Constant Blinding

Created the Sunday 19 March 2023. Updated 1 year, 2 months ago.

Constant blinding can be employed by malware authors to obfuscate their malicious code, making it harder for security researchers and antivirus software to detect and analyze the malware. By using constant blinding techniques, the malware code can be concealed, increasing its chances of evading detection and maintaining persistence on the target system.

Here's how constant blinding can be utilized in malware:

Obfuscating malicious constants: Malware may contain specific constants, such as IP addresses or URLs for command and control (C2) servers or specific strings used as encryption keys. By applying constant blinding, these constants can be hidden, making it difficult for researchers to identify the purpose of the constant or uncover the C2 infrastructure.
Concealing code patterns: Antivirus software often relies on signature-based detection, which looks for known patterns of code within the executable. By applying constant blinding to the malware code, these recognizable patterns can be obscured, helping the malware evade signature-based detection.
Hiding exploit payloads: In a multi-stage attack, constant blinding can be used to conceal the payload of an exploit. By XORing the payload with a randomly generated key, the true nature of the payload is hidden until it is executed on the target system, making it more challenging for security tools to identify the malicious payload.
Encrypted communication: Constant blinding techniques can be used to encrypt communication between the malware and the C2 server. By XORing the data transmitted with a randomly generated key, the malware can protect the confidentiality of the communication and make it more challenging for researchers to intercept and analyze the data.

Technique Identifier

U0707

Technique Tags

Constant blinding Malware Obfuscation constant blinding techniques encryption keys code patterns signature-based detection recognizable patterns exploit payloads XORing randomly generated key encrypted communication

Additional Resources

External Links

The resources provided below are associated links that will give you even more detailed information and research on current evasion technique. It is important to note that, while these resources may be helpful, it is important to exercise caution when following external links. As always, be careful when clicking on links from unknown sources, as they may lead to malicious content.

https://hal.inria.fr/hal-01382971/file/PID4513621.pdf