Anti debugging is the implementation of one or more techniques within computer code that hinders attempts at reverse engineering or debugging a target process. Many oldschool linux anti debugging tricks, such as monitoring the proc filesystem and detecting breakpoints in memory, work perfectly fine on android. We use ida pro and the debugger to unpack a loki malware sample from a packer that has a ton of anti analysis, anti debug. Rootkits allow attackers to hide their tools from other programs running on the same computer. Android antireversing defenses mobile security testing. Anti debugging 9 unfortunately, most professionals use plugins as strongod, phantom, hideod and ollyadvanced for evading anti debugging techniques, but miss the chance of learning interesting techniques used by malwares, which most time can be modified for bypassing famous debugger as ollydbg and immunity. How accurate is the method, assuming no evasion is done by the target 3. Another technique often used in malware and commercial products is self debugging. Peter ferries ultimate anti debugging reference pdf, 147 pages contains many anti debugs, whether theyre hardware or api based. Anti debugging techniques 63 anti debugging and anti analysis techniques 63 dyre basic patching with ollydbg 65 5. Scientific but not academical overview of malware anti.
Taxonomy of anti virtualization and anti debugging techniques develop a set of metrics to evaluate and differentiate the various classes. Inside of it, there is a bat file, but actually is a well formed pe file. The android application package file, apk file, can be easily. Reverse code engineering rce to detect anti debugging techniques in software is a very difficult task. Antidebugging techniques malware analysis seminar meeting 3 cody cutler, anton burtsev. The measures involved can be passive such as obfuscation to make reverse engineering difficult or active tamperdetection techniques which aim to make a program malfunction or not operate at all if modified.
The anti debugging techniques that are found in our study can be categorized into three types. May 2006 abstract anti debugging techniques are a common method for protecting software applications. Software license key system with time trial options. Tightlycoupled self debugging software protection bert abrath computer systems lab. In this paper, we investigate the use of anti debugging and anti vm techniques in modern malware, and compare their presence in 16,246 generic and 1,037 targeted malware samples apts. We implement separate solutions in terms of two protections against tampering and debugging.
As is the case with the generalclass of adversarial. What is the least level of access required to uncover the characteristic. The use of windows apis is the easiest way to detect a debugger. Antire an executable collection of antireversing techniques. Antidebugging techniques from a complex visual basic. Pdf automatic detection and bypassing of antidebugging. Software protection through antidebugging michael n. The best way to be prepared for an attack is to know where one could come from. Csc682 towards an understanding of antivirtualization. The rule engine detection by intermediate representation. So, our cybazeyoroi zlab decided to take a look at this recent hawkeye attack, tacking its anti analysis protection and the anti debugging techniques enforced by the visual basic packer used by the crooks. Anti debugging techniques now in order to frustrate the malware analyst, malware can be detected in the presence of debuggers and show up in unexpected events. Antidebug techniques z techniques implemented to detect if the program is running under control of a debugger.
We maintain the integrity of app cache and implement a lightweight cache protection solution for anti tampering. It is essentially tamper resistance implemented in the software domain. Additionally, malware can check several ags within the peb process environment block structure and the process default heap structure to detect. In the previous tutorial, weve talked about techniques that harden the reverse engineering of the executable and then we looked at anti debugging techniques. This was a university course developed and run soley by students, primarily using the practical malware analysis book by michael sikorski and andrew honig, to teach skills in reverse engineering, malicious behaviour. Techniques to compromise disassemblers andor the disassembling process. Beginners guide to basic linux anti anti debugging techniques. A taxonomy of common malware antivirtualization and antidebugging techniques. This repository contains the materials as developed and used by rpisec to teach malware analysis at rensselaer polytechnic institute in fall 2015. In this paper, to protect the android app from the attack using debugger, we propose anti debugging techniques for native code debugging and managed code debugging of android apps. As i see those techniques are still used in applications and crackmes, this paper should show a how easy and outdated those techniques are, and b explain why ptrace and objdump are not always your friends, but finally there is always a way.
More than 40 million people use github to discover, fork, and contribute to over 100 million projects. Anti debugging techniques were designed to protect the intellectual property of compiled code. Detect unexpected enviroments of execution we only want to be executed in browsers detect debugging tools for example devtools code integrity controls. Computer forensic tools cfts allow investigators to recover deleted files, reconstruct an intruderos activities, and gain intelligence about a computeros user. How to defeat antivm and antidebug packers with ida pro. This course will teach you effective strategies for detecting and defeating these techniques.
We have also applied spider to the following cases. Selfdebugging section below, which uses a copy of the same process. Any techniques or tricks used to prevent, mitigate or detect an attempt to run the software within a debugging environment. Anti reversing schemes therefore always incorporate some form of anti ptrace madness. Checks may include comparison to xored value too, e. For example, an anti debugging program can call system library functions such as isdebuggerpresent, or to examine the data structure of thread information block tibteb of the operating system. Antidebugging techniques are a common method for protecting software applications. While the process is running, breakpoint hits are recorded and are. For a complete solution which defeats most anti debugging techniques in an automated fashion, have a look at the source code of ida stealth, a. An overtly virtual device would include an ethernet device from vmware with a speci. While they do prevent reverseengineering and software modi.
Antidebugging techniques from a complex visual basic packer. Introduction into windows antidebugging codeproject. Anti debugging techniques do have a small place if their limits are recognized. Anti debugging protection techniques with examples in terms of software, reverse engineering is the process of researching a program to obtain closed information about how it works and what algorithms it uses. Anti debugging protection techniques with examples. Meanwhile such kind of protection tricks are often used, several approaches work against such kind of protection. As a result, antidebugging tricks are probably the most common feature of code intended to interfere with reverseengineering and antidisassembly constructs being the next most common. In existing selfdebugger approaches, a custom debugger is at. Unpacking is an artit is a mental challenge and is one of the most exciting mind games in the reverse engineering field. Anti re techniques in drm code jan newger seminar advanced exploitation techniques rwth aachen, germany jan. In a general way, the approachs of the techniques shown in this post are. Meanwhile such kind of protection tricks are often used, several.
It is actively used by recognized publishers in copyprotection schemas, but is also used by malware to complicate its detection and elimination. Pdf in spite of recent remarkable advances in binary code analysis, adversaries are still using diverse antireversing techniques for. Techniques to make the signatures creation more dif. Techniques currently covered by detection plugins will have an additional information. We collect debugging points of art and protect them at runtime from being tampered with. The main goal of various anti reverse engineering techniques is simply to complicate the process as much as possible. But in recent years there has been an emergence of af that directly target cfts. From the point of view of a program analysis researcher, it could be a very exciting problem to automatically generate such anti debugging techniques, given the sourcebinary code. Anti debugging technics code obfuscation checksum execution and patch solution 2 1 compute checksum for each one 2 the script is based on a x86 emulator 3 spot the checksum entrypoint. Anti reverse engineering and anti debugging techniques are often used by malware authors to disrupt or prevent analysis, helping them to avoid detection. This text contains a number of code snippets in both 32bit and 64bit versions. Anti debugging techniques from a complex visual basic packer introduction as we described in our previous post, one of the latest trends for the attackers is to leverage the iso files in order to reduce detection chances.
Android app protection through antitampering and anti. Anti tamper software or tamperresistant software is software which makes it harder for an attacker to modify it. This article presents popular anti debugging techniques, starting. Anti debugging anti debugging is done acknowledging the fact that when a process is being debugged it is going to have a set of properties that would be different from when it is not debugged.
Weve mentioned the isdebuggerpresent function and analyzed it in depth. Techniques to compromise debuggers andor the debugging process. Anti debugging encompasses the strate gies, techniques, and tricks that pro. One known method are antianti tricks which circumvent the mentioned protection schemes. Isdebuggerpresent can be used to provide a courtesy notice reminding the user of their license agreement i. For a pretty complete reference on anti debugging techniques under windows, consult peter ferries paper. Anti debugging features can be preventive or reactive.
Even though this is a promising solution it does come with four aws. This paper categorizes traditional af techniques such as encrypted file. Defeating antireverse engineering and antidebugging. Code obfuscation is an anti debugging technique makes detection even more challenging. What is the complexity involved in building a practical. Beginners guide to basic linux anti anti debugging techniques schallner, m. Towards an understanding of antivirtualization and anti. These techniques can be easily evaded by a debugger, by purposely masking the return result or the kernel data structure of the operating system. In order to detect the presence of a debugger, malware can either read some values or it can use api present to detect if the malware is being debugged or not. The int 2d anti debugging technique is essentially an application of os finger printing, i. This technique has also been used by a recent hawkeye spreading campaign. Anti debugging anti debugging techniques are used to determine if a debugging is running. Scientific but not academical overview of malware antidebugging. In particular, there are some useful api functions and techniques to perform this job.
Anti debugging techniques some anti debugging techniques are described in the next sections. What follows is a selection of the known techniques used to detect the presence of a debugger, and in some cases, the defences against them. Peb ntglobalflag ntglobalflag is a field of peb at offset 0x68 1. Process creation and injection 70 process injection and process hollowing 70 following child processes of tinba banking trojan 70 5. As the name implies, preventive anti debugging prevents the debugger from attaching in the first place. Isdebuggingpresent searches in peb process environment block for the isdebugged field. Now in this tutorial, were going to look at other ways we can use anti debugging techniques to detect whether a debugger is being used to debug. Antidebugging requires a thorough understanding of. Antidebugging techniques are ways for a program to detect if it runs under control of a debugger. Antidebugging techniques cheat sheet 0xaa random notes on. Antidebugging scheme for protecting mobile apps on.
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