Detecting Virtual Environment Artefacts Sandbox Evasion

Qemu registers some artifacts into the registry. A malware can detect the Qemu installation with a look at the registry key HARDWARE\\DEVICEMAP\\Scsi\\Scsi Port 0\\Scsi Bus 0\\Target Id 0\\Logical Unit Id 0 with the value of Identifier and the data of QEMU or HARDWARE\\Description\\System with a value of SystemBiosVersion and data of QEMU.

The VirtualBox Guest addition leaves many …

Checking Pipe Sandbox Evasion

Cuckoo is a malware analysis system that uses a named pipe, called \.\pipe\cuckoo, for communication between the host system (where the malware is being analyzed) and the guest system (where the malware is running).

A malware that is running on the guest system can detect the presence of a virtual environment by attempting to access the \.\pipe\cuckoo named pipe. …

SIDT, Red Pill Sandbox Evasion

Red Pill is a technique used by malware to determine whether it is running on a physical machine or a virtual machine. The Red Pill technique involves executing the SIDT instruction, which retrieves the value of the Interrupt Descriptor Table Register (IDTR) and stores it in a memory location.

On a physical machine, the IDTR will contain the address …

SLDT, No Pill Sandbox Evasion

The No Pill technique is a method used by malware to determine whether it is running on a physical machine or a virtual machine. This technique relies on the fact that the Local Descriptor Table (LDT) is assigned to a processor, rather than to an operating system. On a physical machine, the location of the LDT will be zero, whereas …

CPUID Sandbox Evasion

The CPUID instruction is a low-level command that allows you to retrieve information about the CPU that is currently running. This instruction, which is executed at the CPU level (using the bytecode 0FA2), is available on all processors that are based on the Pentium architecture or newer.

You can use the CPUID instruction to retrieve various pieces of information …

IN Sandbox Evasion

The IN instruction is a type of machine code instruction that is used to read data from an input port. This instruction can only be executed in privileged mode, such as in kernel mode, and an attempt to execute it in user mode will generate an exception.

However, some virtual machine monitors, such as VMWare, use a special port …

VMCPUID Sandbox Evasion

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 …

VPCEXT Sandbox Evasion

The VPCEXT instruction (visual property container extender) is another anti–virtual machine trick used by malware to detect virtual systems. This technique is not documented. If the execution of the instruction does not generate an exception (illegal instruction), then the program is running on a virtual machine.

Stalling Code Sandbox Evasion

This technique is used for delaying execution of the real malicious code. Stalling code is typically executed before any malicious behavior. The attacker’s aim is to delay the execution of the malicious activity long enough so that an automated dynamic analysis system fails to extract the interesting malicious behavior.

Checking Installed Software Sandbox Evasion

By detecting the presence of certain software and tools commonly used in sandbox environments, such as Python interpreters, tracing utilities, debugging tools, and virtual machine software like VMware, it is possible to infer the existence of a sandbox.

This inference is based on the premise that such tools are often found in sandbox setups used for dynamic malware analysis …

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