Data Obfuscation

Cryptography is a technique often used by malware to protect against analysis or to perform malicious actions such as in ransomware attacks. In these cases, malware will use cryptography to encrypt their payloads or communication channels in order to make it difficult for security tools and forensic investigators to detect and analyze their activities.

Additionally, cryptography can be used …

Anti-Forensic

Defense Evasion [Mitre]

Deleting Volume Shadow Copy makes the forensic investigation more difficult in terms of the recovery of previous artifact evidence. In addition, attackers using ransomware often delete VSCs not to be able to recover the original files of the encrypted files from VSCs.

On the other hand, deleting by using vssadmin and WMIC is on a file system level, the …

Network Evasion

Tor is a free and open-source network that enables anonymous communication. It uses a network of volunteer-operated servers, known as "relays," to route internet traffic in a way that conceals the user's location and usage from surveillance and traffic analysis. By routing traffic through multiple relays, Tor makes it difficult to trace internet activity back to the user.

Malware …

Anti-Forensic

Anti-forensic techniques are methods used by malware to prevent security professionals from detecting and analyzing it. One way that malware can accomplish this is by using wiping or encryption techniques to remove its own trace from the system.

In some cases, malware may use wiping or encryption as a decoy, in order to distract security professionals and hide its …

Defense Evasion [Mitre]

Adversaries may disable Windows event logging to limit data that can be leveraged for detections and audits. Windows event logs record user and system activity such as login attempts, process creation, and much more. This data is used by security tools and analysts to generate detections.

The EventLog service maintains event logs from various system components and applications. By …