Malware Analysis

Malware analysis is the disciplined examination of malicious code to determine what it does, how it operates, and what systems it affects. It is divided into static analysis — inspecting code, strings, and structure without running the sample — and dynamic analysis — executing the sample in a controlled environment to observe runtime behavior.

Understanding malware is prerequisite to effective containment and remediation. Analysis reveals command-and-control infrastructure, persistence mechanisms, data targeted for exfiltration, and evasion techniques. Findings directly inform detection rules, IOC extraction, and retrospective threat hunting across the environment.

Static analysis involves disassembly, string extraction, hash lookups, file format inspection, and signature matching (e.g., YARA rules). Dynamic analysis runs the sample in an isolated sandbox and monitors system calls, network traffic, registry modifications, and file system changes. Advanced analysis combines both approaches with manual reverse engineering for complex or obfuscated samples.