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Detecting Virtual Environment Process
Process related to Virtualbox can be detected by malware by query the process list.
The VMware Tools use processes like VMwareServices.exe or VMwareTray.exe, to perform actions on the virtual environment. A malware can list the process and searches for the VMware string. Process: VMwareService.exe, VMwareTray.exe, TPAutoConnSvc.exe, VMtoolsd.exe, VMwareuser.exe.
Read moreDetecting Virtual Environment Files
Some files are created by Virtualbox and VMware on the system.
Malware can check the different folders to find Virtualbox artifacts like VBoxMouse.sys.
Malware can check the different folders to find VMware artifacts like vmmouse.sys, vmhgfs.sys.
Some Files Example
Below is a list of files that can be detected on virtual machines:
- "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp\agent.pyw", …
Detecting Virtual Environment Artefacts
Malware often checks for artifacts left by virtualization platforms to determine if it is running inside a virtual environment. Detecting such artifacts allows the malware to adapt its behavior, delay execution, or avoid exposing malicious functionality during analysis.
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QEMU: QEMU registers artifacts in the Windows registry. For example, the key
HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\Scsi\Scsi Port 0\Scsi Bus 0\Target Id 0\Logical …
Execution Guardrails: Environmental Keying
![Defense Evasion [Mitre] icon](/media/2024/04/08/icons8-burglar.svg){kind=small}
Adversaries may environmentally key payloads or other features of malware to evade defenses and constraint execution to a specific target environment. Environmental keying uses cryptography to constrain execution or actions based on adversary supplied environment specific conditions that are expected to be present on the target. Environmental keying is an implementation of Execution Guardrails that utilizes cryptographic techniques for deriving …
Read moreProcEnvInjection - Remote code injection by abusing process environment strings
This method allows to inject custom code into a remote process without using WriteProcessMemory - It will use the lpEnvironment parameter in CreateProcess to copy the code into the target process. This technique can be used to load a DLL into a remote process, or simply execute a block of code.
The lpEnvironment parameter in CreateProcess allows us to …
Hijack Execution Flow: Path Interception by PATH Environment Variable
Adversaries may execute their own malicious payloads by hijacking environment variables used to load libraries. Adversaries may place a program in an earlier entry in the list of directories stored in the PATH environment variable, which Windows will then execute when it searches sequentially through that PATH listing in search of the binary that was called from a script or …
Read moreChecking Pipe
Cuckoo is an open-source automated malware analysis system that performs dynamic analysis by running suspicious files in isolated virtual environments.
To facilitate communication between the host system (analysis environment) and the guest system (execution environment), Cuckoo uses a named pipe: \.\pipe\cuckoo
Detection Technique
Malware running inside the guest can check for the existence of this named pipe. …
Read moreVMCPUID
The VMCPUID instruction is a sophisticated mechanism often employed by malware to ascertain if it is operating within a virtual environment.
This instruction is part of the x86 architecture's virtual machine extensions (VMX) and is designed to provide information about the capabilities and status of the virtual machine.
By using VMCPUID, malware can adapt its behavior based on …
Read moreChecking Screen Resolution
Sandbox environments typically do not function as standard user workspaces; as a result, they often maintain a minimum screen resolution of 800x600 or even lower. In practice, users seldom work with such limited screen dimensions. Malware may leverage this information, detecting the screen resolution to ascertain whether it is operating on a genuine user machine or within a sandbox environment.
Read moreChecking Hard Drive Size
Many user machines have hard drives that are larger than 80GB. A malware program can detect whether it is running in a virtual environment by checking the size of the hard drive. If the size is less than 80GB, it is likely that the program is running in a sandbox or virtual environment.
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