many free tools useful for examining malicious software. These utilities are set up and tested to make it easier for you to perform malware analysis tasks without needing to figure out how to install them. The majority of these tools are listed below.
Examine Browser Malware
- Website analysis: Thug, mitmproxy, Network Miner Free Edition, curl, Wget, Burp Proxy Free Edition, Automater, pdnstool, Tor, tcpextract, tcpflow, passive.py, CapTipper
- Flash: xxxswf, SWF Tools, RABCDAsm, extract_swf, Flare
- Java: Java Cache IDX Parser, JD-GUI Java Decompiler, JAD Java Decompiler, Javassist, CFR
- JavaScript: Rhino Debugger, ExtractScripts, Firebug, SpiderMonkey, V8, JS Beautifier
Examine Document Files
- PDF: AnalyzePDF, Pdfobjflow, pdfid, pdf-parser, peepdf, Origami, PDF X-RAY Lite, PDFtk, swf_mastah
- Microsoft Office: officeparser, pyOLEScanner.py, oletools, libolecf, oledump, emldump
- Shellcode: sctest, unicode2hex-escaped, unicode2raw, dism-this, shellcode2exe
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Extract and Decode Artifacts
- Deobfuscate: unXOR, XORStrings, ex_pe_xor, XORSearch, brutexor/iheartxor, xortool, NoMoreXOR, XORBruteForcer, Balbuzard
- Extract strings: strdeobj, pestr, strings
- Carving: Foremost, Scalpel, bulk_extractor, Hachoir
Handle Network Interactions
- Sniffing: Wireshark, ngrep, TCPDump, tcpick
- Services: FakeDNS, Nginx, fakeMail, Honeyd, INetSim, Inspire IRCd, OpenSSH, accept-all-ips
- Miscellaneous network: prettyping.sh, set-static-ip, renew-dhcp, Netcat, EPIC IRC Client, stunnel
Process Multiple Samples
Examine File Properties and Contents
- Define signatures: YaraGenerator, IOCextractor, Autorule, Rule Editor
- Scan: Yara, ClamAV, TrID, ExifTool, virustotal-submit, Disitool
- Hashes: nsrllookup, Automater, Hash Identifier, totalhash, ssdeep, virustotal-search, VirusTotalApi
Investigate Linux Malware
- System: Sysdig, Unhide
- Disassemble: Vivisect, Udis86, objdump
- Debug: Evan’s Debugger (EDB), GNU Project Debugger (GDB)
- Trace: strace, ltrace
- Investigate: Radare 2, Pyew, Bokken, m2elf
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Edit and View Files
- Text: SciTE, Geany, Vim
- Images: feh, ImageMagick
- Binary: wxHexEditor, VBinDiff
- Documents: Xpdf
Examine Memory Snapshots
- Volatility Framework, findaes, AESKeyFinder, RSAKeyFinder, VolDiff, Rekall
Statically Examine PE Files
- Unpacking: UPX, Bytehist, Density Scout, PackerID
- Disassemble: objdump, Udis86, Vivisect
- Find anomalies: Signsrch, pescanner, ExeScan, pev, Peframe, pedump
- Investigate: Bokken, RATDecoders, Pyew, readpe.py, PyInstaller Extractor
Investigate Mobile Malware
Perform Other Tasks
- ProcDOT, bashhacks, Docker, vtTool, REMnux Updater, Decompyle++
REMnux Documentation
REMnux documentation is a relatively recent effort, which can provide additional details regarding the toolkit. The document set in need of improvement and expansion.
The one-page REMnux cheat sheet highlights some of the most useful tools and commands available as part of the REMnux distro. It’s an especially nice starting point for people who are new to the distribution.
Gloss