Volatility - CheatSheet

If you want something fast and crazy that will launch several Volatility plugins on parallel you can use: https://github.com/carlospolop/autoVolatility

python autoVolatility.py -f MEMFILE -d OUT_DIRECTORY -e /home/user/tools/volatility/vol.py # Will use most important plugins (could use a lot of space depending on the size of the memory)

Installation

volatility3

git clone https://github.com/volatilityfoundation/volatility3.git
cd volatility3
python3 setup.py install
python3 vol.py —h

volatility2

Download the executable from https://www.volatilityfoundation.org/26

git clone https://github.com/volatilityfoundation/volatility.git
cd volatility
python setup.py install

Volatility Commands

Access the official doc in Volatility command reference

A note on “list” vs. “scan” plugins

Volatility has two main approaches to plugins, which are sometimes reflected in their names. “list” plugins will try to navigate through Windows Kernel structures to retrieve information like processes (locate and walk the linked list of _EPROCESS structures in memory), OS handles (locating and listing the handle table, dereferencing any pointers found, etc). They more or less behave like the Windows API would if requested to, for example, list processes.

That makes “list” plugins pretty fast, but just as vulnerable as the Windows API to manipulation by malware. For instance, if malware uses DKOM to unlink a process from the _EPROCESS linked list, it won’t show up in the Task Manager and neither will it in the pslist.

“scan” plugins, on the other hand, will take an approach similar to carving the memory for things that might make sense when dereferenced as specific structures. psscan for instance will read the memory and try to make out _EPROCESS objects out of it (it uses pool-tag scanning, which is basically searching for 4-byte strings that indicate the presence of a structure of interest). The advantage is that it can dig up processes that have exited, and even if malware tampers with the _EPROCESS linked list, the plugin will still find the structure lying around in memory (since it still needs to exist for the process to run). The downfall is that “scan” plugins are a bit slower than “list” plugins, and can sometimes yield false-positives (a process that exited too long ago and had parts of its structure overwritten by other operations).

From: http://tomchop.me/2016/11/21/tutorial-volatility-plugins-malware-analysis/

OS Profiles

Volatility3

As explained inside the readme you need to put the symbol table of the OS you want to support inside volatility3/volatility/symbols. Symbol table packs for the various operating systems are available for download at:

Volatility2

External Profile

You can get the list of supported profiles doing:

./volatility_2.6_lin64_standalone --info | grep "Profile"

If you want to use a new profile you have downloaded (for example a linux one) you need to create somewhere the following folder structure: plugins/overlays/linux and put inside this folder the zip file containing the profile. Then, get the number of the profiles using:

./vol --plugins=/home/kali/Desktop/ctfs/final/plugins --info
Volatility Foundation Volatility Framework 2.6


Profiles
--------
LinuxCentOS7_3_10_0-123_el7_x86_64_profilex64 - A Profile for Linux CentOS7_3.10.0-123.el7.x86_64_profile x64
VistaSP0x64                                   - A Profile for Windows Vista SP0 x64
VistaSP0x86                                   - A Profile for Windows Vista SP0 x86

You can download Linux and Mac profiles from https://github.com/volatilityfoundation/profiles

In the previous chunk you can see that the profile is called LinuxCentOS7_3_10_0-123_el7_x86_64_profilex64 , and you can use it executing something like:

./vol -f file.dmp --plugins=. --profile=LinuxCentOS7_3_10_0-123_el7_x86_64_profilex64 linux_netscan

Discover Profile

volatility imageinfo -f file.dmp
volatility kdbgscan -f file.dmp

Differences between imageinfo and kdbgscan

As opposed to imageinfo which simply provides profile suggestions, kdbgscan is designed to positively identify the correct profile and the correct KDBG address (if there happen to be multiple). This plugin scans for the KDBGHeader signatures linked to Volatility profiles and applies sanity checks to reduce false positives. The verbosity of the output and number of sanity checks that can be performed depends on whether Volatility can find a DTB, so if you already know the correct profile (or if you have a profile suggestion from imageinfo), then make sure you use it (from here).

Always take a look in the number of procceses that kdbgscan has found. Sometimes imageinfo and kdbgscan can find more than one suitable profile but only the valid one will have some process related (This is because in order to extract processes the correct KDBG address is needed)

# GOOD
PsActiveProcessHead           : 0xfffff800011977f0 (37 processes)
PsLoadedModuleList            : 0xfffff8000119aae0 (116 modules)

# BAD
PsActiveProcessHead           : 0xfffff800011947f0 (0 processes)
PsLoadedModuleList            : 0xfffff80001197ac0 (0 modules)

KDBG

The kernel debugger block (named KdDebuggerDataBlock of the type _KDDEBUGGER_DATA64, or KDBG by volatility) is important for many things that Volatility and debuggers do. For example, it has a reference to the PsActiveProcessHead which is the list head of all processes required for process listing.

OS Information

#vol3 has a plugin to give OS information (note that imageinfo from vol2 will give you OS info)
./vol.py -f file.dmp windows.info.Info

The plugin banners.Banners can be used in vol3 to try to find linux banners in the dump.

Hashes/Passwords

Extract SAM hashes, domain cached credentials and lsa secrets.

./vol.py -f file.dmp windows.hashdump.Hashdump #Grab common windows hashes (SAM+SYSTEM)
./vol.py -f file.dmp windows.cachedump.Cachedump #Grab domain cache hashes inside the registry
./vol.py -f file.dmp windows.lsadump.Lsadump #Grab lsa secrets

volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 hashdump -f file.dmp #Grab common windows hashes (SAM+SYSTEM)
volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 cachedump -f file.dmp #Grab domain cache hashes inside the registry
volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 lsadump -f file.dmp #Grab lsa secrets

Memory Dump

The memory dump of a process will extract everything of the current status of the process. The procdump module will only extract the code.

volatility -f file.dmp --profile=Win7SP1x86 memdump -p 2168 -D conhost/

Processes

List processes

Try to find suspicious processes (by name) or unexpected child processes (for example a cmd.exe as a child of iexplorer.exe). It could be interesting to compare the result of pslist with the one of psscan to identify hidden processes.

python3 vol.py -f file.dmp windows.pstree.PsTree # Get processes tree (not hidden)
python3 vol.py -f file.dmp windows.pslist.PsList # Get process list (EPROCESS)
python3 vol.py -f file.dmp windows.psscan.PsScan # Get hidden process list(malware)

volatility --profile=PROFILE pstree -f file.dmp # Get process tree (not hidden)
volatility --profile=PROFILE pslist -f file.dmp # Get process list (EPROCESS)
volatility --profile=PROFILE psscan -f file.dmp # Get hidden process list(malware)
volatility --profile=PROFILE psxview -f file.dmp # Get hidden process list

Dump proc

./vol.py -f file.dmp windows.dumpfiles.DumpFiles --pid <pid> #Dump the .exe and dlls of the process in the current directory

volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 procdump --pid=3152 -n --dump-dir=. -f file.dmp

Command line

Anything suspicious was executed?

python3 vol.py -f file.dmp windows.cmdline.CmdLine #Display process command-line arguments

volatility --profile=PROFILE cmdline -f file.dmp #Display process command-line arguments
volatility --profile=PROFILE consoles -f file.dmp #command history by scanning for _CONSOLE_INFORMATION

Commands entered into cmd.exe are processed by conhost.exe (csrss.exe prior to Windows 7). So even if an attacker managed to kill the cmd.exe prior to us obtaining a memory dump, there is still a good chance of recovering history of the command line session from conhost.exe’s memory. If you find something weird (using the consoles modules), try to dump the memory of the conhost.exe associated process and search for strings inside it to extract the command lines.

Environment

Get the env variables of each running process. There could be some interesting values.

python3 vol.py -f file.dmp windows.envars.Envars [--pid <pid>] #Display process environment variables

volatility --profile=PROFILE envars -f file.dmp [--pid <pid>] #Display process environment variables

volatility --profile=PROFILE -f file.dmp linux_psenv [-p <pid>] #Get env of process. runlevel var means the runlevel where the proc is initated

Token privileges

Check for privileges tokens in unexpected services. It could be interesting to list the processes using some privileged token.

#Get enabled privileges of some processes
python3 vol.py -f file.dmp windows.privileges.Privs [--pid <pid>]
#Get all processes with interesting privileges
python3 vol.py -f file.dmp windows.privileges.Privs | grep "SeImpersonatePrivilege\|SeAssignPrimaryPrivilege\|SeTcbPrivilege\|SeBackupPrivilege\|SeRestorePrivilege\|SeCreateTokenPrivilege\|SeLoadDriverPrivilege\|SeTakeOwnershipPrivilege\|SeDebugPrivilege"

#Get enabled privileges of some processes
volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 privs --pid=3152 -f file.dmp | grep Enabled
#Get all processes with interesting privileges
volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 privs -f file.dmp | grep "SeImpersonatePrivilege\|SeAssignPrimaryPrivilege\|SeTcbPrivilege\|SeBackupPrivilege\|SeRestorePrivilege\|SeCreateTokenPrivilege\|SeLoadDriverPrivilege\|SeTakeOwnershipPrivilege\|SeDebugPrivilege"

SIDs

Check each SSID owned by a process. It could be interesting to list the processes using a privileges SID (and the processes using some service SID).

./vol.py -f file.dmp windows.getsids.GetSIDs [--pid <pid>] #Get SIDs of processes
./vol.py -f file.dmp windows.getservicesids.GetServiceSIDs #Get the SID of services

volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 getsids -f file.dmp #Get the SID owned by each process
volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 getservicesids -f file.dmp #Get the SID of each service

Handles

Useful to know to which other files, keys, threads, processes... a process has a handle for (has opened)

vol.py -f file.dmp windows.handles.Handles [--pid <pid>]

volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 -f file.dmp handles [--pid=<pid>]

DLLs

./vol.py -f file.dmp windows.dlllist.DllList [--pid <pid>] #List dlls used by each
./vol.py -f file.dmp windows.dumpfiles.DumpFiles --pid <pid> #Dump the .exe and dlls of the process in the current directory process

volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 dlllist --pid=3152 -f file.dmp #Get dlls of a proc
volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 dlldump --pid=3152 --dump-dir=. -f file.dmp #Dump dlls of a proc

Strings per processes

Volatility allows to check to which process does a string belongs to.

strings file.dmp > /tmp/strings.txt
./vol.py -f /tmp/file.dmp windows.strings.Strings --string-file /tmp/strings.txt

strings file.dmp > /tmp/strings.txt
volatility -f /tmp/file.dmp windows.strings.Strings --string-file /tmp/strings.txt

volatility -f /tmp/file.dmp --profile=Win81U1x64 memdump -p 3532 --dump-dir .
strings 3532.dmp > strings_file

It also allows to search for strings inside a process using the yarascan module:

./vol.py -f file.dmp windows.vadyarascan.VadYaraScan --yara-rules "https://" --pid 3692 3840 3976 3312 3084 2784
./vol.py -f file.dmp yarascan.YaraScan --yara-rules "https://"

volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 yarascan -Y "https://" -p 3692,3840,3976,3312,3084,2784

UserAssist

Windows systems maintain a set of keys in the registry database (UserAssist keys) to keep track of programs that executed. The number of executions and last execution date and time are available in these keys.

./vol.py -f file.dmp windows.registry.userassist.UserAssist

volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 -f file.dmp userassist

Services

./vol.py -f file.dmp windows.svcscan.SvcScan #List services
./vol.py -f file.dmp windows.getservicesids.GetServiceSIDs #Get the SID of services

#Get services and binary path
volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 svcscan -f file.dmp
#Get name of the services and SID (slow)
volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 getservicesids -f file.dmp

Network

./vol.py -f file.dmp windows.netscan.NetScan
#For network info of linux use volatility2

volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 netscan -f file.dmp
volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 connections -f file.dmp#XP and 2003 only
volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 connscan -f file.dmp#TCP connections 
volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 sockscan -f file.dmp#Open sockets
volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 sockets -f file.dmp#Scanner for tcp socket objects

volatility --profile=SomeLinux -f file.dmp linux_ifconfig
volatility --profile=SomeLinux -f file.dmp linux_netstat
volatility --profile=SomeLinux -f file.dmp linux_netfilter
volatility --profile=SomeLinux -f file.dmp linux_arp #ARP table
volatility --profile=SomeLinux -f file.dmp linux_list_raw #Processes using promiscuous raw sockets (comm between processes)
volatility --profile=SomeLinux -f file.dmp linux_route_cache

Registry hive

Print available hives

./vol.py -f file.dmp windows.registry.hivelist.HiveList #List roots
./vol.py -f file.dmp windows.registry.printkey.PrintKey #List roots and get initial subkeys

volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 -f file.dmp hivelist #List roots
volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 -f file.dmp printkey #List roots and get initial subkeys

Get a value

./vol.py -f file.dmp windows.registry.printkey.PrintKey --key "Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion"

volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 printkey -K "Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion" -f file.dmp
# Get Run binaries registry value
volatility -f file.dmp --profile=Win7SP1x86 printkey -o 0x9670e9d0 -K 'Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run'

Dump

#Dump a hive
volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 hivedump -o 0x9aad6148 -f file.dmp #Offset extracted by hivelist
#Dump all hives
volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 hivedump -f file.dmp

Filesystem

Mount

#See vol2

volatility --profile=SomeLinux -f file.dmp linux_mount
volatility --profile=SomeLinux -f file.dmp linux_recover_filesystem #Dump the entire filesystem (if possible)

Scan/dump

./vol.py -f file.dmp windows.filescan.FileScan #Scan for files inside the dump
./vol.py -f file.dmp windows.dumpfiles.DumpFiles --physaddr <0xAAAAA> #Offset from previous command

volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 filescan -f file.dmp #Scan for files inside the dump
volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 dumpfiles -n --dump-dir=/tmp -f file.dmp #Dump all files
volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 dumpfiles -n --dump-dir=/tmp -Q 0x000000007dcaa620 -f file.dmp

volatility --profile=SomeLinux -f file.dmp linux_enumerate_files
volatility --profile=SomeLinux -f file.dmp linux_find_file -F /path/to/file
volatility --profile=SomeLinux -f file.dmp linux_find_file -i 0xINODENUMBER -O /path/to/dump/file

Master File Table

# I couldn't find any plugin to extract this information in volatility3

volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 mftparser -f file.dmp

The NTFS file system contains a file called the master file table, or MFT. There is at least one entry in the MFT for every file on an NTFS file system volume, including the MFT itself. All information about a file, including its size, time and date stamps, permissions, and data content, is stored either in MFT entries, or in space outside the MFT that is described by MFT entries. From here.

SSL Keys/Certs

#vol3 allows to search for certificates inside the registry
./vol.py -f file.dmp windows.registry.certificates.Certificates

#vol2 allos you to search and dump certificates from memory
#Interesting options for this modules are: --pid, --name, --ssl
volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 dumpcerts --dump-dir=. -f file.dmp

Malware

./vol.py -f file.dmp windows.malfind.Malfind [--dump] #Find hidden and injected code, [dump each suspicious section]
#Malfind will search for suspicious structures related to malware
./vol.py -f file.dmp windows.driverirp.DriverIrp #Driver IRP hook detection
./vol.py -f file.dmp windows.ssdt.SSDT #Check system call address from unexpected addresses

./vol.py -f file.dmp linux.check_afinfo.Check_afinfo #Verifies the operation function pointers of network protocols
./vol.py -f file.dmp linux.check_creds.Check_creds #Checks if any processes are sharing credential structures
./vol.py -f file.dmp linux.check_idt.Check_idt #Checks if the IDT has been altered
./vol.py -f file.dmp linux.check_syscall.Check_syscall #Check system call table for hooks
./vol.py -f file.dmp linux.check_modules.Check_modules #Compares module list to sysfs info, if available
./vol.py -f file.dmp linux.tty_check.tty_check #Checks tty devices for hooks

volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 -f file.dmp malfind [-D /tmp] #Find hidden and injected code [dump each suspicious section]
volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 -f file.dmp apihooks #Detect API hooks in process and kernel memory
volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 -f file.dmp driverirp #Driver IRP hook detection
volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 -f file.dmp ssdt #Check system call address from unexpected addresses

volatility --profile=SomeLinux -f file.dmp linux_check_afinfo
volatility --profile=SomeLinux -f file.dmp linux_check_creds
volatility --profile=SomeLinux -f file.dmp linux_check_fop
volatility --profile=SomeLinux -f file.dmp linux_check_idt
volatility --profile=SomeLinux -f file.dmp linux_check_syscall
volatility --profile=SomeLinux -f file.dmp linux_check_modules
volatility --profile=SomeLinux -f file.dmp linux_check_tty
volatility --profile=SomeLinux -f file.dmp linux_keyboard_notifiers #Keyloggers

Scanning with yara

Use this script to download and merge all the yara malware rules from github: https://gist.github.com/andreafortuna/29c6ea48adf3d45a979a78763cdc7ce9 Create the rules directory and execute it. This will create a file called malware_rules.yar which contains all the yara rules for malware.

wget https://gist.githubusercontent.com/andreafortuna/29c6ea48adf3d45a979a78763cdc7ce9/raw/4ec711d37f1b428b63bed1f786b26a0654aa2f31/malware_yara_rules.py
mkdir rules
python malware_yara_rules.py
#Only Windows
./vol.py -f file.dmp windows.vadyarascan.VadYaraScan --yara-file /tmp/malware_rules.yar
#All
./vol.py -f file.dmp yarascan.YaraScan --yara-file /tmp/malware_rules.yar

wget https://gist.githubusercontent.com/andreafortuna/29c6ea48adf3d45a979a78763cdc7ce9/raw/4ec711d37f1b428b63bed1f786b26a0654aa2f31/malware_yara_rules.py
mkdir rules
python malware_yara_rules.py
volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 yarascan -y malware_rules.yar -f ch2.dmp | grep "Rule:" | grep -v "Str_Win32" | sort | uniq

MISC

External plugins

If you want to use an external plugins make sure that the plugins related folder is the first parameter used.

./vol.py --plugin-dirs "/tmp/plugins/" [...]

 volatilitye --plugins="/tmp/plugins/" [...]

Autoruns

Download it from https://github.com/tomchop/volatility-autoruns

 volatility --plugins=volatility-autoruns/ --profile=WinXPSP2x86 -f file.dmp autoruns

Mutexes

./vol.py -f file.dmp windows.mutantscan.MutantScan

volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 mutantscan -f file.dmp
volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 -f file.dmp handles -p <PID> -t mutant

Symlinks

./vol.py -f file.dmp windows.symlinkscan.SymlinkScan

volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 -f file.dmp symlinkscan

Bash

It's possible to read from memory the bash history. You could also dump the .bash_history file, but it was disabled you will be glad you can use this volatility module

./vol.py -f file.dmp linux.bash.Bash

volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 -f file.dmp linux_bash

TimeLine

./vol.py -f file.dmp timeLiner.TimeLiner

volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 -f timeliner

Drivers

./vol.py -f file.dmp windows.driverscan.DriverScan

volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 -f file.dmp driverscan

Get clipboard

#Just vol2
volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 clipboard -f file.dmp

Get IE history

#Just vol2
volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 iehistory -f file.dmp

Get notepad text

#Just vol2
volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 notepad -f file.dmp

Screenshot

#Just vol2
volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 screenshot -f file.dmp

Master Boot Record (MBR)

volatility --profile=Win7SP1x86_23418 mbrparser -f file.dmp

The MBR holds the information on how the logical partitions, containing file systems, are organized on that medium. The MBR also contains executable code to function as a loader for the installed operating system—usually by passing control over to the loader's second stage, or in conjunction with each partition's volume boot record (VBR). This MBR code is usually referred to as a boot loader. From here.

PreviousMemory dump analysis NextPartitions/File Systems/Carving

Last updated 3 years ago