System API Instrumentation for Malware Deobfuscation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Malware authors use sophisticated techniques to pack and obfuscate malicious code, making it difficult for existing detection methods to identify and detect obfuscated/packed malware binary code, which evades detection by firewalls and security software.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of efficient program deobfuscation through system API instrumentation, which involves snapshotting and unpacking mechanisms based on system call events, instrumenting processor architecture-specific events, and using a deobfuscation analysis engine to reassemble and analyze memory pages, generating signatures for network security devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If malware code is packed and obfuscated to evade detection, then detection difficulty increases, but analysis complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by instrumenting system APIs and setting up snapshot mechanisms before malware execution. This allows the system to proactively capture memory states and deobfuscate malware code as it is being executed, rather than attempting to analyze already-executed obfuscated code. The preliminary instrumentation of APIs enables automatic detection of deobfuscation events and triggers snapshots at the right moments.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary deobfuscation analysis engine that acts as a mediator between the malware execution environment and the security analysis system. This engine intercepts system API calls, monitors memory changes, and reconstructs deobfuscated code sequences. By placing this intermediary layer, the system can capture the malware's true behavior without directly confronting the obfuscation, thus reducing analysis complexity while maintaining detection effectiveness.
2Measurement precision
If comprehensive memory snapshots are taken to capture deobfuscated code, then detection accuracy improves, but system performance deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of continuously snapshotting memory, the system employs periodic action by triggering snapshots only at specific intervals - namely, when system API calls indicate deobfuscation events are occurring. The instrumentation of system APIs creates event-driven triggers that initiate snapshots only when relevant changes occur in the malware's execution flow. This periodic, event-based approach maintains high detection accuracy by capturing critical moments while avoiding the performance penalty of continuous snapshotting.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies partial action by selectively snapshotting only the portions of memory that are relevant to deobfuscation events, rather than capturing entire memory spaces continuously. The system monitors specific system APIs and memory regions associated with malware deobfuscation, taking snapshots only when these partial observations indicate interesting behavior. This selective partial snapshotting maintains detection accuracy for deobfuscation events while significantly reducing the overall system performance impact compared to comprehensive continuous snapshotting.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques for efficient program deobfuscation through system application program interface (API) instrumentation are disclosed. In some embodiments, a system/process/computer program product for efficient program deobfuscation through system API instrumentation includes monitoring changes in memory after a system call event during execution of a malware sample in a computing environment; and generating a signature based on an analysis of the monitored changes in memory after the system call event during execution of the malware sample in the computing environment.