Security Agent Key Parsing for Real-Time Malicious Encryption Mitigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for detecting and mitigating malicious encryption, such as those employed by ransomware, often fail to identify encryption keys in time to prevent data loss, especially when backups are insufficient or when command and control servers are inaccessible, leading to significant data encryption and decryption challenges.
Innovation Solution
A security agent monitors data writes to disk, memory, or network buffers for strings that may represent encryption keys or moduli, applying techniques to decode and parse these strings to identify or rule out encryption keys, and takes mitigation actions if a key is detected.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If routine backup of files is implemented, then data loss is prevented, but backups may be encrypted by ransomware and become insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary detection of encryption keys in memory and storage buffers before ransomware completes the encryption process. By identifying encryption keys during the attack in progress and creating backups at this early stage, the system ensures backup availability even when ransomware attempts to encrypt existing backups.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary security agent that monitors between the ransomware encryption process and the file system. This agent detects encryption keys in memory and storage buffers, allowing the system to intercept and prevent backup encryption by identifying the encryption process before it completes.
2Reliability
If anti-malware scanners and sandboxes are used to prevent attacker code from running, then malicious encryption is prevented, but well-disguised attack agents may go undetected
Solution Approach 1:
The system replaces traditional mechanical scanning approaches with information-theoretic analysis of data entropy and compression ratios. Instead of relying on signature-based detection that can be evaded by disguised malware, the system analyzes the mathematical properties of data in memory and storage buffers to detect encryption keys regardless of how the malware is disguised.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the detection parameters from looking for known malware signatures to analyzing entropy values and compression ratios of data. By monitoring these parameters in real-time during the encryption process, the system can detect disguised attack agents that traditional scanners miss.
3Difficulty of detecting and measuring
If behavioral analysis is used to identify files being encrypted, then encryption detection is achieved, but file encryption has already occurred limiting mitigation options
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary detection by monitoring data writes to disk, memory, and network transmission buffers for strings that represent encryption keys or moduli. By detecting encryption keys during the attack in progress rather than after completion, the system enables timely mitigation before significant data loss occurs.
Solution Approach 2:
The system rushes through the detection process by directly analyzing entropy and compression ratios of data in memory and storage buffers, skipping traditional multi-step analysis. This rapid detection method identifies encryption keys quickly enough to enable real-time mitigation before the ransomware completes its encryption cycle.
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure describes systems and methods for detection and mitigation of malicious encryption. A security agent on an infected computing device may monitor data writes to disk, memory, or network transmission buffers for strings that may represent encryption keys or moduli. The security agent may apply one or more techniques to decode and parse the string to either identify or extract the keys, or rule out the string as containing an encryption key or modulus. If a key is identified, or its presence cannot be excluded, then the security agent may generate an alert and take mitigation actions.